David Fairman

David Fairman is Managing Director at the Consensus Building Institute, Associate Director of the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, and Lecturer in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning. He leads CBI’s International Development practice, working with multilateral development agencies, governments, and other national partners to institutionalize collaborative approaches to planning, policy and project decision making. In the U.S., he helps stakeholders craft policies and strategies in the domains of national security, energy and environmental policy, low-income housing, criminal justice and child welfare. In the private sector, he works with business leaders and senior staff to define and execute negotiation strategies and build negotiation skills. David is Senior Mediator on the rosters of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution. He is also a founding board member of the Alliance for Peacebuilding, board member of the Sustainability Challenge Foundation, founding Director of CBI’s Workable Peace program, and life member of the Council on Foreign Relations.