ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jeff Cunningham

Jeff Cunningham is the former publisher of Forbes and the former CEO of Zip2, Elon Musk’s first startup.

As a Professor of Leadership at Arizona State University’s Thunderbird School, Jeff spent years studying how exceptional careers take shape. He launched his first journalism class by cold-calling Warren Buffett and asking him to speak with his students about how he found his goal and purpose in life. That conversation helped spark Iconic Voices, an award-winning documentary series that brought Jeff face-to-face with some of the world’s most accomplished leaders.

Over the years, he has interviewed and studied figures including Buffett, Michael Milken, David Petraeus, Nikki Haley, F.W. de Klerk, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Jack Welch, Jeff Immelt, Lloyd Blankfein, John McCain, Donald Trump, and Michael Phelps.

Again and again, Jeff saw the same pattern: careers that looked inevitable in retrospect were rarely inevitable while they were unfolding. Behind many of them were pivotal relationships that expanded ambition, opened possibilities, and changed what seemed achievable.

That insight became Lift: The Three Hidden Forces That Launch Remarkable Lives. Drawing on decades of conversations and firsthand experience across media, technology, investing, and leadership, Jeff explores the three kinds of relationships that can change the trajectory of a life—and help people go further than they might have on their own.

Jeff was born in Rome and grew up in Israel and England before moving to the United States as a boy. He and his wife, Kristin, live on the North Shore of Massachusetts.