Jack Leslie is former Chairman of Weber Shandwick, a leading global communications network with offices in major markets around the world. A strategic communications executive, political consultant and international development activist, Jack brings a long track record of helping clients integrate global political, economic, cultural and communication trends to create innovative, forward-looking strategy and plans. Over his career, he has served as senior counselor to many major corporations, governments and non-profit organizations. 

Jack has a longstanding involvement in healthcare and global health issues.  In the 1990s, he advised the pharmaceutical industry on a number of reputational and regulatory issues, and has counseled industry leaders, including Pfizer, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co, and Bristol Myers Squibb.  He serves as an advisor to the World Health Organization (WHO) and The Global Fund, as well as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.  Jack is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) and is a senior fellow at the Duke Global Health Institute. More recently, he has been an advisor to the COVID Collaborative and has been active in seeking equity in access to vaccines and therapies.  He is a Distinguished Professor at Georgetown University and on the board of advisors of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. 

Jack was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2003 to serve on the Board of Directors of the US African Development Foundation.  He was named Chairman of the USADF Board by President Barack Obama in 2009 and was re-confirmed for the position by the U.S. Senate in 2016. Jack is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, former Chairman of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid, and of the Ron Brown Scholar Program.  He is also a member of the Water.org Board, the Board of the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, a trustee of the Circumnavigators Foundation, and former Chairman of the Board of USA for UNHCR (the UN refugee agency). 

Jack began his career as an aide to Senator Edward Kennedy, serving as his political director and as Executive Director of the Fund for a Democratic Majority.  He joined Sawyer Miller Group, a prominent political consulting firm, in 1983 and became president of the company in 1985.  During the 1980’s and 1990’s, Jack provided political counsel to dozens of presidential and statewide campaigns in the United States, Latin America, Asia and Africa. 

Jack is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.