Alan Spoon

Alan Spoon is Board Chair at Fortive, Inc. (FTV) and Partner Emeritus at Polaris Partners (a venture capital firm with investments in life sciences and technology). 

Today he serves on a variety of public company boards —FORTIVE, Inc. (FTV: businesses include Fluke Instruments, Tektronix, Gilbarco, etc.);  Danaher Inc (DHR), IAC, Inc. (IAC), The Match Group (MTCH), and CableOne (CABO).  At Polaris, Alan currently leads investments in Phreesia, Art.com, Earth Networks and others.  His past venture investments included Focus Financial Partners,  LegalZoom, MatrixRFID, Cushcraft Wireless, TechTarget (TTGT, NASDAQ), Internet Brands (Hellman Friedman), Paratek Adaptive RF (RIM), and Cardlytics (CDLX).

Prior to joining Polaris, Alan served as President and Board member of The Washington Post Company, a multimedia and education corporation. Earlier he served as Post Company CFO, President of Newsweek, and earlier held top marketing and finance positions at The Washington Post newspaper.

At The Post Company, Alan initiated and oversaw washingtonpost.com. He also led investments in a successful portfolio of early stage companies, in cellular (Cellular One), distance learning (Kaplan), and educational software, digital media (WebTV) and e-commerce (Cars.com, Apartments.com, TicketmasterOnline, Match.com).  Alan began his career at and later became a partner of The Boston Consulting Group, an international consulting firm specializing in corporate strategy.

In his not-for-profit activities, Alan is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Corporation (Executive Committee) and serves on the boards of edX.org (Harvard/MIT online education platform, and MIT Technology Review). Alan was instrumental in creating MIT Sandbox Innovation program and the Community Catalyst Leadership Program for MIT students.  Alan is Regent Emeritus (former Vice Chairman and Executive Committee) of the Smithsonian Institution Board of Regents. He was co-chair of the Smithsonian’s first-ever Capital Campaign.  He is also a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

Alan received his Bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; his Master’s degree from the Sloan School of Management, MIT; and his J.D., from Harvard Law School.

Alan and his wife, Terri, are relishing these special years when all the kids and grandkids are within a three-hour drive. When not visiting family, Alan stays fit with tennis and ever-challenged with golf.