Biography
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of five New York Times bestsellers — The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw, and now, his latest, David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits and the Art of Battling Giants.
He has been named one of the 100 most influential people by TIME magazine and one of the Foreign Policy’s Top Global Thinkers.
He has explored how ideas spread in the Tipping Point, decision making in Blink, and the roots of success in Outliers. With his latest book, David and Goliath, he examines our understanding of the advantages of disadvantages, arguing that we have underestimated the value of adversity and over-estimated the value of privilege.
Malcolm’s next book was actually a 10-part podcast titled Revisionist History. In the weekly podcast, Malcolm re-examined an overlooked or misunderstood aspect of past events.
He has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1996. He has won a national magazine award and been honored by the American Psychological Society and the American Sociological Society. He was previously a reporter for The Washington Post.
Malcolm is an extraordinary speaker: always on target, aware of the context and the concerns of the audience, informative and practical, poised, eloquent and warm and funny. He has an unsurpassed ability to be both entertaining and challenging.
Credentials
- Staff writer for The New Yorker
- Author, The Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers, What the Dog Saw and David and Goliath
- Member of the Order of Canada
- Honorary doctorate of letters, University of Toronto
- Former science and medicine writer for The Washington Post
- Winner, National Magazine Award
Feedback
A leading trade association:
Just back now in the office. Boy, Malcolm was amazing. In all the years I’ve been doing meetings it’s a “big deal” when a speaker rates 50%+ Excellent in our post event evaluations. Malcolm is rating in the 80%+ Excellent range. I’ve never seen this before.
He was without question or hesitation, the finest speaker we have every had at our events. He clearly spent significant time preparing remarks specifically for our audience. Remarkable!
A consulting group:
I rate Malcolm as one of our top dinner speakers. He drew on interesting topics (hierarchy vs networks) and did an excellent job integrating [...] highlights on millennial into his speech. It was obvious he listened to our needs. Personally, I am a respected fan of Malcolm and meeting him made me admire him even more. He was pretty relaxed, absolutely down to earth, witty, intelligent and seemed like an all-around nice guy. I’m looking forward to his next book!
A major food company:
Malcolm — Outstanding! Our folds have been raving about your presentation at our National Sales Meeting all week. You did a terrific job of bringing our theme of Creating Separation to life. This is the third time I have had the privilege of having you speak and it is always a treat.
A town-hall event where Adam Gopnik and Malcolm Gladwell spoke for 25 minutes each and then a Q&A on the subject of the internet, politics and social media:
They were the best of the season, awesome, incredible...the audience was laughing, ooohing and ahhhing.
They got a huge response from the morning audience (who can fall asleep at the drop of a hat!).
They also loved the format of the program and both of you were in sync.
They were both 'on fire' for the evening event.
A global fitness trade association:
Malcolm was extremely well received and many of our attendees indicated he was the best we’ve ever had, which is a huge compliment considering we’ve been lucky enough to have had President Clinton, Marcus Buckingham, Kjell Nordstrom, Colin Powell and other highly respected individuals speak at our convention. Thanks again!
A business information company:
Malcolm was "the most awesome speaker we have had in a while", I couldn't be more pleased. Everyone loved, loved him! We had 350 people in his presentation and I hope to have him again sometime. He was so nice and personable too!
A major event for association executives:
Blew them away!!! He was energetic, positive and fabulous! You have a scale — he blew past it. Next year's event is leading towards thought leaders.
A Director of Education and Conferences, for a state-wide public sector association:
Dear Malcolm,
In all my years of producing conferences, I have never had a keynoter be so much on target, be so aware of the context and the concerns of the audience, and be so nice to work with as you were this week.
Our people will be talking about your presentation for years. Not merely were you very informative in a practical way, you did it with such delightful humor. Even more importantly, you set the stage perfectly for the "rally" session that followed. In that forum, numerous members who addressed the group referred to points you made and terms you used.
Malcolm, again thank you so much for joining us and being so responsive to our needs. It was a pleasure and honor to work with you.
An annual Senior Executive meeting for a major hospitality & travel firm:
Dear Leigh Bureau,
In one word?? Amazing!!!!
I told Malcolm right after he finished that he made my career — and I was right! They've already asked me to design next year's meeting agenda and hire the speaker!
I had so many compliments from people who are usually very cynical about corporate meetings and events. You wouldn't even believe it! I can't wait to see the evaluation results!
Thanks again!!! He was a hit.
A university dean's dinner:
Malcolm was wonderful on Saturday, he won us over from the beginning, and he did a great job tailoring his presentation to the legal audience. He was also terrific about fielding questions from the larger audience as well as one-on-one. Thanks so much for facilitating Malcolm's appearance with us.
A major glass company:
Dear Malcolm — I want to thank you again for your participation in our recent management group meeting. My colleagues and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with you, and you got rave reviews from our member.
Your thoughtful insights resonated with our global leadership group. I think many of them were surprised at the relevance of your perspective to their own leadership challenges. This is high praise from a group of largely technically oriented, engineering types!
We ask members to give us feedback on speakers, and I wanted you to know that they gave you the highest ranking of any external speaker in the last 7 years — basically as long as we’ve been keeping track of the ratings.
The most repeated comment on your speech was, "thought provoking". Some representative comments…
- "Unique perspective, engaging, thought provoking"
- "Good food for thought. Not America centered, very interesting, excellent analogies."
- "Certainly thought provoking. Great use of non-technical analogies to draw similarities, yet get out of the box."
Thanks for getting our meeting off to a great start. I hope that we meet again in the future.
A major civic association:
He was great, great, great. We could have gone all day. He told me he had fun. I hope we made him comfortable. Our CEO and COO were astounded and I am sure want to do other things with him. He is really fun.
An advertising association:
Gladwell was terrific, so perfect, the board members thought that he was the highlight of the conference, he was most impressive and a great storyteller. He took the time to understand and relate it to their group — he did it beautifully. He was simply dynamite. He was funny and engaging and he hit it out of the park.
We all know that underdogs can win-that's what the David versus Goliath legend tells us, and we've seen it with our own eyes. Or have we? In *David and Goliath*, Malcolm Gladwell, with his unparalleled ability to grasp connections others miss, uncovers the hidden rules that shape the balance between the weak and the mighty, the powerful and the dispossessed. Gladwell examines the battlefields of Northern Ireland and Vietnam, takes us into the minds of cancer researchers and civil rights leaders, and digs into the dynamics of successful and unsuccessful classrooms — all in an attempt to demonstrate how fundamentally we misunderstand the true meaning of advantages and disadvantages. When is a traumatic childhood a good thing? When does a disability leave someone better off? Do you really want your child to go to the best school he or she can get into? Why are the childhoods of people at the top of one profession after another marked by deprivation and struggle?
Drawing upon psychology, history, science, business, and politics, *David and Goliath* is a beautifully written book about the mighty leverage of the unconventional. Millions of readers have been waiting for the next Malcolm Gladwell book. That wait is over.
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of "outliers" — the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different? His answer is that we pay too much attention to what successful people are like, and too little attention to where they are from: that is, their culture, their family, their generation, and the idiosyncratic experiences of their upbringing. Along the way he explains the secrets of software billionaires, what it takes to be a great soccer player, why Asians are good at math, and what made the Beatles the greatest rock band.