Jon Fortt (born December 12, 1976) is an
American journalist and the co-anchor of
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
's
Closing Bell Overtime broadcast. He previously co-anchored ''
TechCheck''. He is the creator and host of Fortt Knox, a technology, leadership and innovation brand that has existed as a podcast
and streaming program since 2016 and now has its primary home on
Linkedin
LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented Social networking service, social network. It was launched on May 5, 2003 by Reid Hoffman and Eric Ly. Since December 2016, LinkedIn has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Microsoft. ...
.
On Fortt Knox he has interviewed entrepreneurs, CEOs and celebrities including
Michael Dell
Michael Saul Dell (born February 23, 1965) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Dell Technologies, one of the world's largest technology infrastructure companies.
As of May 2025, accordin ...
,
Adena Friedman,
Reid Hoffman
Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily ...
,
Daymond John,
Satya Nadella
Satya Narayana Nadella (; born 19 August 1967) is an Indian-born American business executive who is the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft, succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman. B ...
,
Katrina Lake,
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold me ...
,
Q-Tip and
Andy Jassy.
In September 2021, he crafted a weekly segment on CNBC's Power Lunch program called "Working Lunch," which excerpts Fortt Knox interviews to introduce viewers to the personalities and strategies of founders and CEOs. In August 2020, he crafted a weekly segment on CNBC's Squawk Box program called "On the Other Hand," in which he argues two sides of one business or technology issue. Earlier in 2020, he created The Black Experience in America: The Course, a
forttmedia.com In November 2024
he was included on The Root 100 the online publication's list of the 100 most influential Black Americans.
Early life and education
Fortt was born on
Long Island, New York
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
. His family later moved to
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, where he attended
Montgomery Blair High School and was president of the Student Government Association in the 1993–94 school year and organized protests to push
Montgomery County to build a new school in its current location, then known as the Kay tract.
In his senior year, he won the
Knight-Ridder Minority Journalism Scholarship.
He attended
DePauw University
DePauw University ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Greencastle, Indiana, United States. It was founded in 1837 as Indiana Asbury College and changed its name to DePauw University in 1884. The college has a Methodist heritage and was ...
, where he was part of the Media Fellows honors program. There he worked at The DePauw student newspaper and became editor.
He graduated with a
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...
in English Writing. On May 22, 2022, h
delivered the commencement address at DePauw a message called "Love, Truth and Impact." He joined DePauw's board of trustees in October 2022.
Career
Fortt began his post-college career at the ''
Lexington Herald-Leader
The ''Lexington Herald-Leader'' is a newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and based in Lexington, Kentucky. According to the ''1999 Editor & Publisher International Yearbook'', the paid circulation of the ''Herald-Leader'' is the second larg ...
'' in
Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city coterminous with and the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the city's population was 322,570, making it the List of ...
, where he was assigned the technology beat in 1999 after another reporter suddenly quit. Later that year he moved to California to join the ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' in
San Jose, California
San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...
. In 2006 he went to
Business 2.0 magazine as a senior editor in charge of the "What Works" section.
In 2007, he joined ''
Fortune magazine'' as a senior writer covering large companies including
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...
,
Hewlett-Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company. It was founded by Bill Hewlett and David Packard in 1939 in a one-car garage in Palo Alto, California ...
, and
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
. Fortt began working for
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
in 2010 as a
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that is a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical area of the Santa Clara Valley ...
–based technology correspondent.
In 2013, he relocated to
CNBC
CNBC is an American List of business news channels, business news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning, Day ...
headquarters. He joined the board of the National Summer Learning Association, a non-profit, in 2021.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fortt, Jon
1976 births
Living people
African-American journalists
American television news anchors
CNBC people
21st-century American journalists
DePauw University alumni
21st-century African-American people
20th-century African-American people