Tom Watson is a journalist, author, media critic, entrepreneur and consultant who has worked at the confluence of media technology and social change for more than a 15 years. He is the author of CauseWired: Plugging In, Getting Involved, Changing the World (Wiley, 2008 ) a best-selling book that chronicles the rise of online social activism, and managing partner of CauseWired Communications LLC, a consultancy based in New York.
During his long career as journalist, Tom has written for The New York Times, Huffington Post, techPresident.com, Social Edge, Industry Standard, Inside, Worth and Contribute magazines, among many other publications. He writes about politics and media on his personal blog, My Dirty Life & Times, and is the founder and editor of Newcritics.com, a group blog on popular culture. Before launching CauseWired Communications, Tom served for nine years as chief strategy officer of Changing Our World, Inc., the international philanthropic services company he helped to found. Tom is the publisher of onPhilanthropy.com, CauseWired's extensive online resource for philanthropy professionals, and co-founder of the annual Summit onPhilanthropy, a gathering of philanthropy leaders in New York.
Before joining the philanthropy sector, Tom was co-founder and co-editor of @NY, the pioneering Internet news and information service that chronicled the rise New York's Silicon Alley new media in the mid-90s. Early in his career, Tom was the executive editor of The Riverdale Press, a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper in the Bronx, where he covered politics and won more than a dozen state and national awards for excellence in journalism.
Tom Watson is a frequent speaker and commentator on trends and issues related to media, technology and society and has appeared on shows ranging from CNN's Moneyline to NPR's All Things Considered. He has spoken at venues that include the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Symposium, MIT Enterprise Forum, the Conference Board, Boardsource Leadership Forum, and the Performance Institute as well as in university settings, including Harvard Business School, Columbia Business School, New York University and City University London. He is widely quoted on issues related to philanthropy and media in publications that include Newsweek, USA Today, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Women's Wear Daily and the Christian Science Monitor.
Over the years, Tom was worked with many clients in case development, strategic planning, communications, branding development and marketing, as well as fundraising and development planning, including organizations such as Cabrini Mission Foundation, TrickleUp, North Shore-LIJ Health System Foundation, the International Center for Journalists, the Case Foundation, Save Ellis Island, the Tiger Woods Foundation, the Tuskegee Airmen, Catholic Relief Services, Christian Blind Mission, the Wealth & Giving Forum, and many others.
Tom is a member of the board of directors of the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy, a progressive think tank based in New York. He holds a degree in English literature from Columbia University, where he served as an adjunct professor of new media at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He lives in Mount Vernon, NY with his wife, artist Beryl Watson, and their three children, Veronica, Kelsey and Devon.
Read more
Read less
