James Zhang

Hi everyone, I am a dual-degree mid-career student at the MIT Sloan School of Management (MBA '20) and the Harvard Kennedy School (MPA '21), graduating in early 2021 with the aim of returning to the tech sector.

I've been building 1.0 products and innovation cultures at early to late-stage startups and large public companies as a GM, COO, and country manager scaling a fintech to unicorn status as an R&D leader in Asia and Europe and launching global initiatives in the CEO Office of Japanese Internet conglomerate Rakuten.

I began my career with a one-way ticket to Beijing, China to apprentice at Ogilvy, the storied school of advertising, and have spent ten plus years in strategy consulting, consumer electronics, and public-private development at Samsung, KPMG, and my own consultancy.

This summer and fall, I was an MBA intern at cloud-leader Splunk, creating the company's eCommerce and SaaS go-to-market strategy.

I love teaching and giving back, serving as a corporate mentor for accelerators such as Techstars in Asia and Play and Play.

In my spare time, I dabble in podcasting, travel (56 countries), devour tech non-fiction (on my Goodreads is TikTok's "Attention Factory), and lead social impact projects involving health equity and the homework gap.