Zack Exley

Male, Person

1969 –

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Who is Zack Exley?

Zack Exley is a political and technology consultant, currently employed as the Chief Revenue Officer at the Wikimedia Foundation. Previously, he worked at ThoughtWorks, a global IT consultancy. He is also the Co-Founder and President of the New Organizing Institute, a progressive political technology training organization.

In 2004, he was the Director of Online Communications and Organizing on John Kerry's presidential campaign and, according to British press reports, he directed Internet operations for the UK Labour party's re-election campaign in 2005. In both cases, the campaigns' opponents attacked Exley as a controversial figure, hoping to make his hiring a campaign issue.

Exley was Organizing Director at MoveOn.org during the group's campaign to prevent the Iraq War, and during its controversial involvement with the Dean campaign. He was criticized then too, for "rigging" the "MoveOn Primary" in favor of Dean—a charge the group rejected.

Prior to working for MoveOn, Exley created the political parody website, GWBush.com, as well as cnndn.com, a site that parodied financial reporting. Both sites attracted legal action by the 2000 Bush presidential campaign and CNN, respectively. CNN successfully closed cnndn.com. The Bush attack led to increased publicity for Exley's site and set legal precedent that has allowed political websites to operate without FEC regulation. In response to GWBush.com, George W. Bush—then a presidential candidate—called Exley a "garbage man" and said he believed the website should be forced to be shut down, explaining "There ought to be limits to freedom."

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Born
Dec 5, 1969

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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