Jonathan Bellack Joins Applied Social Media Lab
March 19, 2024
Cambridge, MA – Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center welcomes Jonathan Bellack as the Senior Director of the Applied Social Media Lab (ASML). An interview with Bellack about his background and aspirations for the Lab can be read on the BKC website here.
This month, Bellack begins leading a team of technologists at The Lab, a first of its kind program at BKC to build social media solutions that center the public interest. A veteran Internet technology product manager, Bellack will cultivate new partnerships and bridge public-private sectors as the Lab rolls out a suite of projects that apply novel technical research and solutions to some of the biggest issues facing the Internet. Bellack will work closely with the Lab’s principal investigators, Professors Jonathan Zittrain and James Mickens, as well as BKC’s Executive Director of Institutes, Rebecca Rinkevich, to help shape ASML’s efforts.
Bellack’s 30 years of experience started with dot-com era startups in New York City, Silicon Valley, and the UK. In 2004 he joined the digital advertising technology firm DoubleClick, where he helped lead a turnaround culminating in their $3.1 billion acquisition by Google in 2008. He spent another decade leading product management for technology platforms that helped millions of small and large media companies worldwide build and grow their digital advertising business.
“We are thrilled to have Jonathan on board to help build out the lab,” said Executive Director of Institutes, Rebecca Rinkevich. “From managing nimble startups, to hundred-person Google teams, to the public interest technology shop at Jigsaw, Jonathan uniquely understands the problems the lab is looking to solve – and how to drive products and projects to solve them. His leadership will be key in establishing the lab as a hub for technologists and practitioners who want to leverage their technical experience for the public good.”
At the end of 2018, Bellack changed his focus to making people safer online. He was the first-ever product management director at Jigsaw, a Google unit building experimental technology to combat digital harms including organized harassment, repressive censorship, and state-sponsored disinformation. He then served as senior director of product management for Counter-Abuse Technology and Identity, where he built a 50-person team that helped protect Google and YouTube users from malicious actors, untrustworthy content, and compromised accounts. Bellack stated:
“I’m excited to bring great people who care deeply about the Internet to the lab – both to convene here for our programs and to work here full-time. We have unique opportunities to learn from each other and invent together, and I look forward to being part of that values-driven and hopeful work with the rest of the team at the Berkman Klein Center.”
ASML is hiring, and those interested in applying should email asml@cyber.harvard.edu.