Peter Economy is an American author, editor, and

ghostwriter A ghostwriter is a person hired to write literary or journalistic works, speeches, or other texts that are credited to another person as the author. Celebrities, executives, participants in timely news stories, and political leaders often h ...

. Although his most-recent books tend to reside in the technology genre—particularly software product development and AWS/cloud—he has written books in a variety of other genres, including leadership, management, memoir, biography, consulting, how-to, entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, and a children’s book. Economy is The Leadership Guy on Inc.com where he has published more than 1,500 articles on a variety of topics related to leadership, management, and other business topics. Before that, he served as Associate Editor of Leader to Leader magazine for 18 years, working closely with Frances Hesselbein, Editor-in-Chief—at first under the auspices of the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management, and finally, the Frances Hesselbein Leadership Forum at Pitt University.

Early life and education

The son of a U.S. Air Force officer, Economy was born at Hamilton Air Force Base in

Novato, California Novato (Spanish language, Spanish for "Novatus") is a city in Marin County, California, United States, situated in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 c ...

. With family moves every four or five years, he spent his early life in Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, and Georgia, graduating from

Warner Robins High School Warner Robins High School is a high school in Warner Robins, Georgia, United States. It was established in 1944 and enrolls approximately 1,690 students. The mascot, the Demon, was originally adopted during World War II in honor of the 7th Fig ...

Warner Robins, Georgia Warner Robins (WRB; typically ) is a city in Houston County, Georgia, Houston and Peach County, Georgia, Peach Counties in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the state's Georgia (U.S. state)#Major cities, 11th-largest incorpo ...

, and then

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

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 ...

with majors in Human Biology and Economics. During this time, he played French horn in school bands and the Macon (Georgia) Symphony Band before switching to electric guitar in local garage and rock bands.

Writing

Economy is the author, editor, and ghostwriter of more than 125 books with sales of more than 3 million copies, including a

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

bestseller. He has written about leadership and management for Leader to Leader, Gallup Business Journal, Inc.com, and

Time (magazine) ''Time'' (stylized in all caps as ''TIME'') is an American news magazine based in New York City. It was published Weekly newspaper, weekly for nearly a century. Starting in March 2020, it transitioned to every other week. It was first publishe ...

. He wrote his first book when, in 1989, he was asked by Dr. Bob Nelson, creator of

Employee Appreciation Day Employee Appreciation Day is an event, observed on the first Friday in March, meant for employers to give thanks or recognition to their employees. It was created by Dr. Bob Nelson who was a founding member of Recognition Professionals Internati ...

, to write a book on the topic of negotiation for the publisher Scott Foresman. At the time, Economy was working as Administrative Manager for Horizons Technology, a

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

–based software development firm. This first book, Negotiating to Win, was published in 1991, and its success eventually led Economy to abandon his management career to focus full time on writing business books and articles. During his 18 years at Leader to Leader magazine, he worked closely with Frances Hesselbein, Editor-in-Chief, and with numerous business and academic leaders globally, providing editorial support to their articles. These leaders included Kiran Mazumar-Shaw, John Hope Bryant,

Rosabeth Moss Kanter Rosabeth Moss Kanter (born March 15, 1943) is an American sociologist who is a professor of business at Harvard Business School.

Peter Senge Peter Michael Senge (born 1947) is an American systems scientist who is a senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute, and the founder of the Society for Organizational Learni ...

, Juana Bordas, Jean Lipman-Blumen,

Marshall Goldsmith Marshall Goldsmith (born March 20, 1949) is an American executive leadership coach and author. Early life and education Goldsmith was born in Valley Station, Kentucky, and received a degree in mathematical economics from Rose-Hulman Institute of ...

, Inés Temple, Jeffrey L. Bowman, Lolly Daskal, Clifton Taulbert, Ron Wallace, and others. Economy has also written for 1099, the magazine for independent professionals, and workWELL, a publication of Unum Group.

Media

Economy has been featured in national newspapers as an expert in business. *

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers ...

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

U-T San Diego ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...

* Mundo Ejecutivo * Alto Nivel * Business Matters (magazine) * Nursing Management (journal) *

The Virginian-Pilot ''The Virginian-Pilot'' is the daily newspaper for Hampton Roads, Virginia. Commonly known as ''The Pilot'', it is Virginia's largest daily. It serves the five cities of South Hampton Roads as well as several smaller towns across southeast Virgi ...

* CareerBuilder * Post-Tribune * ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the '' Belleville News-Democra ...

'' * IndustryWeek * InfoWorld by

International Data Group International Data Group (IDG, Inc.) is an American market intelligence and demand generation company focused on the technology industry. IDG, Inc.'s mission is centered around supporting the technology industry through research, data, market ...

* Network World by

* San Jose Mercury News * Alerus Financial

Community initiatives and teaching

Economy is on the National Advisory Council of The Art of Science Learning, a

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

funded project that uses the arts to spark creativity in science education. He is also a founding member of the board of Sports for Exceptional Athletes, a nonprofit athletic organization that provides enhanced opportunities for people with and without disabilities. Economy taught the upper-division course, Creativity and Innovation, at

San Diego State University San Diego State University (SDSU) is a Public university, public research university in San Diego, California, United States. Founded in 1897, it is the third-oldest university and southernmost in the 23-member California State University (CS ...

Books

* Joel Tosi and Dion Stewart with Peter Economy (2023). * Lisa Rojany and Peter Economy (2022). * Peter Economy, Eric Tyson, et. al. (2022). * Kevin Daum, Janice Brewster, Peter Economy, and Anne Mary Ciminelli (2021). * Peter Economy (2021). * Peter Economy (2020). * Peter Economy, Eric Tyson, et. al. (2019). * * * * * * * * * * * .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Economy, Peter American editors Stanford University alumni Ghostwriters Living people People from Novato, California American male writers Year of birth missing (living people)