James Kristie, the editor and associate publisher of Directors & Boards, is retiring after more than three decades running the publication.
Kristie is likely the longest-tenured magazine editor currently in the publishing industry, beginning his 36th year as editor of Directors & Boards in September.
Kristie says his idols are Jim Michaels, who was editor of Forbes for 38 years; William Shawn, editor of The New Yorker for 35 years; and Helen Gurley Brown, editor of Cosmopolitan for 31 years.
“I just put out a 40th anniversary issue of Directors & Boards, and I originally thought I would retire with this issue — the old ‘going out on top…knowing when to quit’ trick,” said Kristie. “But management asked me to stay on to put out the first issue of 2017 so it looks like my last day will be Feb. 3 when that issue gets shipped to press.
“As for how I lasted this long? I guess the simple answer is that I never found anything else I wanted to do more. I always felt I had one of the best jobs in journalism. And I have always had great ownership of the journal with Milt Rock and his son Robert Rock. They acquired it five years after its founding and have been steadfast owners all these years.”
Directors & Boards, founded in 1976, is the journal of thought leadership in the corporate governance field. Its primary readership is public company directors, chairmen, CEOs, and other senior management and board advisors. It is privately owned.
Earlier in his career he held the positions of managing editor of a weekly business magazine, editor of a media industry trade newspaper, and associate editor of publications for a supermarket company.
He earned his BA in journalism summa cum laude from Temple University in 1976. He returned to his alma mater in 2003 to spend five years as an adjunct instructor in the university’s School of Media and Communication.
He is an advisory board member of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware and the Center for Corporate Governance at the LeBow School of Business at Drexel University.
