Jason Halbert, PsyD

I’ve spent my life working to understand the motivational levers of the most interesting and extreme people on this planet. I’ve recruited spies, hired 4,000 people at Snapchat, interrogated terrorists, interviewed over 200 violent criminals, assembled company boards, led jury selection, and psychologically profiled world leaders and megacap investors.

Throughout this journey, I’ve been privy to a wide spectrum of behavior and archetypes, from our country’s finest patriots and disruptive technology executives to some of the most violent people to ever exist. I’ve learned a lot about humanity and built tremendous empathy for different cultures around the world.

In sum, I believe the single most important investment we can make in connecting with people is to commit to deeply understanding what really matters to them. It’s not until we appreciate the values, beliefs, inclinations, and biases of others are we able to build durable, meaningful relationships.

I am passionate about what I do because I love studying human motivation in order to better understand why we make the decisions we make.

Behavioral Scientist

Summary

Jason G. Halbert, PsyD is a behavioral scientist with more than twenty years of experience in the fields of persuasion, influence, assessment, and personnel selection. He holds a doctorate and two master’s degrees in psychology. He has applied his tradecraft as a technology executive, military officer, and judicial system legal consultant. Dr. Halbert’s career has exposed him to a wide spectrum of human dynamics in a variety of settings and cultures around the world.

Technology Executive

As an early executive at Snap Inc. (Snapchat), Dr. Halbert helped shape the company during its hyper-growth phase as the Vice President of People and the senior advisor to Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy, the founders of Snapchat. He expanded Snapchat from one-hundred employees to approximately 4,000 over five years, helping lead the company through its initial public offering.

Dr. Halbert was initially hired at Snap Inc. as the Director of Special Projects. In this role, he helped lead corporate intelligence, market atmospherics, international expansion, and the creation of the first advertising sales team. He was quickly promoted to Vice President, Recruiting before receiving another promotion to Vice President, People and Global Security in 2017. As VP of People, Dr. Halbert led all human resources, recruiting operations, diversity initiatives, people analytics, compensation, benefits, learning & development, and global security.

During this hyper-growth phase of Snapchat, his team grew from a few locations to expanding to thirty cities in more than fifteen countries. Investing heavily in diversity, his team achieved diversity hiring metrics well above industry standards in technology.

As a prior military officer in the special operations community, Dr. Halbert assumed responsibility for leading all of Snap Inc.’s Global Security. He built a culture of security based on risk assessment, risk mitigation and controls, and a shared mission to protect Snap’s people, property, brand, and reputation. In this role, Dr. Halbert led physical security, security technology, guard force management, employee training and awareness, access control, business continuity, crisis management, disaster recovery, EHS, intelligence, enterprise security risk management, investigations, and insider threat.

Legal & Crisis Consultant

Prior to Snap Inc., Dr. Halbert served as a legal and crisis consultant for several Fortune 50 companies. Dr. Halbert specialized in jury behavior and decision-making on civil cases involving intellectual property, product liability, and professional malpractice in this role. Through focus groups, mock trials, and surveys, he conducted empirically-based research to assist litigation, jury selection, and case evaluation. Much of Dr. Halbert’s pro bono time is dedicated to consulting and training many of the nation’s finest law enforcement agencies.

Armed Forces

During his time in the military, Dr. Halbert achieved the rank of Major as he served as an Operational Psychologist in the United States Army Special Operations Command, holding a Top-Secret security clearance. During his eight years with the Department of Defense, Dr. Halbert was honored to serve the country among several classified units, deploying four times in support of the Global War on Terrorism.

As the operational psychologist assigned to the special operations community, he contributed to the national security and national defense domains. He provided tactical, operational, and strategic consultation in an array of efforts including hostage negotiation, criminal investigation, intelligence collection, interrogation, influence operations, and indirect assessments.

Dr. Halbert is a recipient of the F. Edward Hebert Military Scholarship and was selected as Doctoral Intern of the Year. He was also awarded Junior Officer of the Year by the United States Army Surgeon General and received the Medical Service Corps Award of Excellence. Dr. Halbert received the Bronze Star for combat operations in Afghanistan.

Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Halbert practiced as a clinical psychologist trained in forensic psychology. As a clinician, he has provided treatment or evaluation to over 500 violent criminals, 40 serial criminals, and 162 convicted murderers. He completed his doctoral dissertation on Psychopathy and Violence Prediction.

Personal Life

Dr. Halbert has a strong passion for sports and its role in leadership and personal development.

After returning to his hometown of Fairhope, Alabama after five years as a technology executive at Snap Inc., he shifted his focus toward making an impact in youth sports, coaching eleven teams over the past three years.

Dr. Halbert is a steward of land and animals. He owns a 1,000 acre farm in southern Alabama used for hunting excursions and a youth development academy dedicated to training kids in the areas of leadership, decision making, and survival.