Alex Beam (born Jacob Alexander Beam in 1954) is an American writer and journalist. He retired as a columnist for The Boston Globe in 2012, but still contributes to the paper's op-ed page.He has worked at Newsweek and BusinessWeek, where his tenure included Moscow and Boston bureau chief, before joining The Boston Globe. Beam is the author of two novels and five non-fiction books, two of which were New York Times Notable Books.