Mailing address
124 Mt. Auburn Street Suite 190, Room 104
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Mailbox 117
Cambridge, MA, 02138
Zachary Tumin
Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
Contact:
Telephone: 617-495-1335
Email: zachary_tumin@hks.harvard.edu
Experience
Zach manages the Belfer Center's Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age and directs the Harvard component of a joint Harvard-MIT initiative in cyber security.
Zach's research focuses on the strategic management of collaboration across the boundaries of organizations, sectors, and citizens where information and communications technologies are critical enablers or obstacles. Of special interest are issues of people and politics; platforms, policy, and performance in matters of defense and intelligence; civic and political engagement; education, public health and public safety; and related areas.
Zach has held senior and executive positions in government and industry. He served with Boston Mayor Kevin H. White in the Office of Management and Budget; District Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman of Brooklyn as Special Assistant District Attorney for Policy and Planning; the New York State Attorney General as Chief, Information Services Division for the New York State Organized Crime Task Force; and the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools as Director of Public Safety. He was executive director of the Financial Services Technology Consortium, formed by Citibank, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and other leading financial institutions and technology companies for collaboration on issues of cross-institution identity management; cyber security; payments processing; and resiliency.
At HKS, Zach has led research initiatives, executive programs, and executive sessions in criminal justice policy and management; strategic computing and telecommunications in the public sector; national security; and networked governance. Recent research projects include the future of unmanned and robotic warfare; new strategies for food security; managing information sharing in contested environments; developing situational awareness in geospatial environments; the future of the NextGen civil aviation system; 311 customer service enterprises; and the move to government 2.0 and increased citizen engagement and participation.
Zach is a frequent lecturer and the author of numerous teaching cases, working papers, reports, and essays. His book, with William J. Bratton, Collaborate or Perish! Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World was published by Random House in January 2012. Zach earned his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, his Master's in Education from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and his Master's in Public Policy from Harvard Kennedy School.
June 2012
"Running Al Qaeda"
Magazine or Newspaper Article, Reuters Magazine
By Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
"Getting second-rung leadership right is important for any enterprise, and for al Qaeda that meant assuring the brand and building network capacity for terror. Bin Laden was careful about deciding who would be anointed with two powerful gifts—his blessing of leadership, and formal affiliation of groups to al Qaeda central (a term he heard used by the media and, amazingly, appropriated)."
April 2, 2012
"Let's Tackle the Right Education Crisis"
Op-Ed, Reuters
By Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
"There is a crisis in American education worth going after hard. It's one we can fix, and only a fool wouldn't want to, whether its draped in the American flag or just sitting there quietly waiting to wreak havoc. Almost 1 million K-12 teachers — 29 percent of U.S. public school teachers — say they plan to quit within the next five years. Two years ago it was 17 percent. For those teachers with six to 20 years on the job — the heart of the batting order — 40 percent now say they plan to wave the white flag."
AP Photo
April 2, 2012
"Viral By Design: Teams in the Networked World"
Op-Ed, Harvard Business Review
By Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and William Bratton
"The recent Kony2012 viral video offers proof that something special is happening as a result of all this connectedness: digital collaboration has come of age. Garnering 100 million YouTube views in six days — the fastest ever to reach that mark — Kony2012 demonstrated that digital collaboration can create astounding effects not possible just five years ago. Achieving those effects is no accident. While much is made of "emergent collaboration," Kony2012 went viral by design. The Invisible Children, Inc. team that masterminded the campaign comprised veteran media activists and fundraisers pursuing a common enough goal (a criminal's arrest), but using skills and means unique to the digital age...."
January 2012
Collaborate or Perish! Reaching Across Boundaries in a Networked World
Book
By William Bratton and Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
In Collaborate or Perish!, former NYC Police Commissioner and LAPD Chief William Bratton joins forces with senior Harvard researcher Zachary Tumin to lay out a field-tested, streetwise playbook for collaborating across the boundaries of our networked world. Where everyone is connected, Bratton and Tumin argue, collaboration is the game-changer. Technology helps — but people make it happen.
AP Photo
January 10, 2012
"Teamwork Gave U.S. Clear Harbor View"
Op-Ed, Bloomberg
By William Bratton and Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program
The vision was for the world's navies, ports and shippers to collaborate to protect shipping, harbors and cities from attack. But developing such a "concept of operations" was considered a challenge so large, it would take 18 months. That's right — 18 months just to create a plan. Meanwhile, U.S. ports and those of its allies would remain vulnerable. And U.S. warships and commercial vessels entering foreign harbors would remain blind to hidden perils, even though information about a dangerous ship, cargo or crew might well exist in another agency's or company’s database.
October 2011
From Government 2.0 to Society 2.0: Pathways to Engagement, Collaboration and Transformation
Report
By Zachary Tumin, Special Assistant to the Director and Faculty Chair, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and Archon Fung, Faculty Affiliate, Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age
In June 2010, 25 leaders of government and industry convened to Harvard University to assess the move to "Government 2.0" to date; to share insight to its limits and possibilities, as well as its enablers and obstacles; and to assess the road ahead. This is a report of that meeting, made possible by a grant from Microsoft.
