Eric Schurenberg

Former Editor-in-chief and CEO, Inc. and Fast Company 

Eric Schurenberg is the founder and executive director of the Alliance for Trust in Media, a not-for-profit research and training enterprise aimed at rebuilding trust between professional journalists and their audiences. He is also the editor in chief of the innovative book publisher, Amplify Publishing Group, which specializes in business thought leadership, and a fellow for small business advancement at the US Chamber of Commerce. These endeavors follow a successful career as a business journalist and media executive, where his most recent role was CEO of Mansueto Ventures, home of the iconic media brands Inc. and Fast Company.

During his four-year tenure as CEO, Inc. and Fast Company expanded beyond print and digital into live and digital events, video, podcasts, data, and new recognition programs. Each year of Schurenberg’s tenure the company recorded its best annual financial performance to date, culminating in the first year of profitability in the company’s 16-year history, in 2021.

For the six years prior, Schurenberg was the president and/or editor-in-chief of Inc. While he was editor, the magazine was twice a National Magazine Award finalist for general excellence, winning once. Before joining Inc, he was the founding editor of CBS MoneyWatch.com and editor-in-chief of BNET.com for CBS Interactive; the sites together won more than a dozen awards for design and journalism during his time there.

Before CBS, he had a number of roles in business journalism. He was the managing editor of Money Magazine (equivalent to editor-in-chief), where he won the Time Inc. Luce award for service journalism in each of the four years Money was eligible. Other roles inside and out of journalism include deputy editor at Business 2.0, assistant managing editor at Fortune, and vice-president at Goldman Sachs. As a writer, he’s the winner of a Loeb Award and a National Magazine Award.

In media, Schurenberg hosts the Alliance for Trust’s podcast, In Reality, which aims to shed light on the fight against misinformation by highlighting the thinkers and doers advocating for truth. On broadcast platforms, he was a regular commentator on Nightly Business Report on PBS and Marketplace Radio on NPR and on CBS MoneyWatch. He had his own radio show, You and Your Money, on Westwood One. He’s also been a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, The Today Show, The Early Show, and Good Morning America.

Before becoming a journalist, Schurenberg spent six years as an actor, playing roles in soap operas and in regional theaters like the Pittsburgh Public Theater, Milwaukee’s Theater East and Philadelphia’s Annenberg Center. For reasons even he doesn’t quite understand, Schurenberg was repeatedly cast in the role of a Cockney juvenile delinquent, a peculiar bit of type-casting (he’s from Ohio). He mentions it because, well, how many other media executives can make the same claim?

Outside of work, Schurenberg is the father of an amazing daughter now in med school, a private pilot and an enthusiastic club tennis player, who not so long ago helped carry his club’s tennis team to the regional championships for northern California.