About The Speaker

Steve Forbes is President and Chief Executive Officer of Forbes Inc. and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes magazine with a circulation of over 765,000.

Mr. Forbes is also Chairman of two company subsidiaries: American Heritage and Forbes Newspapers, a New Jersey-based chain of suburban weeklies.

Mr. Forbes assumed his current position in February of 1990. Since that time, Forbes Inc. has expanded with the launch of the life-style supplement Forbes FYI, the technology supplement Forbes Media Critic, the African-American history magazine American Legacy, and the business history magazine Audacity in the company's American Heritage division. Forbes has also introduced a conference division, electronic editions of Forbes on CompuServe and the Worldwide Web, and the American Heritage Custom Publishing Group.

Mr. Forbes writes editorials for each issue of Forbes under the heading of "Fact and Comment." A widely respected economic prognosticator, he has appeared on many national news programs including "The MacNeil/Lehrer Newshour," "The Nightly Business Report," and "Wall Street Week." He is the only writer to have won the highly prestigious Crystal Owl Award four times. The prize was formerly given by USX Corporation to the financial journalist whose economic forecasts for the coming year proved most accurate.

In 1985, President Reagan named Mr. Forbes Chairman of the Bipartisan Board for International Broadcasting (BIB). In this position, he oversaw the operation of Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Broadcasting from behind the Iron Curtain, Radio Free Europe, and Radio Liberty were praised by Poland's Lech Walesa as being critical to the struggle against communism.

From December 1993, until June 1996, Mr. Forbes served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Empower America, a grassroots, political reform organization founded by Jack Kemp, Bill Bennett, and Jeane Kirkpatrick.

On September 22, 1995, Mr. Forbes took a leave of absence from Forbes Inc. to campaign for the Republican nomination for President. Mr. Forbes advocated a platform of hope, growth, and opportunity. Key to his program was a flat tax that was a tax cut, medical savings accounts, a new Social Security system for younger people, parental control of schools, and term limits.

Steve Forbes received a B.A. in history from Princeton in 1970. At Princeton, he was the founding editor of Business Today, which became the country's largest magazine published by students for students, with a circulation of 200,000. The magazine continues to be published by Princeton undergraduates.

Mr. Forbes serves also on the Board of Trustees of Princeton University, as well as on the boards of the Foundation for Student Communication, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, and The American Enterprise Institute. He holds honorary degrees from Lycoming College, Jacksonville University, Heidelberg College, Iona College, Kean College, New York Institute of Technology, Lock Haven University, Westminster College, Francisco Marroquin University, Sacred Heart University, and Centenary College.