Biography

An internationally-recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends, Joel Kotkin is the author of THE NEXT HUNDRED MILLION: America in 2050, published  by The Penguin Press. The book explores how the nation will evolve in the next four decades. It has received rave reviews from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, and National Public Radio.

His previous, also critically acclaimed book, THE CITY: A GLOBAL HISTORY, was published in 2006 by Random House/Modern Library, with editions published in China, Spain, UK and the British Commonwealth, Japan and Korea.

Mr. Kotkin is Distinguished Presidential Fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California; a contributing editor to the City Journal in New York; a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Civil Service College in Singapore, and a Fellow at the National Chamber Foundation. A highly respected speaker and futurist, he consults for many leading economic development organizations, private companies, regions and cities. He also serves as executive editor of the website www.newgeography.com.

Described by the New York Times as America’s “uber-geographer,” for over three decades Mr. Kotkin has been one of the nation's most prolific and widely-published journalists. He currently writes the weekly “New Geographer” column for Forbes.com.

He previously wrote the monthly "Grass Roots Business" column in The New York Times' Sunday Business section and served as West Coast Editor for Inc. Magazine for five years and continues to contribute to the publication. His work also appears in The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek,Politico, Foreign Policy, The American, and The Daily Beast.

He has also worked extensively in television, including on documentaries for both German television and Los Angeles public television. He served as Business Trends Analyst for KTTV/Fox Television in Los Angeles, where, in 1994, he won the Golden Mike Award for Best Business Reporting on the changing dynamics of the entertainment industry.

Mr. Kotkin is also the author of THE NEW GEOGRAPHY, How the Digital Revolution is Reshaping the American Landscape (Random House, 2000); and TRIBES: How Race, Religion and Identity Determine Success In the New Global Economy, (Random House, 1993) which traces the connection between ethnicity and business success — how in-group loyalties are becoming the driving force in the new global economy.

TRIBES has been published in Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and German. He co-authored THE THIRD CENTURY — America’s Resurgence in the Asian Era, (Crown, 1988). This title was translated into Japanese and Chinese, with a special English edition published for the Pacific Rim. His first book, CALIFORNIA, INC. (Crown, 1982) dealt with California’s links to the emergent powers of the Pacific Rim. Kotkin's novel, THE VALLEY, was published in 1983 by Bantam Books.

Over the past decade, Mr. Kotkin has completed studies focusing on several major cities, including a worldwide Legatum study focusing on London, Mumbai and Mexico City; as well as other studies of New York, Los Angeles, Houston and St. Louis, among others.   

In association with the Planning Center and the La Jolla Institute, in 2006 he completed a year-long study on the future of suburban development.    He recently completed an international study on “the new world order”  for the Legatum Institute in London, UK. He is currently working on several studies including one on the Great Plains for Texas Tech University, an examination of the phenomena of childlessness sponsored in co-operation with Chapman University, as well as a study of future American “growth corridors” for the Manhattan Institute.

Mr. Kotkin lectures widely in the United States and worldwide, and is sought-after as a speaker by major business and financial organizations. In 2010 he won the Gene Burd Award for best urban reporting. He is currently serving as a guest lecturer at Singapore’s Civil Service College.

Mr. Kotkin attended the University of California, Berkeley. A native New Yorker, he has lived in California since 1971. Mr. Kotkin lives in the Valley Village area of Los Angeles with his wife and two daughters.