James Slezak is a social entrepreneur and co-founder of Peers.org, a new member-driven organization to support the sharing economy. By day, he is Director of Strategy at the New York Times (although any views he expresses will be solely his own).

James was previously a founding executive team member and partner at Purpose, an affiliate at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, and consultant at McKinsey & Company, where he led projects on sustainability, technology and economic development. He is also co-Founder and managing partner of New Economy Lab, a consultancy that builds new business strategies for social good, recently working with Richard Branson to develop a strategic framework for his B Team initiative.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, James’s background is in physics, and he remains a science geek at heart. He moved to the US to study high temperature superconductivity, and after completing his PhD decided he needed to spend more time outside of labs.