Jeffrey Zaslow Speaker Biography

Award-Winning Wall Street Journal Columnist
and Author of The Last Lecture

Jeffrey Zaslow is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal, and in 2009, was the author or coauthor of three bestselling books.

The Last Lecture, written with Randy Pausch, has been translated into 46 languages, and was #1 on best-seller lists worldwide. There are 4.5 million copies in print in the U.S. alone, and the book has remained on The New York Times best-seller list for more than 80 weeks.

Zaslow’s book about female friendship, The Girls From Ames, spent 16 weeks on The New York Times list, rising as high as #3.

Most recently, Zaslow coauthored Highest Duty, the new memoir of Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, who famously landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River. Highest Duty debuted in October 2009 at # 3 on The New York Times list.

Zaslow’s Wall Street Journal column focuses on life transitions and often attracts wide media interest. That was certainly the case in September 2007, after Zaslow attended the final lecture of Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch. Zaslow’s column about the talk sparked a worldwide phenomenon. Tens of millions of people have since viewed footage of the lecture. Intense media coverage included The Oprah Winfrey Show and an ABC special hosted by Diane Sawyer.

Zaslow was drawn to the story of Randy Pausch – and the Ames girls – because he has created a beat unlike almost any other in journalism. While The Wall Street Journal covers the heart of the financial world, Zaslow tends to the hearts of its readers. There are thousands of emotional transitions that people face, and that’s the territory of his column.

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists twice named Zaslow as best general-interest columnist at a newspaper with over 100,000 circulations. In 2008, he received the Distinguished Column Writing Award from the New York Newspaper Publishers Association.

Zaslow’s TV appearances have included The Tonight Show, Oprah, Larry King Live, 60 Minutes, The Today Show and Good Morning America.

Zaslow first worked at the Journal from 1983 to 1987, when he wrote about a competition to replace Ann Landers at the Chicago Sun-Times. He entered to get an angle for his story, and won the job over 12,000 other applicants. He worked at the Sun-Times from 1987 to 2001, and was also a columnist for USA Weekend, the Sunday supplement in 510 newspapers.

In 2000, Zaslow received the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award for using his column to run programs benefitting 47,000 disadvantaged children. His annual singles party for charity, Zazz Bash, drew 7,000 readers a year and resulted in 78 marriages.

A Philadelphia native, Zaslow is a 1980 graduate of Carnegie Mellon, where he majored in creative writing. His wife, Sherry Margolis, is a TV news anchor with Fox 2 in Detroit. They have three daughters: Jordan, Alex and Eden.

Jeffrey Zaslow Speaking Topics

A Heartfelt and Humorous Look at Life's Transitions

Wall Street Journal columnist Jeffrey Zaslow writes about all the moments when life takes a turn. In his entertaining presentations, Zaslow delves into the recesses of our cultural psyche, with results that are surprising, funny and often extremely moving. His talks appeal to a variety of audiences – businesspeople, students, social organizations, etc. – and include an inside look at the phenomenon that led to his bestselling book with Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture. Showing video footage of Dr. Pausch, and sharing lessons learned in his many hours writing the book with the professor, Zaslow brings audiences unforgettable insights into a story that has captivated people worldwide.