Bill Bluestein
Bill Bluestein '78, '81 and '89
Bill Bluestein served as Forrester Research President and Chief Operating Officer. He died tragically at age 44 in September 2007.
In his 11-year career at Forrester, Bill was a key player in the building of the company. As president, Bill guided Forrester through unprecedented growth, overseeing international expansion and pioneering new forms of digital research. As a research group director, Bill built Forrester's practice in eCommerce. He authored a seminal report in 1993, "Social Computing," which presaged many of the changes that the Internet would bring to the general economy. Bill was a widely quoted industry analyst who worked with many Fortune 1,000 companies. Bill was a teacher, leader, and friend to everyone in the Forrester community.
Bill had a lifelong love of jazz, listening to many artists (in particular, Charles Mingus) as well as playing jazz bass. He also loved all things Italian. Bill's analytical beacon shined on many parts of society -- he always had the incisive explanation for what was really happening in the turns of international, national, and local politics.
Bill received his Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. in economics, all from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. His doctoral dissertation analyzed the minicomputer business, correctly predicting the eventual decline of that market segment.