Jonathan Klein

Jonathan Klein is the co-founder of Getty Images, the world’s premier creator and distributor of still imagery, video, and related products and services. Jonathan served as the Company’s CEO for 20 years from inception until the end of 2015. Jonathan is an entrepreneur who now advises many nonprofits and companies, primarily as a board member of two publicly traded companies and several private businesses. Jonathan has been actively involved as a board member and advisor to many companies, including Etsy, Squarespace, Jumia, and Bloom & Wild, for in most cases, longer than a decade. He has advised many venture capital and private equity firms, most recently General Catalyst.

In the nonprofit arena, Jonathan is a leader in several fields, including global health, adolescent education, sports, the arts, international press freedom, and media. In addition to being on the board of ProPublica, his nonprofit work includes serving on the boards of directors of Grassroot Soccer, The New Press, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and the USTA Foundation. He is a member of both the Photography Visiting Committee and the Digital Committee of The Metropolitan Museum in New York; was chairman of the Board of Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for many years; and was President of the Board of Trustees of the Groton School. Jonathan is a member of The Council on Foreign Relations.

He is the recipient of numerous media, philanthropic, and corporate honors. Under his stewardship, Getty Images received the first International Centre of Photography Trustees Award for its commitment to the field of photography, through technology and philanthropy, and its dedication to the power of photography to create change. Fast Company recognized Klein in its “Fast 50” as a business leader who “will change the way we work and live over the next ten years” and he was named number one on American Photo‘s list of the “100 Most Important People in Photography.”

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Klein received a master’s degree in law from the University of Cambridge, lived in England for many years, Seattle, and now lives in New York with his wife, Debbie. The Kleins have three adult sons.