The Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership (CPL) has named Matt Segneri as the center’s new executive director.
“I am delighted to share the news that Matt has agreed to join CPL at this exciting time of growth and transition for the center,” said Emma Bloomberg Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and CPL Co-Director Anthony Foxx.
“Matt is a compassionate servant leader who models the kind of principled, effective leadership that is at the core of CPL’s mission.”
With more than twenty years of experience across the public, private, and non-profit sectors, Segneri has most recently served as Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs since 2020. He will assume his role at CPL in January 2025.
"I couldn't be more excited to join the CPL team and work alongside an exceptional group of students, alumni, and faculty and staff colleagues committed to the common good," said Segneri. "Inspiring and enhancing public leadership is more important than ever, and I'm thrilled to support the next generation of leaders across government, politics, civil society, and business."
Biography
Matt Segneri is the Bruce and Bridgitt Evans Executive Director of the Harvard Innovation Labs, which includes the Student i-lab, Alumni Launch Lab, and Pagliuca Harvard Life Lab. He oversees the i-lab’s strategy and operations and acts as the primary liaison to the i-lab’s key stakeholders and the local, national, and global innovation communities.
He has 20+ years of leadership experience in organizations of different sizes and stages of development across the public, private, and non-profit sectors. Prior to joining the Harvard Innovation Labs, he was the Director of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative. During that time, he served as co-lead of the HBS New Venture Competition and also played a lead role in developing the proposal that established the Bloomberg Harvard City Leadership Initiative.
Previously, he was a senior leader on the Government Innovation team at Bloomberg Philanthropies. He co-led the inaugural Mayors Challenge, a $9 million competition to inspire American cities to develop bold solutions to common challenges, and oversaw initiatives on cross-sector collaboration and innovation teams around the world. In addition, he served as a senior advisor to Boston Mayor Tom Menino and focused on innovation and entrepreneurship, service and civic engagement, and safety and security. He also led projects at the Monitor Group and worked in the Special Advisor Program at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
He is a first-generation college student and holds an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard College and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He was recognized by the Boston Business Journal as one of Boston’s “40 Under 40” and the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce as one of Boston’s “Ten Outstanding Young Leaders.” He is the Vice Chair of the National Board of Directors for Generation Citizen and serves as an advisor to New Politics and Project 351. He lives in Newton with his wife and three children.