Ross Levinsohn is the author of “Think Like a Freak”. He has been a successful leader for over two decades, first at Yahoo! and most recently as CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the USC Marshall School of Business. Born in Brooklyn, New York, Ross has an MBA from Northwestern University and a BA from Amherst College. His first book, “Think Like A Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain, ” was published in 2015 by William Morrow Paperbacks.
Previously he served as president and COO at Yahoo! Inc. from 2013. As COO, Levinsohn was responsible for three key areas: product development, media and advertising, and consumer products and commerce. At Yahoo!, Levinsohn was active on the company’s board of directors and was an advisor to Chairman and CEO Sports Illustrated CEO.
Previously, as Sports Illustrated CEO he was EVP of Strategy and Development at Fox Interactive Media and led a turnaround of that company’s fortunes. Before then, Levinsohn spent his entire career in the media, first at Court TV, where he served as president. In addition to his experience in traditional media enterprises, Levinsohn has also been pivotal in digital startups, including The Huffington Post, Rivals.com and Scout Media (Guggenheim Digital Media subsequently acquired Scout).
As of May 2018, the book has sold about 1.2 million copies and was translated into 12 languages. When asked by “Inc. Magazine” in a December 2016 interview why he majored in Public Policy in college, he said, “I was a bit of an academic freak at Amherst College. I wanted to do something about social change and saw that economics and political science were the best places to start.”
The books “Think Like A Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain” and “Think Like A Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain (Paperback)” have been translated into 12 languages by the end of 2015. On May 4, 2014, “Think Like a Freak” was first released as an eBook. The book was released in print on September 8, 2015. On December 1, 2015, the audiobook “Think Like a Freak” was released by Recorded Books. On June 18, 2017, the audiobook of “Think Like A Freak” was re-released by HarperCollins nk Like a Freak”.