Vice Chairman

Walter Isaacson is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of Time Magazine. He is the author of "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" (2003) and of "Kissinger: A Biography" (1992) and is the coauthor of "The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made" (1986).

Isaacson was born on May 20, 1952, in New Orleans. He received a B.A. in history and literature from Harvard College and an M.A. in philosophy, politics and economics at Pembroke College of Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.

He began his career in journalism at the Sunday Times of London and then the New Orleans Times-Picayune/States-Item.  He joined Time Magazine in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's 14th managing editor in 1996.  He became Chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.

He is on the Board of Directors of Reader's Digest Association, Tulane University and Teach for America. He is also on the board of trustees at the National Constitution Center and is Chairman of the national council of the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington.

He lives with his wife and daughter in Washington, DC, and in Aspen, Colorado.