American financial journalist, founder of Forbes Magazine
Bertie Charles Forbes
Bertie Charles Forbes was a Scottish-American financial journalist and author who founded Forbes magazine.
By globalcelebwiki Editorial Desk, adapted from Wikipedia · Published 29 September 2026
- Profession
- American financial journalist, founder of Forbes Magazine
- Born
- 14 May 1880
- Birthplace
- New Deer
- Nationality
- American

Overview
Bertie Charles Forbes (; May 14, 1880 – May 6, 1954) was a Scottish-American financial journalist and author who founded Forbes magazine.
Early life and education
Forbes was born in New Deer, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, the son of Agnes (Moir) and Robert Forbes, a storekeeper and tailor at Whitehill, one of their ten children. Forbes attended University College, Dundee, which was then part of the University of St Andrews.
Career
In 1897, Forbes worked as a reporter and editorial writer with a local newspaper. In 1901, he moved to Johannesburg, South Africa, where he worked on the Rand Daily Mail under its first editor, Edgar Wallace.
In 1904, he immigrated to New York City where he was employed as a writer and financial editor at the Journal of Commerce before joining the Hearst chain of newspapers as a syndicated columnist in 1911. After two years, he became the business and financial editor at Hearst's New York American, where he remained until 1916.
He founded Forbes magazine in 1917 and remained the magazine's editor-in-chief until his death in New York City in 1954, though he was assisted in his later years by his two eldest sons, Bruce Charles Forbes and Malcolm Stevenson Forbes.
Forbes was the founder of the Investors League in 1942.
Family
The Forbes family includes a number of related people that founded, and have worked for, Forbes magazine. The family has close ties to Princeton University, with their namesake Forbes College as one of Princeton's residential colleges. Noted members include:
Bertie Charles Forbes, a.k.a. B.C. Forbes (1880–1954), the founder of the magazine
Death
He died on May 6, 1954. In 1988, his body was returned to his native Scotland, and lies buried in the New Deer Churchyard at Hill of Culsh in New Deer, Aberdeenshire. While living abroad, he returned to Buchan every two years, staying in the Cruden Bay Hotel, "to entertain people of Whitehill to a picnic". It was a tradition revived by his son, Malcolm, in 1987.
Published works
Finance, Business and the Business of Life (1915)
Keys to Success or Personal Efficiency (1918)
How to Get the Most Out of Business (1927)
Sources and references
Spotted something wrong? Report a correction.
Related profiles
43rd President of the United States
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American former politician, businessman, and Air Force veteran who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009.
Read biography ↗American inventor and businessman
Thomas Edison
Thomas Alva Edison was an American inventor and businessman known for his work on the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, electric power distribution and early motion pictures.
Read biography ↗