About Jason

Jason Williams grew up in Federal Way. His mother, a grocery checker, spent eight years in night school to become a public-school teacher, while his father, a butcher, worked a second job delivering pizzas to help pay the bills. After graduating from Seattle Pacific University in the midst of the Great Recession, Jason was happy to find work with IKEA driving a forklift, though it still left him in a state of financial insecurity, weighed down by student loans.

He left IKEA for work as a management consultant. First at Accenture, and later Monitor Group, he spent nearly 5 years advising organizations such as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, NBCUniversal, The Rockefeller Foundation, and College Board on strategy, innovation, and impact measurement. Jason earned his MBA at Yale University and currently works at Microsoft.

Jason is active in the community. He is a member of Epiphany Parish, serves as a judge for the Social Venture Plan Competition at Seattle Pacific University, and is a member of the Regional Leadership Council at Forterra.

Jason lives with his wife Laura and their young daughter in Magnolia, where they rent.

Professional Experience

  • Helped AgResults, a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation funded program, design an innovation prize (e.g., x-prize) to incentivize disruptive technologies in sustainable crop development. Led primary research effort, creation of two prize design options, and refinement of the prize objectives and verification methods for the chosen design option
  • Led team to develop four scenarios about the future of education and work for College Board CEO David Coleman. Partnered with external experts in the fields of education, workforce development, cultural anthropology, and more, to narrow the focal question, identify forces impacting K-12 and post-secondary success, and write the scenarios. Futures were used to refine corporate strategy and inform business requirements for a new cloud-based product
  • Assisted a USAID/Rockefeller Foundation joint-project to accelerate capital flows into the impact investing sector; secured an agreement among select foundations, nonprofits, and banks to measure results using shared financial, technical, and social and environmental metrics
  • Developed the business case for Acelero Learning, a Head Start operator, to commercialize proprietary software used in formative evaluation of programs and curricula. Led a team of analysts on commercial due diligence
  • Identified top-line growth opportunities exceeding $4B over 5 years for NBCUniversal’s Cable Entertainment Group. Opportunities identified after developing five scenarios about the future of entertainment and leisure and hosting follow-on ideation sessions with the executive leadership team
  • Created a learning and evaluation framework for Omidyar Network. Framework incorporated latest thinking from social network analysis and behavioral sciences, and improved the organization’s ability to test market interventions and portfolio strategies vis-à-vis its Theories of Change by tracking resulting outcomes at the system level
  • More strategically aligned programs and budgeting at Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life by carefully revising the organizational chart, optimizing funding across their program portfolio, and retooling the network model to better promote innovation and collaboration between local chapters

Community Experience

  • Democratic State Delegate for Barack Obama in 2008
  • Intern for Congressman Adam Smith
  • Board Member, Young Alumni Council at Seattle Pacific University
  • Coach and Judge, Social Venture Plan Competition at Seattle Pacific University
  • Member, Regional Leadership Council at Forterra
  • Co-Chair, Nonprofit Board Fellows at Yale University