Organizing and Technology in the Obama Campaign

Zack Exley is an online organizing strategist currently serving as chief community officer at the Wikimedia Foundation and a strategic consultant at ThoughtWorks. As an Open Society Fellow, he was based in Missouri, where he worked to identify “leaderless” organizing models that would enable local leaders, activists, and social service providers to mobilize diverse constituencies that do not normally work together.  

Exley co-founded and served as president of the New Organizing Institute, a progressive political technology training organization in Washington, and was organizing director at MoveOn.org. In 2008, he worked with the Obama campaign as a consultant and researcher, and in 2004, he served as director of online communications and organizing for John Kerry's presidential campaign. He spent much of the 1990s as a union organizer.

Exley has written for the Huffington Post, among other publications, and has appeared on Hannity & Colms, Hardball with Chris Mathews, Scarborough Country, All Things Considered, the Diane Rehm Show, BBC News Hour and others. He has been profiled by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Observer, the Los Angeles Times, CNN Presents, Wired News, and other publications.