Rafat Ali

Rafat Ali Rafat Ali is an influencer

CEO/Founder, Skift. Perpetually exhausted dad of three hyperactive kids

New York, New York, United States
439K followers 500+ connections

About

Rafat is the CEO/Founder of Skift, the largest business media intelligence and marketing company in travel, providing news, information, data, and services to all sectors of the world’s largest industry.

Previously, he was the founder/CEO of paidContent and ContentNext, which he sold to UK's Guardian News and Media in 2008, and left in 2010. Prior to that, he was managing editor of Silicon Alley Reporter.

Rafat was the Knight Fellow at Indiana University, where he completed his Masters in Journalism, 1999-2000. Prior to that he completed his BSc in Computer Engineering, from AMU in Aligarh, India.

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Experience

  • Skift Graphic

    CEO/Founder

    Skift

    - Present 13 years 5 months

    New York City

    Skift is the largest industry intelligence platform providing MEDIA, INSIGHTS and MARKETING to key sectors of travel. Skift deciphers and defines global travel trends for marketers, strategists and technologists in the global travel industry.

    Check out: http://Skift.com.

  • International Women's Media Foundation Graphic

    Board Member

    International Women's Media Foundation

    - Present 2 years 9 months

    The IWMF is the only global organization built to serve the holistic needs of women and nonbinary journalists. We are an ambitious, bold and inclusive organization that supports journalists where they are with awards, reporting opportunities, fellowships, grants, safety training and emergency aid. As one of the largest supporters of women-produced journalism, our transformative work strengthens equal opportunity and press freedom worldwide.

  • Media Development Investment Fund (DigitalNewsVentures) Graphic

    Board of Advisors

    Media Development Investment Fund (DigitalNewsVentures)

    - 2 years 4 months

    New York City

    Digital News Ventures makes seed investments in news and information start-ups, and is part of Media Development Investment Fund, which provides financing and business assistance to independent news outlets worldwide. MDIF has invested $130.9m in 94 independent news businesses in 32 countries since 1996.

  • Investigative News Network Graphic

    Board Member

    Investigative News Network

    - 1 year 4 months

    The Investigative News Network helps nonprofit news organizations produce and distribute stories with impact, achieve cost efficiencies by pooling resources and develop new revenue streams to become sustainable businesses. Includes some of the biggest names in journalism — NPR, WNET.org and American Public Radio — as well as startups and everything in between.

  • Gigaom Graphic

    Board of Advisors

    Gigaom

    - 3 years 3 months

    Gigaom provides intelligent, credible analysis of emerging technologies.

  • Asia Society Graphic

    Board of Advisors, Digital Media

    Asia Society

    - 1 year 7 months

    New York City

  • Founder, Editor, Publisher

    paidcontent.org

    - 8 years 1 month

    Founder of paidContent, online media company covering the business of digital media, entertainment and information industries. Was the first blog-media company in existence.

    Raised one round of venture capital from Greycroft Partners in 2006, sold it to UK-based Guardian News & Media in 2010, and left the company in summer of 2010. The company was subsequently resold to Gigaom Network in early 2012.

  • Managing Editor

    Silicon Alley Reporter, Venture Reporter

    - 1 year 1 month

    Wrote on the usual suspects in digital media, including tech, business, venture capital and M&A side of it.

  • Digital Media Reporter

    Inside.com

    - 9 months

    Digital media reporter at Inside.com, one of the early online-only digital media news startups.

Education

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