Zach Leonard

SFAI Board Member

Digital Media Professional

Zach is Chief Operating Officer and President, North America for Independent Digital News & Media Limited, publisher of The Independent. He is a Board Director of IDNML and Board Member of Digital Content Next, an international association of digital media companies including broadcast and connected TV, print/digital news platforms, and radio. Zach was previously Digital Publisher for The Times and Sunday Times at News UK; and before that, UK MD for The Financial Times, and COO, FT.com. Zach has a long list of ‘digital firsts’ in his CV, notably transforming The Independent to the world’s first profitable, digital-only news business in 2015-16, as well as pioneering online personal finance trading and transactions as early as 1994 for Fidelity in the US.

Before specialising in digital publishing, Zach developed his marketing expertise within New York advertising agencies and at Fidelity Investments – both in Boston and London – building brands and interactive channels for B2B clients and consumers. Zach is a graduate of Harvard University. He is also an art historian, holding an MA from the University of Buckingham, Trustee of Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, UK, and former Trustee of the Contemporary Art Society in London. He is married to Julia Platt Leonard, a food writer and editor, Table Magazine New Mexico. Having spent 26 years in London, Zach & Julia have recently moved from long-term Santa Fe second-homers to full-time residents to more fully exercise their passion and support for the Arts.