Jon Fortt (born December 12, 1976) is an American journalist and the co-anchor of

CNBC CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk s ...

's TechCheck broadcast (formerly Squawk Alley). He is the creator and host of Fortt Knox, a technology, leadership and innovation brand that has existed as a podcast and streaming program since 2016 and now has its primary home on

Linkedin LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

. On the program he has interviewed entrepreneurs, CEOs and celebrities including Michael Dell,

Adena Friedman Adena T. Friedman (born Adena Robinson Testa; 1969) is an American businesswoman. She currently serves as the President and CEO of Nasdaq, Inc. She was formerly a managing director and CFO of The Carlyle Group. Initially joining Nasdaq in 1993, ...

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

Daymond John Daymond Garfield John (born February 23, 1969) is an American businessman, investor, and television personality. He is best known as the founder, president, and chief executive officer of FUBU, and appears as an investor on the ABC reality te ...

Satya Nadella Satya Narayana Nadella (, ; born 19 August 1967) is an Indian-American business executive. He is the executive chairman and CEO of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. Before becoming CEO, ...

, Katrina Lake, Michael Phelps, Q-Tip and Andy Jassy. In September 2021, he crafted a weekly segment on CNBC's Power Lunch program called "Working Lunch," which excerpts Fortt Knox interviews to introduce viewers to the personalities and strategies of founders and CEOs. In August 2020, he crafted a weekly segment on CNBC's Squawk Box program called "On the Other Hand," in which he argues two sides of one business or technology issue. Earlier in 2020, he created The Black Experience in America: The Course, a
forttmedia.com

Early life and education

Fortt was born on

Long Island, New York Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United States and the 18t ...

. His family later moved to Washington, D.C. He attended

Montgomery Blair High School Montgomery Blair High School (MBHS) is a public high school located in Four Corners, Maryland, United States, operated by Montgomery County Public Schools. The school's total enrollment of 3,600 makes it the largest public high school in Montgo ...

, where as president of the Student Government Association in the 1993–94 school year he was among the students who organized protests to push the county to build a new school in its current location, then known as the Kay tract. In his senior year he won the

Knight-Ridder Knight Ridder was an American media company, specializing in newspaper and Internet publishing. Until it was bought by McClatchy on June 27, 2006, it was the second largest newspaper publisher in the United States, with 32 daily newspaper b ...

Minority Journalism Scholarship. He attended

DePauw University DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the ...

, where he was part of the Media Fellows honors program. There he worked at The DePauw student newspaper and became editor. He graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in English Writing. On May 22, 2022, h
delivered the commencement address at DePauw
a message called "Love, Truth and Impact." He joined DePauw's board of trustees in October 2022.

Career

Fortt began his post-college career at the Lexington Herald-Leader in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

, where he was assigned the technology beat in 1999 after another reporter suddenly quit. Later that year he moved to California to join the

San Jose Mercury News ''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Cou ...

's hometown newspaper. In 2006 he went to

Business 2.0 ''Business 2.0'' was a monthly magazine publication founded by magazine entrepreneur Chris Anderson, Mark Gross, and journalist James Daly in order to chronicle the rise of the "New Economy". First published in July 1998, the magazine was sold ...

magazine as a senior editor in charge of the "What Works" section. In 2007, he joined

Fortune Magazine ''Fortune'' is an American multinational business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, owned by Thai businessman Chatchaval Jiaravanon. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. The ...

as a senior writer covering large companies including Apple,

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

and

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washi ...

. Fortt began working for

in 2010 as a

-based technology correspondent. CNBC brought him to its New York-area headquarters in 2013. He joined the board of the National Summer Learning Association, a non-profit, in 2021.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortt, Jon 1976 births Living people African-American journalists American television news anchors CNBC people 21st-century American journalists DePauw University alumni 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American people