Jason Matthew Daniel Pontin (born 11 May 1967) is a British-born venture capitalist and journalist. He is a General Partner at the venture capital firm of DCVC in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a charter city in northwestern Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a Sequoia sempervirens, coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. Th ...

, and is a board member and early investor in a number of life sciences, industrial, climate, and other deep tech companies. He is the former editor in chief and publisher of '' MIT Technology Review''.

Early life and education

Pontin was born on 11 May 1967 in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, to a British father, Anthony Charles Pontin, a businessman, and a South African mother, Elaine Howells, an actress. He was raised in

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

and educated in

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

and

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

Career

From 1996 to 2002, Pontin was the Editor of '' Red Herring'', a business and technology publication. From 2002 to 2004, he was the Editor of ''The Acumen Journal'', a now-defunct magazine he founded about the life sciences. Pontin has written for many national and international magazines and newspapers, including ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British newspaper published weekly in printed magazine format and daily on Electronic publishing, digital platforms. It publishes stories on topics that include economics, business, geopolitics, technology and culture. M ...

'', '' The Financial Times'', ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', '' The Believer Magazine'', and '' Wired''. He writes for ''Wired'' in the publication's "IDEAS" channel and contributes to the magazine. In February 2013, he delivered a TED Talk in Long Beach, California, "Can Technology solve our big problems?" that has been seen more than 1.6 million times. He was hired as the editor of ''Technology Review'' in July 2004, and in August 2005 was named publisher. Pontin engaged in what ''

'' has described as a "strategic overhaul" of ''Technology Review'', whose goal is to make the magazine into a largely electronic publishing company. In October 2012, he renamed the organization MIT Technology Review and relaunched it as a "digital-first enterprise". '' AdWeek'' commented that "Pontin and MIT Technology Review could set the standard for the transition to a digital future for legacy media." Pontin was Chairman of the MIT Enterprise Forum, MIT's global organization of technology entrepreneurs. From 2005 to 2017, he was the Editor in Chief and Publisher of MIT Technology Review. In 2015, he cofounded MIT Solve the institute's open innovation platform, which deploys capital and other resources towards solutions to grand challenges. From 2018 to 2020, he was Senior Partner and senior advisor at Flagship Pioneering, an American life sciences

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

company in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In 2019, with CEO Neil Dhawan, he cofounded Totus Medicines, a chemical biology company whose drug discovery platform uses structure-based design, combinatorial chemistry, and automated biophysics to rapidly identify oncology therapies. Pontin is a board member of Totus Medicines. Pontin has been a General Partner at DCVC since March 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pontin, Jason 1967 births Living people Technology writers English male journalists British magazine founders English magazine editors English publishers (people) English columnists Alumni of Keble College, Oxford People educated at Harrow School