From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

Gregory Zorthian got his first taste of time journalism as a messenger delivering copy and coffee to our editorial staff at the 1976 political conventions in Kansas City and New York. Today, as our new general manager, Greg shares responsibility for everything from overseeing the magazine's budget to taking the hassle out of office moves. He arrives from a similar position at our sister publication Fortune, where he was known for his keen sense of judgment and sure grasp of even the smallest business details. On the lighter side, Greg has earned a reputation for showing up fresh on mornings after late-night meetings and socializing, when everyone else was bleary eyed.

The son of a foreign-service officer, Greg, 38, spent parts of his boyhood in New Delhi, the Philippines and Saigon, where his father Barry was chief spokesman for the U.S. embassy for 4 1/2 years during the Vietnam War. Greg became a member of TIME's extended family at 15 when the elder Zorthian joined Time Inc., first as a broadcasting executive and then as vice president for government affairs.

Greg's first love was journalism, which he practiced as a writer for the Voice of America and a reporter for the Yale Daily News. But early on, he says, "I decided that I was much better with numbers than with words." A lightning number cruncher with a stern eye for fat in a budget, he honed his concentration and competitive skills as a 145-lb. wrestler at Phillips Academy. "It sure taught me to be tenacious," he says. Greg also discovered a passion for politics, working after college as a legislative assistant for Jonathan Bingham, a Democratic Congressman from the Bronx.

Through it all, Greg has remained deeply committed to publishing the printed word. He spent three years at TIME-LIFE Books before taking a leave to earn an M.B.A. at Harvard with the intention of coming back to work on magazines. He joined FORTUNE in the circulation department in 1981. "I found that my history B.A. was not doing me a lot of good in business," he recalls.

At FORTUNE Greg drew on his overseas experience to help develop foreign ! editions of that magazine. Outside the office he shares his financial know-how with seventh graders at a Manhattan junior high school, where he has been a volunteer teacher of job skills and basic economics for the past four years. "The school is 10 blocks from my home," he notes, "and I wanted to give something back." Greg is a teacher to his colleagues as well. Says he: "The general manager's role is to help people work through business problems." We are delighted to welcome him back.