Walter Isaacson (born May 20, 1952) is an American author, journalist, and professor. He has been the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C., the chair and CEO of CNN, and the editor of Time.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, he attended Harvard University and the University of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar at Pembroke College. He is the co-author with Evan Thomas of The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made (1986) and is the author of "Leonardo da Vinci" (2017), "The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses, and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution" (2014), Steve Jobs (2011), American Sketches (2009), Einstein: His Life and Universe (2007), Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003), and Kissinger: A Biography (1992).