Faculty
Jason Jay is a Senior Lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management and Director of the Sustainability Initiative at MIT Sloan.
He teaches courses on leadership, strategy, and innovation for sustainable business. Jason engages students and alumni in hands-on projects with leading companies and organizations. These efforts help build a community of innovators for sustainability that includes MIT students and alumni, faculty and researchers, with partners in business, government, NGOs, and hybrid organizations.
Jason’s research focuses on how people navigate the tensions inherent in the quest for sustainability, as they simultaneously pursue their own self-interest and the flourishing of human and other life. This work includes deep case studies of cross-sectoral collaboration and hybrid organizations that combine social and business goals. These case studies have been published in the Academy of Management Journal and California Management Review. He also contributes to the MIT Sloan Management Review, Stanford Social Innovation Review, and Greenbiz on the topic of sustainability-oriented innovation (SOI). A key finding of his research is that social innovation occurs through authentic conversations that hold the tension between divergent values and perspectives. With Gabriel Grant, he is the author of Breaking Through Gridlock: The Power of Conversation in a Polarized World.
As a facilitator and consultant, Jason has helped advance sustainability strategy with companies like Biogen, Novartis, and Bose. He is a research partner and facilitator for the EDF Climate Corps and its network of companies. He has contributed to the strategy and curriculum of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Social Innovation and Change Initiative as a faculty affiliate.
Prior to MIT, Jay ran an internet startup, traveled around the world, taught kindergarten in a progressive preschool, and worked as a consultant with Dialogos International, where he consulted on leadership development and organizational change for major international corporations and NGO's including BP and the World Bank.
Jay holds an AB in psychology and a Master's in education from Harvard University, and a PhD in Organization Studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management.
Jay, Jason, and Gabriel Grant. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2017.
Jay, Jason Jesurum, Sergio Gonzalez and Mathew Swibel. BlogMIT Sloan Management Review, November 2015.
Jay, Jason, Sara Soderstrom, and Gabriel Grant. In Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox, 353-372. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Jay, Jason. HuffPost, December 15, 2016.
Nolet, Sarah, and Jason Jesurum Jay. Stanford Social Innovation Review, August 10, 2016.
Jay, Jason Jesurum, Sergio Gonzalez, and Marine Gerard. BlogMIT Sloan Management Review, March 2016.
The SEC is proposing a new rule that would require public companies to disclose their emissions data and create more transparency. Industry experts unpack its implications.
Our community is tethered by our reliance on our planet — and each other. As we celebrate a decade of our Sustainability Certificate, we're proud to share these stories of leaders taking action.
"How do we decide whether a social policy is 'economically relevant' to a company’s business?"
"It's not the next big supply chain crisis. It's the next big supply chain crises, plural."
"The Aggregate Confusion Project ... looks at the current regime of ESG measurements of firms in the capital markets done by ratings agencies."
...MIT is one of the leading universities in the world technologically addressing the challenge of global warming from climate change.
The Founder to Family program helps founders, or first generation families-in-business, build a bridge to the next generation. Founders and their family members learn to position their companies and families for ongoing success amid a fast-changing business landscape and increasing family complexity. Structure the planning of your transition to the second generation—no matter how distant or close that transition may be. Keep your family business on a path that builds upon the founder’s groundwork and grows value for another generation or more. Accelerate crucial conversations among the founder and his/her family members to resolve issues and set plans for sustaining family and business success.
This innovative business sustainability program applies a unique MIT Sloan framework to the topic of environmental and socio-economic sustainability and uses an engaging mix of interactive lectures, simulation games and action learning. Participants leave with practical and impactful strategies for building consensus and making change, and are empowered to take action on sustainability from the personal through enterprise level.
