Paul Zane Pilzer (born January 17, 1954) is an American economist, New York Times best-selling author,[1] and social entrepreneur.

He has written 13 books, the founder of six companies, and has been profiled in more than 100 publications including on the front page of The Wall Street Journal.

[4] Pilzer began developing Economic Alchemy in 1975 as a graduate student at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania when he theologically could not accept his professor's views that God had created a world of growing population but limited resources.

From 1999 to 2014 wrote five books on the economics of obesity, health insurance, preventative medicine, and wellness.

[10][11] In 2003, the front page of the Sunday New York Times referred to Pilzer as "the Reagan administration economist turned wellness guru.

[15] He was an adjunct professor at New York University (1979–2000), where he served as chairman of the Department of Real Estate Finance.

[19] Pilzer was employed by Citibank (1976–1981), where he worked in EFT payment technology, government affairs and equity real estate investments.

He wrote on the cover of his thesis: "One day this technology will be used to affordably bring the best teacher of every subject to every student.

[27][28] By 2016 Zane Prep had opened ten Zaniac Learning Center locations and Pilzer and the company were featured in national publications ranging from The Boston Globe[29] to CNBC[30] to U.S. News & World Report.

On May 11, 2016, Pilzer gave a Keynote Address at the University of Pennsylvania entitled "Where's the Uber of Education Technology?

ZaneHealth helps employers transfer the health insurance risks of their employees to the federal government and has been the subject of front-page articles in The Wall Street Journal[3] USA Today,[38] and The New York Times.

[44][45] Pilzer visited the former Soviet Union in 1969 as a high school chess player and lectured on economic issues at Moscow State University from 1983 to 1989.