John Heins co-founded Value Investor Media, Inc. in 2004 and since then has served as its President and as the Editor-in-Chief of Value Investor Insight. In 2016 he took on an additional role as a Professor of Value Investing at the University of Alabama and is now the Director of the university's C.T. and Kelley Fitzpatrick Center for Value Investing.
Prior to starting Value Investor Media, Mr. Heins was Senior Vice President and General Manager of America Online’s Personal Finance business, responsible for AOL’s largest and most profitable consumer-interest category, reaching 15 million unique users each month. Prior to AOL, Mr. Heins spent 15 years in the magazine industry, the last seven of which as President and Chief Executive Officer of Gruner+Jahr USA Publishing, Bertelsmann AG’s U.S. magazine subsidiary. During his tenure, G+J USA’s annual revenue grew four-fold, to $425 million, while operating profits more than quintupled. He joined Bertelsmann as Director of International Development for Gruner+Jahr’s international division, based in Paris, France.
Mr. Heins started in the magazine business at Forbes and served as a reporter and staff writer in both New York and Los Angeles. A generalist, he covered a wide variety of subjects, including banking, finance, corporate strategy, media and technology.
Mr. Heins graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and received an M.B.A. from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.