Ryan Roslansky is an American businessman who was born on December 4, 1977, in South Lake Tahoe, California. His creative thinking and leadership have made him a leader in the tech industry. Roslansky has been the CEO of LinkedIn since June 2020, and he has had a big impact on the site, leading it to record growth and new ideas. His rise from a college dropout to a well-known business leader around the world shows how entrepreneurial, adaptable, and dedicated he is to helping professionals all over the world.
Early Life and the Start of His Business
Roslansky’s road to success started out in an unusual way. Roslansky grew up in Lake Tahoe, California, where his parents were real estate entrepreneurs. This gave him an early taste of the entrepreneurial mindset. When he was 12, he moved across the country to a tennis academy in Florida because he was so good at tennis. He lived in a dorm with other kids from all over the world. This experience helped him become more independent and strong, which would be important for his career.
Roslansky’s business instincts kicked in while he was a student at the University of California, Davis. He started Housing Media, an online real estate business, with two roommates in 1996, when he was a freshman. Roslansky dropped out of college after his sophomore year to work on the startup full-time. He taught himself how to design websites using a book by Lynda Weinman. By 1999, USHousing.com had bought Housing Media, which was an early success in his career. He then got a job at Yahoo!, where he worked for Jeff Weiner for five years on projects like Yahoo Classifieds and the purchase of Overture in 2003.
Roslansky worked at Glam Media for a short time as Senior Vice President of Products and Content before joining LinkedIn in 2009 as one of Weiner’s first hires. This set the stage for his major changes to the platform.
Become a Leader at LinkedIn
Roslansky has been at LinkedIn for a long time and has led big projects and made plans for the future. He joined the company in May 2009 and held leadership positions in many areas, such as product development, user experience, and business development. One of his first big accomplishments was starting LinkedIn’s content division in 2012. This included the Influencer program, which featured thought leaders like Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, and Bill Gates. He also set up an editorial team with more than 75 writers and editors, making LinkedIn a place where professionals can share content.
In 2015, Roslansky led LinkedIn’s $1.5 billion purchase of Lynda.com, which was the biggest deal the company had ever made. This was a turning point in his career. This decision, which was based on his own experience learning web design from Lynda Weinman’s book, made LinkedIn a leader in online professional education. The purchase allowed LinkedIn to start LinkedIn Learning, a platform with thousands of courses to help professionals improve their skills.
Jeff Weiner chose Roslansky to be his successor in February 2020. He became CEO in June of that year. LinkedIn’s revenue has more than doubled under his leadership, reaching over $15 billion a year by 2024. The site now has over 1 billion members, 67 million companies, 133,000 schools, and 41,000 skills. LinkedIn has stayed at the top of the professional networking space thanks to Roslansky’s focus on new ideas.
Finding your way through the Great Reshuffle and AI Integration
Roslansky came up with the phrase “Great Reshuffle” in 2021 to describe the big changes in the job market around the world that were seen on LinkedIn. Roslansky saw a chance for LinkedIn to help professionals through this change as workers, especially Millennials and Gen Z, looked for better pay, more flexibility, and a better work-life balance during the COVID-19 pandemic. The platform promised to teach 25 million workers new skills in response to the pandemic, and by 2021, it had already done so.
Roslansky, who is on Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s leadership team, has made it a top priority to add artificial intelligence (AI) to LinkedIn’s ecosystem. In 2025, he took on more duties as head of Microsoft’s Office productivity unit, which showed how much power he had at the tech giant. His attempts to use AI tools, like an AI writing feature for LinkedIn posts, have not always gone well, though. In a 2025 interview with Bloomberg, Roslansky said that the tool wasn’t as popular as he had hoped because people preferred real, human-made content to avoid backlash. Still, he has used AI internally, like when he used Microsoft Copilot to talk to Nadella. He also talked about how the demand for AI skills is growing, with six times as many AI-related job postings on LinkedIn.
The Philosophy and Effects of Leadership
Roslansky is a humble leader who works with others and focuses on giving them power. People say he is a mentor who stays out of the spotlight and lets his team members shine. He is known for giving his team members chances to shine. Daniel Roth, LinkedIn’s executive editor, praised Roslansky for not having an ego and for being able to motivate teams. He said, “He’s always pushing your thinking while trusting his teams.”
His support for hiring based on skills instead of degrees is in line with his focus on continuous learning and being able to adapt. Roslansky’s own non-linear career path, which included giving up a college degree to start his own businesses, shows that he believes there is no one way to be successful. He said in a 2021 interview with the Posse Foundation, “You figure out what works and you pivot along the way.”
Roslansky has an impact on more than just LinkedIn. He is on the boards of Intuit, GoDaddy, and the Paley Center for Media. He also hosts “The Path,” a video series, podcast, and newsletter where he talks to business leaders about their career paths. In 2021, he worked with John Kerry to fight climate change by creating jobs. This showed how much he cared about making a difference in the world.
Life and Legacy
Roslansky is married to a high school teacher, and his personal life is based on the same values of learning and community that guide his work. He speaks both English and Spanish fluently, which gives him a global view of his work. His daily journaling sets the tone for his leadership by stressing the importance of being intentional and thinking about things.
Roslansky is worth between $1.5 million and $5 million, and his success isn’t just about money. It’s also about how he turned LinkedIn into a place where professionals can connect, learn, and adapt to the changing job market. His inclusion on Forbes’ CEO Next list in 2021 shows that he is a forward-thinking leader in the tech industry.
In conclusion, Ryan Roslansky’s rise from a dorm room at a tennis academy to the top of LinkedIn is a story of hard work, new ideas, and a clear vision. He has changed the way professionals connect and grow by supporting programs like the Influencer program, LinkedIn Learning, and the Great Reshuffle. Roslansky is still dedicated to keeping LinkedIn true to its mission of helping people reach their professional goals, even as he deals with the problems that come with AI integration and changes in the global job market. His leadership inspires both business owners and professionals, showing that any path can lead to great success if you are willing to change and focus on learning.
