Yale School of Management - Jack Griffin '88

"My time at Yale SOM was enormously rewarding. The diversity of the student body and the emphasis on teamwork create a unique environment to experience and learn the art of management. A first-rate faculty, a rigorous curriculum, and broad exposure to the larger Yale environment all make Yale SOM a distinctive and wonderful place to grow."

Jack Griffin was the former chief executive officer of Time Inc., the world’s leading publishing company. With 22 magazines and 26 web sites in the U.S., Time Inc. engages 138 million consumers monthly and accounts for approximately 20 percent of total advertising revenues of U.S. consumer magazines. Time Inc.’s popular brands and successful franchises extend to online, mobile and digital reading devices, television, and events.

Before becoming Time Inc.’s CEO, Jack was president of the National Media Group at Meredith Corporation, a NYSE company headquartered in Des Moines, Iowa. In that position, he was responsible for the strategy and operations of the company’s extensive portfolio of consumer brands, including Better Homes and Gardens, Parents, Family Circle and More. He also oversaw Meredith Interactive, the company’s consumer digital business, Meredith Brand Licensing and Meredith Integrated Marketing (MIM), the company’s innovative marketing services arm. He was a key member of the leadership team that acquired Gruner + Jahr in 2005, which doubled the size of Meredith’s magazine business and made it the second-largest U.S. consumer magazine company by circulation.

A longtime leader in the magazine and advertising communities, Jack is now the chairman of the Magazine Publishers of America. He also has served as chairman of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), and director of the Internet Advertising Bureau and the Audit Bureau of Circulations. In addition, he is currently a director of Next Issue Media.

Jack has received numerous industry awards. In 2005, he was selected by Advertising Age as its Publishing Executive of the Year. He was inducted to the AAF Hall of Achievement™ in 2001 and received the AAF Jack Avrett Spirit Award™ for extraordinary industry and community service.

Jack had re-joined Meredith in 2003 as president of Meredith Magazines. During his first tenure with Meredith from 1994 to 1999, he oversaw the creation of MIM as its first general manager and served as vice president of marketing at the television broadcasting division at Meredith.

In between his stints at Meredith, Jack served in a variety of positions with Parade Publications, Inc., a division of Advance Publications, from 1999 to 2003. He joined the company as senior vice president of sales & marketing and later became its executive vice president/general manager and then president. Earlier in his career, he served in several management capacities with the Magazine Group of the New York Times Company. Jack started his career in publishing as a newspaper reporter.

Jack’s commitment to community service includes serving as a director of Catholic Relief Services and Mustard Seed USA, which operates orphanages for abandoned and handicapped children in developing countries. In recognition of this and other charitable work, Jack was honored with the National Human Relations Award from the American Jewish Committee in 2005.

Jack earned his BA in philosophy, cum laude, from Boston College and a master’s degree in public and private management from the Yale School of Management. He is former chairman of the School’s Alumni Association and a former director of Yale’s Alumni Fund