Zachary Bookman

Zachary Bookman is an American businessperson. He is co-founder and CEO of OpenGov, a company that sells cloud software to local governments and state agencies.

Early life and education

Bookman grew up in Cabin John, Maryland outside of Washington, D.C. Bookman holds a BA from the University of Maryland, a JD from the Yale Law School, and an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School. In 2007-2008, Bookman received a Fulbright Fellowship to study transparency and corruption in Mexico.

Career

Bookman served as a law clerk to the Honorable Sandra S. Ikuta on the United States [Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit|U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit], later working as a trial litigator at Keker, [Van Nest & Peters LLP|Keker, Van Nest & Peters] in San Francisco. He then worked as an advisor on the Anti-Corruption Task Force at the International Security Assistance Force headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Bookman co-founded OpenGov in 2012 with Joe Lonsdale. 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. In 2021 Bookman took a cross-country bike ride from the San Francisco Bay to the Chesapeake Bay to visit with local government leaders.

Personal life

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. In March 2020, Bookman filed a lawsuit seeking damages over the non-refundable expedition fee, alleging the guide had canceled the trip for reasons unrelated to safety. In December 2021, the case was settled with Bookman agreeing through a stipulated judgment that he is not entitled to a refund for the trip.