Clifton Leaf

Clifton Leaf served as the Editor-in-Chief of FORTUNE from 2017 to 2021. During his tenure, FORTUNE won more than 70 top journalism prizes and substantially expanded its website, newsletter, premium subscription, podcast, and virtual conference businesses. Prior to that he was FORTUNE’s deputy editor, overseeing the acclaimed print magazine. In earlier years, he was a guest editor for the New York Times op-ed page and held senior positions at the Wall Street Journal’s SmartMoney magazine and at FORTUNE.

Cliff is also the author of the book, The Truth in Small Doses: Why We’re Losing the War on Cancer—and How to Win It (Simon & Schuster), which was named by Newsweek as one of “The Best Books About Cancer” and which earned him a Lifetime Achievement Award from the European School of Oncology “for his outstanding contribution to cancer journalism.” The founding co-chairman of FORTUNE Brainstorm Health and a member of the Board of Fellows at Stanford University School of Medicine, Cliff is currently the Global Fellow at the Ellison Institute of Technology in Los Angeles and serves on the editorial advisory board for Harvard Public Health.

He has won numerous awards for his journalism and leadership in the anticancer effort, including the Gerald Loeb Award for Distinguished Business and Financial Journalism and the NIHCM’s Health Care Journalism Award, and he was twice named a finalist for the National Magazine Award. In 2006, Cliff delivered “Grand Rounds” at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, becoming the first and only journalist to receive that honor. He is currently writing his second book, which is due to be published by Simon & Schuster in 2025.