David A. Kaplan is an American writer and journalist. He worked for 20 years at ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', and worked for ''Fortune'' magazine for five years.

Biography

Early years

Kaplan was born to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, the son of Erna and Alan William Kaplan. His father was a surgeon and his mother, a clinical social worker at the university health service of the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His great-great-grandfather was Adolph Bergida, a founder of the

Federation of Jewish Philanthropies UJA-Federation of New York (United Jewish Appeal⁣ – ⁣ Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, Inc.) is the largest local philanthropy in the world. Headquartered in New York City, the organization raises and allocates funds annuall ...

. He is a cum laude graduate of

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...

in 1978 and the

New York University School of Law New York University School of Law (NYU Law) is the law school of New York University, a private research university in New York City. Established in 1835, it is the oldest law school in New York City and the oldest surviving law school in N ...

in 1981, where he won writing prizes in both his first and second years, as well as the school's upperclass Moot Court Competition. During the 1994-1995 academic year, he was a John S. Knight Fellow in Journalism at Stanford University. He was an intern with the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan and an intern at the White House Press Office during the Carter Administration, before serving as a litigator at a Wall Street law firm.

''Newsweek''

He had a 20-year career at ''

'', where he wrote dozens of cover stories, as well as edited the annual ''Newsweek-Kaplan College Guide''. Among his cover pieces at ''Newsweek'': "The New Rich of Silicon Valley", "The Most Hated Man in Baseball", profiles of Justices Clarence Thomas and William Brennan, "The Selling of Star Wars", "The birth of Netscape", "The Great Home Run Chase of 1998", "The Return of the Hale-Bopp Comet", and "The Secret Vote That Made George W. Bush President". His ''Newsweek'' cover story in 2006 broke the notorious Hewlett-Packard boardroom spying scandal involving venture capitalist Tom Perkins, which led to Congressional hearings and California state indictments. That story was a finalist for a Gerald Loeb Award. The following year, Kaplan won a Loeb for the book ''Mine's Bigger'', a biography of Perkins and the revolutionary high-tech sailboat he created. Kaplan also broke stories about how ''

Bush v. Gore ''Bush v. Gore'', 531 U.S. 98 (2000), was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court on December 12, 2000, that settled a recount dispute in Florida's 2000 presidential election between George W. Bush and Al Gore. On December 8, th ...

'' might have just gone the other way and about how the administration of death warrants in Florida executions was being manipulated for political purposes by the governor.

''Fortune''

He worked for ''Fortune'' magazine for five years. For ''Fortune'', Kaplan's profiles included Charlie Rose, David Geffen, Shaquille O'Neal, Howard Schultz (of Starbucks), Ralph Nader, Marc Benioff (of Salesforce.com), David Boies, Dennis Kozlowski in prison, SAS, Haagen-Daz, Shake Shack, Mars Candy, Chipotle, Lou Dobbs, the former Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, education entrepreneur Sal Khan, and Hostess Twinkies in bankruptcy. In July 2011, he wrote the much-debated cover story on "Tech Bubble 2.0." He's worked for a day on the Monopoly assembly line at Hasbro, at an Aeropostale register on Black Friday, and atop an asphalt tank at NuStar Energy. He also writes an occasional education column for the magazine.

Books, teaching, and consulting

Kaplan's other books include ''The Silicon Boys'', a national bestseller that has been translated into six languages, and '' The Accidental President,'' an account of the Bush-Gore election dispute on which the Emmy-winning 2008 HBO feature film ''

Recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...

'' is based. He is currently completing a book about the U.S. Supreme Court, scheduled to be published by Random House in 2018. His writing has also appeared on the front page of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' and ''The New York Times'' Op-Ed Page, as well as in ''Food & Wine'', ''Wired'', ''Parenting'', ''Inc.'', ''Worth'', Backchannel, and ''The Washington Post''. In 1988, he was a finalist for the Livingston Award, which recognizes excellence by journalists than under 35; Kaplan's piece in the ''National Law Journal'', "Death Row Dilemma," was about the strange case of William Henry Drake, who came within hours of electrocution despite two lawyers knowing he had not in fact killed anybody; the story explored how attorney-client confidentiality can lead to astonishing results. These days, Kaplan writes for different publications, and consults for a range of CEOs, financial firms and other companies. since 2009, Kaplan has been an

adjunct faculty An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...

of the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University. He teaches a popular undergraduate course on ethics and First Amendment law. Kaplan has appeared frequently on television on such programs as the ''Today Show'', ''Nightline'', ''Charlie Rose'', and ''CNN Inside Politics''. He also speaks at private corporate and government events. In April 2011, for a ''Fortune'' story, he auditioned to be the new voice of the

Aflac duck Aflac Inc. (American Family Life Assurance Company) is an American insurance company and is the largest provider of supplemental insurance in the United States. The company was founded in 1955 and is based in Columbus, Georgia. In the U.S., A ...

in TV commercials. Out of 12,500 contestants he wound up finishing in 5th place.

Personal life

In 1989, Kaplan married attorney Audrey Sue Feinberg in a

ceremony in Bozman, Maryland. Kaplan lives north of New York City with his wife and their two sons.

Honors

* 2007: Loeb Finalist (Magazines category), "Suspicions and Spies in Silicon Valley," ''Newsweek'', September 18, 2006. * 2008: Gerald Loeb Award, (Best Business Book of the Year category), ''Mine's Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built''"N.Y. Times wins 3 Loeb Awards; Sloan gets his 7th", by Joseph Altman, Associated Press, June 30, 2008 * 2013: NYSSCPA Excellence in Financial Journalism Award (investigative category), "Hostess Is Bankrupt Again", ''Fortune'', July 26, 2012 * 2013: Deadline Club Award Finalist, "Hostess Is Bankrupt Again", ''Fortune'', July 26, 2012

Books

* ''Mine's Bigger: Tom Perkins and the Making of the Greatest Sailing Machine Ever Built'' (2007) * '' The Accidental President'' (2001) * ''The Silicon Boys'' (1999) * ''The Greatest Business Decisions of All-Time'' (contributor) (2012) * ''The 10 Laws of Trust'' (co-author, with Joel Peterson) (2016) * ''The Most Dangerous Branch: Inside the Supreme Court's Assault on the Constitution'' (2018)

References

External links

*
Faculty page of NYU Journalism
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kaplan, David A. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American male journalists Jewish American journalists New York University School of Law alumni Cornell University alumni Gerald Loeb Award winners for Business Books 21st-century American Jews