Clifton Leaf, currently the deputy editor, has been named editor in chief of Fortune magazine.
He replaces Alan Murray, who is now chief content officer of parent company Time Inc. Leaf continues to report to Murray, who becomes president of Fortune in addition to his role as chief content officer.
Fortune’s Adam Lashinsky has been promoted to executive editor and reports to Leaf. These three appointments, all announced Wednesday morning, are effective immediately.
Leaf is the 18th editor since Fortune was founded in 1930 by Henry R. Luce. He leads the global business journalism brand across its editorial platforms, with a reach of 25 million.
Murray, editor-in-chief of Fortune since 2014, was named chief content officer in 2016 and retains this role. As president of Fortune, he oversees all operations for the brand, including its robust live events business, brand extensions and more.
“Cliff Leaf has proven himself to be the perfect person to lead Fortune’s editorial efforts, in print, digital, and live events,” said Murray in a statement. “He has a fine eye for great stories, an effusive leadership style, and I’m sure he’ll do great things in this new assignment.”
Since 2014, Leaf had been Fortune’s deputy editor, where he oversaw the editorial staff and directed the print magazine. He is the founding co-chair of the Fortune Brainstorm Health conference, now in its second year, and is the author of one of the brand’s eight newsletters, Brainstorm Health Daily.
Previously, Leaf served as a guest editor for the New York Times op-ed page and Sunday Review, and was executive editor at the Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney magazine and at Fortune, where he worked as an editor from 2000 to 2007..
“I am incredibly excited by the opportunity to lead Fortune, one of the most respected and authoritative voices in journalism,” said Leaf in a statement. “I’ve had the privilege of working for — and learning from — five great top Fortune editors, from John Huey to Alan Murray, and I am honored to get the chance to shepherd this brand into the next decade.”
Based in San Francisco, Lashinsky joined Fortune in 2001 and has written numerous cover stories on the most important companies and people in Silicon Valley and beyond.
He is the author of the 2012 bestseller “Inside Apple” and “Wild Ride: Inside Uber’s Quest for World Domination,” to be published in May. He previously was assistant managing editor at Fortune, and he is editorial director of the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference, as well as a co-chair of the Fortune Global Forum.
Lashinsky also writes a daily column for Fortune’s Data Sheet newsletter, and he appears regularly on the Fox News Channel.
