I’m committed to working on large-scale positive impacts at the juncture of artificial intelligence, societal cohesion, and healthy human minds.
Jacob Hall Gordon – Professional Profile
Each chapter of my work has been about uplifting people and safeguarding the future.
Across a twenty-year career I co-founded and scaled a successful hardware technology company, spearheaded fundraising for a NYC mental health nonprofit, and produced internationally syndicated digital media on science, policy, and sustainability.
My education includes an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School and MBA training from the top green business program. I collaborate and lead with tenacity, mindfulness, and a deep commitment to altruistic values.
The coming decades of my career are dedicated to collective flourishing in the age of artificial intelligence.
I’M OPEN TO:
Full-time roles (as well as consulting and research projects) in the nonprofit and public sectors (and maybe even the private sector if it’s truly on the right side of history!)
I'm well-suited for positions like: Chief of Staff, Chief Operating Officer, Co-founder, Director of Strategy, Program Director, Policy Advisor, Director of Development, Head of Partnerships, Director of Strategic Initiatives…
Professional strengths and values…
AI Policy + Ethics
Safely navigating the AI era is the work of a generation, and so much is at stake.
I’ve been following the field of AI for twenty years, often as the only one in the room raising the topic – perhaps you can relate!
I attended Harvard Kennedy School to study AI governance and ethics. My AI-specific coursework includes: Public Problem Solving with Generative AI (taught by HKS Dean Jeremy Weinstein and computer scientist Sharad Goel); Politics and Policies: The Impact of Data and AI; Big Tech and the Importance of Competition: Public Policy in the 2020s; and AI, Ethics, and Society at the Harvard Divinity School. (full coursework here)
I am currently the AI/technology policy advisor to Massachusetts State Senate candidate Matthew McLaughlin (sitting Somerville City Councilor).
This year I am participating in the Harvard AI Student Safety Policy Fellowship – (AISST) focused on catastrophic risks from advanced AI.
I’m an avid and thoughtful user of generative AI in my professional and academic work, and an early adopter of new tools and methods.
Entrepreneurship
I love creating new things that make things better.
As co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Artiphon, Inc. I worked shoulder-to-shoulder with the founder/CEO from prototype to commercial scale. We grew to over 40 team-members, five consumer hardware products, cross-platform mobile/desktop software, and worldwide distribution. My work spanned strategy, fundraising, marketing, talent acquisition, partnerships, company culture, and more.
Before Artiphon I founded Nemonics Media, a seed-stage startup building social-annotation products for the digital publishing market.
I met the founder of The B.R.O. Experience Foundation as he was launching a new nonprofit to address pressing youth mental health needs in low-income minority communities. Starting as a dedicated volunteer and then as Development Director I helped build a fundraising pipeline that quickly secured over $1M+ in multi-year grants and high-profile awards from prominent philanthropies, major donors, and the New York City Council.
Over the years I’ve advised startups and entrepreneurs, including as a mentor in the NEW INC, the New Museum's creative technology incubator.
Read more about Artiphon and The B.R.O. Experience Foundation.
Fundraising
For-profit
As Artiphon’s co-founder I spent considerable time on investor cultivation and business development. During my ten years with the company we raised over $20M from investors including AOL founder Steve Case, GIPHY founder Alex Chung, Lean Startup author Eric Ries, Warner Music Group, 500 Startups, Alumni Ventures, and the Harvard Business School Angel Network
Nonprofit
In my time as Director of Development at The B.R.O. Experience Foundation – a New York 501(c)(3) – I managed our grant program and brought in over $1M in multi-year foundation funding from foundations including The Pinkerton Foundation, SparkYouth, van Ameringen Foundation, the Brooklyn.org community foundation, the New York City Council, and others. I also spearheaded donor campaigns and coordinated major multi-year gifts.
Brand, Marketing + Content
Companies, nonprofits, philanthropies, and political campaigns all need to tell powerful stories and reach the right audiences.
As Artiphon’s Chief Marketing Officer I drove the company’s brand, building with both in-house and consultancy teams. I was frequently hands-on with copywriting, social media curation, artist/influencer relations, and talent acquisition. And I’ve never forgotten what we learned as an early startup in residence at IDEO in SF.
I’ve always loved building partnerships, and at Artiphon I managed campaigns with SXSW, The Verge, Ace Hotel, MoMA Design Store, Snap, and with education and music therapy nonprofits.
I ran media relations both in-house and managed our consultants. My pitches landed us coverage in TechCrunch, WIRED, The New York Times, VICE, The Verge, TIME, and many others.
Working as a climate journalist I wrote hundreds of articles, dozens of magazine features, and I hosted one of the first popular green podcasts, interviewing the world’s leading environmental scientists, activists, politicians, and celebrities.
Read more about Artiphon and my work in digital journalism.
Finance
While I’m probably not your next CFO, I’ve...
Studied Accounting and Finance at the MBA level.
Completed Cornell University’s Financial Success for Nonprofits online certificate.
Co-created $1M+ organizational budgets for The B.R.O. Experience Foundation.
And managed financial analysis projects for my family’s Boston-based commercial real estate company, Second Street Associates.
Full graduate coursework here.
Inner Development
My personal growth, interpersonal capacities, and worldviews have been nurtured by introspective practice and communities of contemplative work.
Over the past 25 years I’ve benefitted from thousands of hours of meditation and many extended silent retreats in the U.S. and overseas.
Each summer I attend the Mind & Life Summer Research Institute, a weeklong immersion with leading contemplative researchers and mind-science experts.
I’ve attended immersive Bearing Witness retreats that bring Zen Buddhist practice to pressing social issues, one on the the Native American experience and one on Racism in America.
I was among the inaugural cohort of the Inner Development Goals’ Ambassador Program hosted on Ekskäret Island, Sweden. The IDG Foundation is a pioneering experiment in bringing inner capacities to bear in accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals.
I have completed the eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course from Mindful Leader.
And I recently published a paper on mindfulness and ecologically-aligned behaviors in a new book from Routledge Press
At Harvard I led mindfulness sessions for classmates and took the course Compassion and Heart Cultivation: Buddhism and the Clinical Approach at the Harvard Divinity School with interfaith chaplain Chris Berlin.
More on my meditation journey here.
Built Environment
Buildings and physical infrastructure continue to be among the largest factors in human health, environmental impact, and domestic policy.
While it’s never been a central focus, I’ve learned a lot about architecture, construction, and real estate operations and finance.
I grew up around the family business, working maintenance as a summer job in our converted 1880’s rum factory
My first job out of college was Environmental Programs Manager at the American Apparel garment factory in Los Angeles, coordinating sustainability operations at what was the the country’s largest clothing factory.
Much of my journalism covered sustainable building technology, and I wrote the first article on Passive House for Dwell magazine
I worked closely with my family’s real estate company which includes the longest-running artist live/work facility in Boston, and the city’s most efficient multi-family apartment building, 28 units of Passive House and LEED Platinum residential. Built websites for both buildings here and here.
Creative Arts
All disciplines benefit from creative thinking and aesthetic acumen.
I showed up as a Bard College freshman planning to be a visual artist. Although I soon moved into sociology, I’ve practiced art and music my whole life.
I’ve played music since I was a kid, and even spent a time as a semi-professional county musician, playing steel guitar in Nashville’s notorious honky-tonk venues.
I continue to love photography, and I document my travels and take portraits in digital and film.
And if you’ve read this far, my easter egg is… a gummy bear. For years I’ve made a practice of photographing fallen gummy bears wherever I travel – life is full of color in unexpected places!
Graduate Studies
Harvard Kennedy School of Government
I attended the full-time one-year Mid-Career Master’s in Public Administration degree program at the world’s top policy school. Along with an amazing cohort of classmates from over 50 countries, professionals representing governments, NGOs, and the private sector, I designed a course of study focused on technology in society, economics, democratic institutions, human flourishing, and organizational leadership. (Full coursework)
Bard MBA in Sustainability Program
The Bard MBA in Sustainability (part of Bard College’s Graduate Programs in Sustainability) combines the traditional MBA discipline with a deeply integrated focus on environmental and social impact. The program has been ranked the #1 Green MBA by The Princeton Review five years running. It is a hybrid program that meets in NYC monthly. Over the course of a year I earned the Advanced Certificate in Sustainable Business (equivalent to one year of a three year part-time program). (Full coursework)