San Marino native Tony Uphoff has been selected for a fellowship program in which he will serve as an adviser for Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Uphoff, a 1974 graduate of San Marino High School who is president and CEO of Thomas, an industrial marketing service, received the award through an industry event where he was named Top Management Fellow. He will mentor and advise faculty members and graduate and undergraduate students at the Medill Magazine Project about industry best practices. The residency will take place in early 2021.
“I am honored to be selected as the 2020 McAllister Top Management Fellowship and to have the opportunity to help inspire and educate Medill scholars as we enter this new era,” said Uphoff. “There has never been a time when technology and media have been so interconnected, and this will continue to impact the business media landscape. This is a great chance to learn and explore a lot together.”
The award was announced at a virtual event where Uphoff lectured to information industry leaders about adapting their field to the current COVID-19 crisis and positioning their companies to grow post-pandemic.
Uphoff also attended Valentine Elementary School and Huntington Middle School and fondly recalls his upbringing in the neighborhood near Virginia and Lorain roads.
“There was always something going on either in the neighborhood or on the playgrounds at the school,” said Uphoff. “We were always riding bikes, playing sports, skateboarding and getting involved in various shenanigans. I have several friends that I made in those early grade school years that are still close friends today. San Marino was a remarkable place to grow up and I have fond memories of my time there and the many friends I made along the way.”
Uphoff has been a leader in media innovation and transformation for the last 25 years. He was CEO of UBM TechWeb, and before that was founding CEO of Beliefnet, an internet startup that was sold to News Corp. in 2007. He served as president of VNU Media’s Entertainment Group, publisher of the Hollywood Reporter and publisher of InformationWeek in the mid-’90s.
Uphoff is acknowledged as an industry expert on media, marketing and technology and regularly serves as a speaker at industry conferences and business schools. He serves as a trustee of Linfield College and as a board member and adviser to several tech and media companies.
He and his wife, Linda, live in New York City and keep a home in Orange County, near their daughter Olivia Uphoff-Craig and son-in-law Keevin Craig.
Uphoff to Advise Northwestern Faculty, Students
