Michael Fertik

Michael Fertik has devoted his career to helping people safeguard and control their digital identities as Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Reputation.com, Inc., the recognized leader in online reputation and privacy management. In addition to his role with Reputation.com, Fertik has become a highly respected expert in digital reputation and privacy. Frequently quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and Financial Times, Fertik authored the foreword for 2009’s Google Bomb and serves as a guest columnist for Reuters, The Washington Post, and the Harvard Business Review. In 2010, Fertik co-authored the bestselling Wild West 2.0: How to Protect and Restore Your Reputation on the Untamed Social Frontier, in which he discusses the state of the Internet, methods of online attack, and how end users can take back their privacy. He has also appeared as a guest on Fox News, BBC, and CNN, as well as on such television programs as Dr. Phil and Good Morning America. A passionate advocate for Internet privacy, Fertik is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Internet Security.

Michael Fertik developed his interest in the field of online privacy while a student at Harvard University. As an undergraduate, Fertik studied literature and American history while leading an active extracurricular life, founding TruExchange, an online trading technology venture, before graduating with his Bachelor of Arts in 2000. His experience as an early Internet entrepreneur gave him significant insight into privacy issues that left people vulnerable to online invasion, slander, and manipulation. Fertik later enrolled at Harvard Law School, where he earned a Juris Doctor in 2005. Prior to establishing Reputation.com in 2006, Fertik acted as a law clerk for Chief Judge Danny J. Boggs of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Michael Fertik currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he enjoys sailing, reading, and running in his spare time.