Big Shots

The Importance of Being Walter Isaacson

By Michael Conniff, 1-20-06

You want your Renaissance Person for the new millennium or perhaps thereafter? Look no further than millennial man Walter Isaacson, president and chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute, who writes biographies of people like Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein just for fun.

That’s right: while the more typical middle-aged Aspenite is knocking a dimpled ball from hole to hole, Isaacson is holed up with the theory of relativity. In his day job, via vehicles like the Middle East Strategy Group, he is merely trying to bring peace and prosperity to the region, and he regularly consorts with consorts and kings. In his past, Isaacson stayed busy as the Managing Editor of Time and the president and CEO of CNN. In his youth, he was a Rhodes Scholar. In his spare time he is trying to re-claim his home state of Louisiana amidst the morass of Hurricane Katrina.

So little time, so much to do. Even so, with so much on his plate, Isaacson accepted a post on the board of directors of United Airlines as it tries to emerge from 37 months of bankruptcy protection. Isaacson also board-sits for Readers Digest.

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