David Bradley | |
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| Born | (1953-03-16)March 16, 1953 (age 72) Washington, D.C., U.S. |
| Education | Swarthmore College (BA) Harvard Business School (MBA) Georgetown University Law Center (JD) |
David G. Bradley (born March 6, 1953)[1][2] is a partner inThe Atlantic andAtlantic Media, and the owner of theNational Journal Group. Before his career as a publisher, Bradley founded the Advisory Board Company andCorporate Executive Board, two consulting companies based inWashington, D.C.
Bradley was born in Washington, D.C.,[3] and attended theSidwell Friends School. His parents were devoutChristian Scientists.[2] As a youth he rode horses at Meadowbrook Stables, where he also worked as a groom, mucking out pony stalls. David was also a Comanchero at Sky Valley Ranch for Boys in Buena Vista, Colorado.[4] He graduated fromSwarthmore College and briefly interned in theWhite House during the presidency ofRichard Nixon. He received aMaster of Business Administration fromHarvard Business School and was also aFulbright Scholar in the Philippines.[3] Bradley earned aJ.D. fromGeorgetown University Law Center in 1983.
Bradley is brother toBarbara Bradley Hagerty, author andNPR religion correspondent.[5]
In 1979, at the age of 26, Bradley founded the Research Council of Washington, later renamed The Advisory Board Company. The initial purpose of the company was to do research on any question for any industry. In 1983, his company had begun advising other firms in thefinancial services industry. In 1986, the company began doing special research for thehealth care industry, which eventually became the company's main focus.[6]
In 1997, the financial services and corporate practice of the Advisory Board was spun off as theCorporate Executive Board.[7]
Both companies became publicly traded, with the Advisory Board onNASDAQ and CEB onNYSE, and later acquired byOptum andGartner, respectively. Bradley reportedly earned more than $300 million from their sale.[2]
In 1997, Bradley made his first acquisition as a publisher, purchasing theNational Journal. He hiredMichael Kelly, a well-known journalist who had just been fired fromThe New Republic after frequently clashing with ownerMartin Peretz. Kelly was known for his controversial criticisms ofAl Gore andBill Clinton, but he got along well with Bradley.
In 1999, Bradley purchasedThe Atlantic frompublisher and real estate tycoonMort Zuckerman for $10 million.[8] Bradley replaced editorWilliam Whitworth with Kelly. Bradley's strategy to improve the business model ofThe Atlantic, which had lost money for years, was to focus on improving editorial quality. Bradley doubled the newsroom budget ofThe Atlantic, allowing the magazine to embark on a hiring spree, offering contracts to 25 new writers. Kelly's first hire was to bring backJames Fallows, one of the magazine's best-known journalists, who had been hired away in 1996.[2] After vowing not to moveThe Atlantic from its home inBoston, Bradley moved its offices in 2005 to Washington, where his other enterprises are headquartered. This drew the resignations of several prominent members ofThe Atlantic, including editorCullen Murphy,[9] who later rejoinedThe Atlantic.
Bradley is also known for the great lengths he will go to in order to lure writers toThe Atlantic. To hireJeffrey Goldberg, a staff writer forThe New Yorker, Bradley broughtponies to Goldberg's house to show Goldberg's three young children.[9]
In 2012, Bradley launchedQuartz, a business-news publication aimed at mobile-device users; he sold it in 2018 to Uzabase, a Japanese media company, for between $75 and $110 million.[10]
In 2011, Bradley led a team of researchers and journalists looking for freelance reporterClare Gillis, who had been captured by Libyan soldiers loyal toMuammar Qaddafi.[11] The team found Gillis in a women's prison in Tripoli and used a network of contacts to arrange her release. When Gillis was set free, Qaddafi also released three other journalists, including AmericanJames Foley.
In 2012, Foley was taken hostage again, this time in Syria. Bradley led a second team of researchers to locate Foley and five other Americans taken hostage in Syria.Larry Wright wrote an article[11] about a dinner at Bradley's house during which the families of five of the missing hostages met for the first time. In the end, the team failed to gain release for four of the hostages held by ISIS. In August 2012, Foley became the first American beheaded by ISIS. In the end, all four ISIS hostages were killed or died in custody. One hostage,Theo Padnos, held byal-Nusra, was released. The sixth hostage,Austin Tice, still is missing in Syria. To avoid a conflict of interest, Bradley directed Wright to publish the story inThe Atlantic's competitor,The New Yorker.[12]
On July 28, 2017, Bradley sold his majority ownership ofThe Atlantic to theEmerson Collective, which is an organization owned by multi-billionaire investor and philanthropistLaurene Powell Jobs.[13] Bradley remains chairman emeritus and a minority owner.
Politically, Bradley considers himself a centrist. He has contributed to the Democratic and Republican parties.[2] In the2008 U.S. presidential primaries he donated toHillary Clinton,Barack Obama, andMitt Romney.[9]
In addition to publishing, Bradley works with various educational and charitable organizations. He founded the Child Protection Network,[14] the largest system of acute care facilities for abused children in the Philippines. The network now includes emergency centers in over 100 Philippine hospitals. During his Fulbright Scholarship, Bradley taught economics at the University of the City of Manila (Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila).
Bradley is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His board memberships have included the Council on Foreign Relations, Georgetown University, the American University of Beirut, Swarthmore College, New America Foundation, KIPP DC, and the Biden Cancer Initiative.[15]