Xconomy is dedicated to providing business and technology leaders with timely, insightful, close-to-the-scene information about the local personalities, companies, and technological trends that best exemplify today’s high-tech economy.

Our goal is to become the authoritative voice on the exponential economy, the realm of business and innovation characterized by exponential technological growth and responsible for an increasing share of productivity and overall economic growth.

We plan to deliver this valuable content through a unique global network of localized blogs, events, conferences, and other initiatives designed to better connect people and ideas.

Robert Buderi
Founder, CEO, Editor in Chief
Bob is one of the country’s foremost business and technology journalists. As a noted author and magazine editor, he is a sought-after commentator on innovation and global competitiveness. Before taking his most recent position as a research fellow in MIT’s Center for International Studies, Bob served as Editor in Chief of MIT’s Technology Review, then a publication with a circulation of 315,000, published ten times a year. Bob led the magazine to numerous editorial and design awards and oversaw its expansion into three foreign markets, its introduction of electronic newsletters, and its organization of highly successful conferences. As BusinessWeek’s technology editor, he shared in the 1992 National Magazine Award for “The Quality Imperative,” a special issue of the magazine.

Bob is the author of three books about technology and innovation. Guanxi (2006) looks at Microsoft’s Beijing research lab as a metaphor for global competitiveness. Engines of Tomorrow (2000) describes the evolution of corporate research. The Invention That Changed the World (1996) examines the work of a secret lab at MIT during WWII. Bob served on the Council on Competitiveness–sponsored National Innovation Initiative and is an advisor to the Draper Prize Nominating Committee. He has been a regular guest of CNBC’s Strategy Session and has spoken about innovation to many organizations, including the Business Council, Amazon, eBay, Google, IBM, and Microsoft.

Rebecca Zacks
Cofounder, Executive Editor
Rebecca was previously the managing editor of Physician’s First Watch, a daily e-newsletter from the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine. Before helping launch First Watch, she spent a decade covering innovation for Technology Review, Scientific American, and Discover Magazine’s TV show. In 2005-2006 she was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. Rebecca holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from Brown University and a master’s in science journalism from Boston University. Before becoming a journalist, she worked in the MIT lab of Nobel Prize–winning neuroscientist Susumu Tonegawa.

Wade Roush
Chief Correspondent
Wade is a veteran science and technology writer whose recent work has focused on consumer Internet technology, including search, social computing, geocomputing, Web 2.0 services, and online virtual worlds. As a staffer with MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, he served as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com, and helped lead the magazine to a nomination as National Magazine Award finalist in 2006. Before joining TR, Wade was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at NuvoMedia, inventor of the Rocket eBook.

Wade has a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard University and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. His work has appeared in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, and World Business, and he has been a guest of CNN, CNBC, and NPR’s Science Friday.

Erik Mellgren
Innovation Journalism Fellow

Erik Mellgren is a Swedish journalist visiting the United States as part of the Stanford Innovation Journalism Fellowship program. Erik is a 25-year veteran of Ny Teknik, a leading technology and innovation magazine in Sweden, where he has written extensively on innovation and startups, especially in the fields of biotechnology and telecommunications. In 2003, he received the Swedish Chemical Engineer’s Association’s Journalism Prize—a one kilogram silver bar—for his coverage of the Swedish biotech industry. He received his B.A. in Journalism from the Stockholm School of Journalism and has also studied computer science at Stockholm University. Erik is the author of 12 books, mainly science books for children.

Steve Woit
Founding Publisher
Steve is the founder of Riga Ventures, a venture firm that invests in media, software, and Internet businesses. He helped fund 02138, a magazine and website focused on the Harvard University alumni community, which was purchased by the Atlantic Media Group (publishers of the Atlantic Monthly) in 2006. He was a leading investor in Bitpipe, where he served as EVP of Sales and Marketing; the company was acquired by TechTarget for $40 million in 2004.

Steve also worked for 17 years for Patrick J. McGovern, Chairman and founder of International Data Group (IDG), the largest global publisher of technology publications and websites and a leading global technology venture investor. While at IDG, he was responsible for overseeing the launch of new publication and Web-based businesses. He was a General Partner at IDG Ventures and served as Publisher and President of Federal Computer Week, President of Web Shopper, EVP of Computerworld, and Director of Business Development and Vice President/New Products for IDG worldwide. Since 1999, Steve has been an active member of the angel investment group CommonAngels and formerly sat on the group’s Board of Directors.

David Caffey
Vice President, Managing Director of Business Development, West Coast

David is a veteran sales and marketing executive with a deep understanding of the dynamics of web advertising, media research, e-commerce, and digital business models. His background includes 20 years of creating branding and sales strategies for America’s largest corporate clients, including Microsoft, IAC, Ford, and Nissan. David has established relationships with high-level executives at Fortune 500 companies, advertising agencies, technology companies, research organizations, broadcast/cable, and Web content providers.

David serves on the boards of technology companies and non-profits and has spoken and written widely on the subjects of business development and Web advertising and branding. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California, where he studied marketing and political science. He also attended the University of Southern California Graduate School Of Business.

William A. Ghormley
Vice President, Business Development
Bill has worked in marketing and new business creation in a number of industries, including media. His past employers include Polaroid’s OEM organization, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, and Kendall Healthcare. Bill also served as president of the Marketing Science Institute, a Cambridge-based research center created by the Harvard Business School and the Wharton School to measure media impact on customer attitudes and behaviors. Bill studied economics at Stanford, history at Boston College, and business at Dartmouth.

Andrew Koyfman
Chief Technology Officer Emeritus
Andrew has eight-plus years of experience in the software industry. He recently completed his MBA at MIT Sloan, where he was involved with the MIT Venture Capital and Private Equity Club and the MIT Sales Club. Prior to Sloan, he was a cofounder and the Chief Architect of Swapthing.com, an online bartering site. Andrew earned a B.Sc. in Math and Computer Science and an M.Sc. in Computer Science at Brown University.

Our editorial principles are old-fashioned and simple. We believe that our content is only of value to our audience if we ensure that it is trustworthy. To that end, all editorial decisions will be made by our writers and editors and will remain independent of our business operations. We promise that our underwriters, advertisers, investors, and partners will have no special influence on the content we present, either on the site or at the events we hold. What’s more, to avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest, staff and freelance writers will not write about companies or fields in which they invest or for which they perform any non-journalistic work.

We recognize that there’s an important distinction between content generated by career journalists who are committed to the ethical standards of the profession and that generated by experts and insiders like the Xconomists (see below). The Xconomists offer a unique and important perspective on business, technology, and society, but they are also enmeshed in many of the potential conflicts of interest from which journalists strive to free themselves. We think the best strategy here is transparency, and so we have designed the site to clearly indicate which content comes from which type of author, the professional journalist or the expert. We also encourage readers to find out exactly where the Xconomists are coming from by clicking through the links below to their bios.

The Xconomists are an unrivaled group of leading technologists, scientists, and business innovators. They will share their views and insights—and from time to time their pet peeves and perhaps a bit of gossip—in the Xconomist Forum and in specially flagged comments throughout our site. (Just look for the icon.) Those with asterisks next to their names (below) have also graciously agreed to serve on our editorial advisory board.

John Abele*
Noubar Afeyan
Howard Anderson
Bill Aulet
Abigail Barrow
Joost Bonsen
Alexis Borisy
Rodney Brooks*
Joe Chung*
George Church
Jim Collins*
Nick d’Arbeloff
Chris Gabrieli
James Geshwiler
Anita Goel
Michael A. Greeley

Linda Griffith*
William “Trip” Hawkins*
Rebecca Henderson*
Marc Hodosh
Charles J. Johnson*
Dean Kamen
Raju Kucherlapati
John B. Landry
Robert Langer*
Willy Lensch
Pattie Maes*
Victor McElheny
Ken Morse*
Frank Moss*
Richard Mulligan*
Nathan Myhrvold*

Vinit Nijhawan*
David Resnick
Carmichael Roberts
Kenan Sahin*
John Santini
Michael Schrage
Phillip Sharp*
Linda Stone*
Anne Swift
William C. Taylor
Charles M. Vest
George Whitesides*
Daphne Zohar*
Ken Zolot