About Eric J. Gertler

Eric currently serves as Executive Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. News & World Report, the nation’s leading authority on rankings and expert guidance on life decisions, where he has overall responsibility for both the editorial and business operations of this multifaceted digital media company. He has served in this role since 2015, with the exception of a sabbatical from the company to serve full time in New York State government.

Under his direction, U.S. News & World Report evolved from a print publication to a thriving and dynamic data, analytics and business services company, with a continued focus on consumer journalism. As part of this transformation, the company has developed a robust and growing enterprise segment in addition to its long-standing consumer channels. Today, U.S. News & World Report is the gold standard in ranking and measuring universities and hospitals, in addition to undertaking over 100 rankings in other sectors, such as Best States, Best Companies to Work For and Best Leaders. U.S. News & World Report focuses on multiple content verticals including education, health, careers, money, finance, insurance, autos and travel to help consumers make important life decisions.

Eric has served at the highest levels of state and city government in New York. At the state level, Eric served as Commissioner, President & CEO Designate of Empire State Development (ESD), New York State’s principal economic development agency from 2019 to 2021. His tenure spanned a tumultuous economic period that included oversight of the agency prior, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. He had previously been confirmed by the New York Senate to serve on the ESD board.

Eric focused on four main priorities while at the helm of ESD. The first priority was meeting the unprecedented economic needs of New York State arising from the Covid-19 crisis, including: providing operational guidance to New York businesses to assist them through the height of the pandemic and the reopening of the state economy; identifying and communicating with essential businesses in the state; sourcing PPE and developing testing initiatives; and developing financial incentives and miscellaneous recovery and loan programs to relaunch New York State’s economy. The second priority was completing critical infrastructure projects, including Moynihan Train Hall; the Javits Center expansion; announcement of the National Urban League Empowerment Center; opening of Legoland; and the redevelopment of the UBS Arena at Belmont. The third priority was expanding job growth in companies located within New York State, such as Regeneron, among others, and attracting others including Cree Wolfspeed and Beam Suntory to the State. The fourth priority was implementing economic initiatives with long-term benefits, including the largest small business assistance program in the history of New York State; the highest state minority- and women-owned business enterprises utilization rate in the country; various climate control actions, broadband programs, as well as life sciences, film production and marketing initiatives.

Eric had an earlier stint in government as Executive Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and as Managing Director of the Center for Economic Transformation under multiple mayoral administrations. He was responsible for spurring economic development and growing multi-sector job opportunities through his oversight of more than 100 local initiatives and by directing hundreds of millions of dollars of city investments into the local economy. Eric developed the city’s $150 million life sciences fund and spearheaded associated programs to accelerate the life sciences industry in New York City, oversaw development of the city’s tech platform called digital.ny to integrate the city’s burgeoning tech community, and expanded the BigApps civic competition. He also helped to implement Mayor Bloomberg’s applied science initiative and guide the city’s support for the Cornell Tech campus. The comprehensive suite of initiatives under his supervision included job growth programs, investment funds, incubators, training and mentorship programs and public-private partnerships. These programs encompassed a broad range of industry sectors including life sciences, healthcare, finance, non-profit, media, technology, manufacturing and clean-tech, with particular focus on helping the city, in general, and these sectors, in particular, develop and prepare for the jobs of the future.

While overseeing U.S. News & World Report, Eric concurrently served as Co-Chairman and Co-Publisher of the New York Daily News from 2015 to 2017. During this time, the newspaper expanded its digital capabilities and reach, partnering with other organizations to market the newspaper, as well as to bolster its news coverage in New York City. During Eric’s stewardship of the newspaper, the New York Daily News in partnership with ProPublica were jointly honored with a Pulitzer Prize, in the category of public service journalism for an investigative series on the widespread abuse of eviction rules in New York City.

Eric subsequently engineered the 2017 sale of the newspaper to the Tribune Company (then known as Tronc). When Eric assumed leadership of the New York Daily News, the paper had been losing over $40 million annually and had just ended a failed process to sell the newspaper. Within two years, Eric had reduced annual losses to under $10 million. He then started to consider different options for the company, including a sale of the company. By structuring the sale of the company as a stock sale transaction, he effectively transferred over $200 million of the newspaper’s pension and multi-employer liabilities to the newspaper’s buyer, while receiving millions of dollars in accounts receivable, deposits and other miscellaneous receipts. In addition, Eric negotiated to maintain a majority stake in the 28-acre parcel of land containing the newspaper’s Liberty View printing facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, which was subsequently sold in 2024.

Eric had previously worked as part of the team that acquired the New York Daily News out of bankruptcy in 1993. Eric undertook numerous roles during the transaction process. He successfully led the negotiations with all the craft unions working at the newspaper and finalized new union agreements with all of them. As part of the bankruptcy process, Eric renegotiated all of the corporate contracts related to the operations of the newspaper, including, among many others, those related to newsprint, ink, editorial operations, advertising and employee agreements. Upon the acquisition, Eric led numerous departments of the newspaper, including legal, labor, human resources, business development and editorial operations (but not the editorial itself), among others. Eric also founded and developed one of the nation’s first online newspaper sites by creating the Daily News online presence under www.mostnewyork.com (now nydailynews.com).

Earlier in his career, Eric held other leadership roles at the intersection of the technology, data and media sectors. He led a number of cutting-edge technology companies including serving as CEO of Altruik (search optimization), PrimeAxis Media (content aggregation/rankings) and Privista (identity theft protection), all of which were subsequently acquired. In media, Eric served as the CEO of Vibe magazine and vibe.com. In the late 1990s, Eric concurrently served as president of the three media properties: U.S. News & World Report, Fast Company and The Atlantic, for which he managed day-to-day operations and focused on expanding into new areas, such as the development of the web sites for each of these media properties, as well as the introduction of conferences.

He began his career as a corporate and communications attorney with Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in its Washington, DC office.

Eric is the managing partner for investment fund Ulysses Ventures, which is a multi-strategy investment fund that invests in both early-and growth-stage companies. Ulysses Ventures has enjoyed exceptional returns for over ten years. The fund has a diverse portfolio and invests in companies ranging from emerging technologies (such as AI), healthcare and clean energy (including battery storage), among other areas.

Eric oversees the Zuckerman Family Office, including serving as the trustee to the Zuckerman Family Foundation. In his oversight of the Zuckerman Family Foundation, Eric has directed philanthropic dollars into the sciences, leadership and local community efforts, bilateral post-doc student exchanges in the sciences with Israeli universities, and many other important endeavors.

He sits on various boards at universities and institutions, including The Technion-Israel Institute, Hebrew University and the Weizmann Institute. He is also a trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center; chairman of the American-Israel Friendship League; a board member of the UJA Federation of New York; a member of the inaugural Manhattan Chamber of Commerce Civic Advisory Council; a member of Young Presidents’ Organization (and former chair of the Metro NY Chapter); and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He previously served on the board at The Center for Public Leadership at The Harvard Kennedy School.

Eric is a respected thought leader and frequent participant, speaker and moderator at a variety of industry and international events including gatherings like the Milken Global Conference, Aspen Ideas Festival and The World Economic Forum.

He is the host of The Best Leaders podcast from U.S. News & World Report. The podcast features in-depth interviews with exceptional individuals as part of the U.S. News Best Leaders project.

Eric has written extensively over the years on key policy issues and economic development priorities, including workforce and employment matters, infrastructure investment, urban development, education, leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation. He has been at the forefront of many emerging trends, and has advocated for moral, transparent and accountable leadership in higher education. His writing has been published in numerous news outlets over the years, including the New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Huffington Post, U.S. News & World Report, International Herald Tribune, am New York, The Jerusalem Post and many others. He has appeared on a wide variety of television programs over the years, including on CNN, Fox, NBC, ABC and CBS, among other outlets; and he has been a guest on numerous podcasts.

Eric has also been an early leader on the issue of privacy and cybersecurity. He authored the critically acclaimed book Prying Eyes: Protect Your Privacy From People Who Sell To You, Snoop on You or Steal From You (Random House, July 2004), which presaged the crisis of security around personal data. Lastly, following the publication of his book, he wrote a weekly column entitled “Protect Your Privacy” that was syndicated nationally to newspapers within the United Media network.

Eric is the recipient of a number of recognitions. Most recently, in 2026, Eric was awarded the Greater New York Chamber of Commerce’s Excellence in Leadership Award. In 2025, Eric was honored as one of the “Gotham Greats” by Citizens Union, a nonpartisan and independent good-government group in New York. Also, in 2025, in recognition of his accomplishments in transforming the U.S. News & World Report business, Ernst & Young named Eric an Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2025 Award Winner for the Mid-Atlantic region (where U.S. News & World Report has its headquarters).

In 2024, Eric was one of the recipients of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which recognizes individuals who have made significant contributions to society. In 2023, the 5Boro Institute presented Eric with its Leadership Award “in recognition of his lasting work and impact on the future of New York City.” In 2022, the Center for an Urban Future honored Eric with its Spirit of New York Award. In 2017, the Carnegie Corporation of New York honored Eric as one of the nation’s Great Immigrants.

Finally, City and State Magazine named Eric to the following lists: The 2021 Albany Power List, The 2021 Real Estate Power 100 List, The 2020 Albany Power List and The 2016 Responsible 100 List honoring corporate and social responsibility. In addition, Eric was named to The Power List published by Long Island Press in 2020.

A graduate of Brown University, Eric holds degrees from the Sorbonne (at University of Paris), the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, with honors, and a law degree, with honors, from American University (where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review and was inducted into the leadership and honor society of Omicron Delta Kappa). He also has an honorary doctorate from Tel Aviv University.