Zachary Bookman (born 1980) is an American government technology entrepreneur. He is co-founder and CEO of OpenGov, a company that sells cloud software to local governments and state agencies. Prior to founding OpenGov, Bookman served as Advisor to the Anti‑Corruption Task Force in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Bookman holds a JD from the Yale Law School and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. He graduated as valedictorian of his class from the University of Maryland[1] and is an alumnus of the Sidwell Friends School in Washington, D.C. In 2007-2008, Bookman received a Fulbright Fellowship to study transparency and corruption in Mexico.[2]
Bookman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, later working as a trial litigator at Keker, Van Nest & Peters in San Francisco.
Bookman served as Advisor to U.S. Army General H.R. McMaster (2011-2012), on the Combined Joint Interagency Task Force (Shafafiyat) at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan. Bookman helped lead a Rule of Law team on the task force that worked with the Afghan Department of Justice on corruption cases, such as the bribery scandal at the Dawood National Military Hospital.[3]
Bookman co-founded OpenGov in 2012 with Joe Lonsdale and Stanford University technologists.[4] OpenGov received investments from Thrive Capital starting in 2013, and in 2017 Bookman participated in a White House summit organized by Jared Kushner, the brother of Thrive Capital's founder.[5]
Bookman grew up in Cabin John, Maryland outside of Washington, D.C.[6]
In 2021 Bookman took a cross-country bike ride from the San Francisco Bay to the Chesapeake Bay to visit with local government leaders.[7]
In September 2019, Bookman joined an expedition with mountain guide Garrett Madison to attempt a late season ascent of Mount Everest. The guide called off the attempt while the group was in base camp, which Madison described as a decision based on dangerous conditions.[8] In March 2020, Bookman filed a lawsuit seeking damages over the non-refundable expedition fee,[9] alleging the guide had canceled the trip for reasons unrelated to safety.[10] In December 2021, the case was settled with Bookman agreeing through a stipulated judgement that he is not entitled to a refund for the trip.