Biography
George Gilder has an unerring eye for the technologies that will drive the next wave of economic growth and for the companies that are bringing these technologies to the market. He draws together equal parts science, business history, social analysis, and prediction to make sense of the important trends driving change in society and the economy.
This "Gilder effect" was one of the most potent forces in the stock market throughout the 1990s and companies continue to seek out the man whose vision has generated so much value.
He is chairman of Gilder Group, Inc. and a senior fellow at Seattle’s Discovery Institute, where he directs Discovery’s program on high Technology and Democracy.
Gilder is a contributing editor at Forbes, a frequent writer for major business publications and the author of several books on society, politics, and economics.
Gilder's most recent book is a updated edition of his bestseller Wealth & Poverty. Gilder compares America’s current economic challenges with her past economic problems–particularly those of the late 1970s.
His previous book is The Israel Test. The Israel test registers how you respond to people who excel in performance, achievement, innovation, or creativity: Do you resent and envy them, or do you imitate and admire them? And in economic terms: Do you regard their success as coming at your expense, or do you regard their success as creating new opportunities for you?
In The Silicon Eye, Gilder profiles a new imaging technology that promises to revolutionize, not just cameras, but computing itself. The book demonstrates Gilder’s legendary instinct for where technology is headed and where new value in the sector can be found.
George Gilder has had an extraordinary career as a thought leader in economics and public policy, emerging technologies and business innovation.
He studied under Henry Kissinger at Harvard and helped found Advance, a journal of political thought. He later returned to Harvard as a fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Politics and editor of the Ripon Forum. He has served as a speechwriter for several prominent officials and candidates, including Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney and Richard Nixon.
Mr. Gilder has had a long-time interest in the causes of poverty and its solutions. He’s written three books on the subject: Men and Marriage, Visible Man and the international bestseller Wealth and Poverty. He pioneered supply-side economics when he served as Chairman of the Lehrman Institute's Economic Roundtable, as Program Director for the Manhattan Institute, and as a frequent contributor to A.B. Laffer's economic reports and the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal.
Wealth and Poverty was a spirited promotion of unfettered entrepreneurship as the best hope of the poor and was an international bestseller. The book began a long-held interest in entrepreneurship and, especially, in hi-tech innovation. In 1986, President Reagan gave George Gilder the White House Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence. George's book The Spirit of Enterprise also praises the entrepreneurs who drive economic growth.
George has written several books on emerging technologies and technology sectors, including quantum electronics (Microcosm) as well as computers and telecommunications (Life After Television, Telecosm, and, most recently, The Silicon Eye).
Mr. Gilder publishes the Gilder Technology Report and produces the annual Gilder/Forbes Telecosm Conference, both of which offer elite analysis of ascending and disruptive technologies affecting the management and investment decisions of investors, engineers and entrepreneurs.
Credentials
- Founding Editor, Forbes ASAP
- Former Chairman, Lehrman Institute’s Economic Roundtable
- Former Program Director, Manhattan Institute
- Founder, Advance journal of political thought
- Fellow, International Engineering Consortium, 1996
- Fellow, Kennedy Institute of Politics
- Speechwriter, Nelson Rockefeller, George Romney & Richard Nixon
- Recipient, White House Award for Entrepreneurial Excellence
- Consultant to leaders of America's high-technology businesses