Paul Jansen
Adjunct Professor
Paul Jansen is an adjunct professor at the Haas School of Business, where he teaches two courses, Social Sector Solutions and Nonprofit Boards and Governance. His research interests include multi-sector careers and nonprofit governance. He worked for 25 years at McKinsey & Company focusing on strategy and performance improvement projects in the energy, natural resources, utility and nonprofit sectors. In 2001 he co-founded the Firm’s global Nonprofit Practice. At McKinsey Paul led research initiatives that resulted in the reports covering various aspects of the nonprofit sector including: The Dynamic Nonprofit Board; For Nonprofits, Time is Money; The Nonprofit Sectors $100 Billion Opportunity; And The Winner Is- Capturing the Promise of Philanthropic Prizes.
Paul has been active with nonprofit boards for over 30 years. Paul served on the board of the San Francisco Zoological Society from 1995 to 2010, where at various times he served as board chair, and chair of the exhibits, nominating, finance and strategic planning committees. He served on the Supervisory Board of CARE International, a confederation of 16 nonprofits around the world dedicated to reducing poverty and social injustice for 8 years serving on the finance/risk and CEO review committees. He also served on the board of CARE USA for 13 years including 4 years as board chair. He has also served on the advisory boards of nonprofits in the water and education fields. Paul served for 5 years on the Board of Zymergen, a pre-IPO biotech company. Paul continues to serve on the board of the SCE Fund, a foundation active in youth development with programs in social-emotional learning, tech in society and youth sports.
At Haas, Paul’s research focuses on multi-sector careers (The Multi-Sector Career Arc) and on nonprofit governance. He has led the development of a survey-based tool to allow boards to assess their governance performance against best practices. He is currently leading a multi-year pilot program to test whether a new board role – Chief Governance Officer – will help nonprofits improve compliance oversight, foster the adoption of best practices, and increase the board’s impact on the nonprofit mission and performance.
Paul received a chemical engineering degree from the University of California at Berkeley and earned his MBA at the Harvard Business School.