Matthew Dowd

During the past twenty-five years, Matthew Dowd has helped shape strategies and campaigns for CEOs, corporations, foundations, governments, candidates, and presidents.  His work has earned him AAPC Strategist of the Year honours, and his New York Times bestseller Applebee’s America has been widely read by political, business, and religious leaders interested in connecting with a changing public.

Matthew has served as Chief Campaign Strategist for the Bush-Cheney'04 Presidential Campaign and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and was on the staff of a Democratic Senator and two Democratic Representatives.   He has counselled scores of high-profile organizations – from AT&T to the NBA – on marketing, advertising, research, public issues, and advocacy.  

Nowadays he is Partner of Vianovo, Inc., analyst for ABC News and columnist for The National Journal.

Joe Trippi

Joe Trippi, the man who "reinvented campaigning" according to The New Republic, has been pointed out by many experts as the man who taught the world how to organise and mobilise the polítical base through the Internet.

His participation in Howard Dean's presidential campaign in 2004 is, to many, the role model of online communications. Trippi, whose career took off in 1980 in the presidential race of Edward M. Kennedy, set the standards for online political participation, a concept that many politicians are still struggling to understand.

Joe Trippi has advised many world leaders outside the United States, such as Tony Blair or Romano Prodi, as well as some of the most important international companies like MasterCard, IBM or Toyota. 

Michael Dolley

Michael Dolley is the Deputy Director of Campaigning for the Conservative Party in United Kingdom. As one of the UK’s most experienced electoral campaign professionals, his role was central during the 2010 general election of David Cameron.

Furthermore, he is former Regional Director and European Parliamentary Candidate and provides campaigning advice to political parties across the globe.

James Aldrete

James Aldrete is President and Creative Director of Message Audience & Presentation (MAP), a political communications company that serves Democratic, progressive and social causes in the United States.

In 2008, James Aldrete served as a member of the Obama media team, leading their Latino media efforts.

Prior to founding MAP, he served as Deputy Press Secretary to the Ann the Ann Richards for Governor campaign, and as creative director for Gold Communications, an affiliate of Public Strategies, Inc.

César Martínez

President of MAS Consulting Group, Cesar is one of the top media advisors in the US and Latin America with more than 20 years of experience marketing, political advertising and broadcast news. During the 2008 Presidential Elections, MAS Consulting was the Hispanic advertising agency of record for the McCain-Palin campaign, where César was in charge of producing all the Hispanic media materials for Senator McCain.

He served as Hispanic Creative Director/Producer for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign and was a member of the Strategy/Media team for Bush-Cheney 2004. He has also served as Hispanic Creative Director for Jeb Bush 2002 and Rick Perry 2002 Texas Governor Election Campaign. César’s experience also includes campaigns in Mexico, Latin America and Spain.

Martínez is the recipient of numerous prestigious advertising awards including two Clio, EFFIE, Telly, Mobius as well as Addy Awards. Additionally he was named “Creative All Star” by Adweek. César has been a guest speaker in many  international forums including George Washington University, Harvard University, Universidad Europea de Madrid (Spain), Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca (Spain) and Tec de Monterrey (Mexico) to name a few.

Daniel Ureña

Daniel Ureña is General Manager of MAS Consulting Spain. Based in Madrid, Ureña currently advises different clients from political, institutional and corporate side. In 2008 Ureña was awarded as Rising Star by Campaings & Elections Magazine, the leading professional magazine in the US about political campaigns. He was the first Spanish consultant who receives this recognition.

Ureña is Professor of Political Science in the Pontificial University of Comillas (ICADE, Madrid).Ureña is an Op-ed contributor of daily newspaper ABC and has appeared on national TV, radio and print Spanish media as an expert in political communication and public affairs. Since 2002, he runs the political communication programs of the George Washington University in Spain.

Member of the Executive Board of the European Association of Political Consultants (EAPC) and the Editorial Board of the Spanish lenguage edition of Politics magazine.

Thomas Hofer

Thomas Hofer is managing partner at H & P Public Affairs in Vienna. He works there as a political consultant and lobbyist.

Hofer received a doctoral degree in communication science from the University of Vienna and is a graduate of the Graduate School of Political Management (George Washington University, Washington, D.C.). F

or seven years he worked as a political journalist for the leading Austrian news magazine “Profil.” He also published various books, e.g. about the business of campaign consulting in Austria.

Hofer is a frequent commentator of politics on Austrian news stations and teaches courses on campaign management and lobbying at two universities of applied science in Vienna.

Felipe Noguera

He is the President of Felipe Noguera Consultores (FNC SA), which is specialized in political consulting, technology and training in electoral campaigns and political and social communication. He has been consultant for more than 100 campaigns in various Latin American countries, and also has experience in the U.S., Europe and Africa. Furthermore, he has advised twelve state leaders in their communications strategy, and companies and business associations in several countries in the region. In the last five years, he has also advised various entities of the Argentine area.

Mathematician, graduate of the University of Oxford (England), with postgraduate studies in Economics and Sociology at the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella, professor of Strategy at the Argentine agricultural program leaders (CEIDA). As Eisenhower Exchange Fellow, he developed an studies programme on public policymaking in the U.S., where he also participated in the electoral campaign of 1988. Between 1982 and 1998, he was Managing Partner of Mora y Araujo, Noguera y Asociados, a research and political, social and market consultancy firm. Prior to that, he was consultant in the firm (today) Accenture.

First Vice-President of the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC), and first foreigner on winning the Pollie Awards of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC), both in electoral campaigns (2001 ) and Business Communication (2004). In 1996 he co-founded ALACOP - Latin American Association of Political Consultants - being elected as its first president.

Felipe Benítez

Benítez is the Account Director of Fenton’s global issues team, specializing in Latin America. He brings nine years of strategic communications experience to his work with the Government of Ecuador, the Center for Economic Justice and International Law (CEJIL) and ¡Excelencia! in Education.

He attended the Copenhagen Conference on Global Climate Change with the foreign minister of Ecuador to promote the Ecuadoran government’s proposal to protect the Andean region rainforest and create eco-tourism as an alternative to drilling for oil in lands owned and occupied by indigenous people. His other clients include the Center for Justice and International Law, Amazon Watch, the Center for International and Environmental Law and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Latin America Project and Mexico Institute.

Prior to joining Fenton, Benítez specialized in media relations and outreach to the U.S. Latino community on behalf of federal government agencies including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, National Institutes of Health, Administration on Aging, U.S Department of Health and Human Services, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency. On the local level, he has worked with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments and officials in Montgomery County, Maryland. 

Ken Feltman

Gary Nordlinger

Gary Nordlinger is the president of Nordlinger Associates, which has provided political strategy, analysis and communication strategies for hundreds of public officials, associations, unions and corporations in 28 countries on six continents. He is an expert in the use of quantitative research for the winning design of communication strategies. He has been rated as one of the 4 best media consultants in the nation by Campaigns & Elections magazine and has won over 120 awards. 

Recognized expert in survey research, Nordlinger has been Sorensen Fellow of Political Leadership at University of Virginia (2004) and has also been adjunct professor at American University, George Mason University's Graduate School of Public Policy, George Washington and Florida International University.

He founded the American Association of Political Consultants (ALACOP). And he has been Vice President of the American Association of Political Consultants (AAPC) and Director of the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC).

Bo Krogvig

Bo Krogvig served as director of information and campaigning in the Swedish Social Democratic party for 10 years from 1984 to 1994. Between 1994 and 1996, he was elected county council commissioner and served as a member of the government of the Stockholm province.

Mr. Krogvig has served as political consultant in 36 countries on 5 continents. He has directly assisted more than twenty heads of state, prime ministers and leaders of opposition in strategy and communications. Between 1995 and 1997, he was the President of the International Association of Political Consultants (IAPC).

Jan Juul Christensen

Jan Juul Christensen is today working as Managing Partner at the consultant company Rud Pedersen A/S. He has recently worked at KODA which is a Danish society that administers Danish and international copyrights for composers, songwriters and music publishers, when their musical works are performed in public.

Before that Jan worked as a Senior Consultant at Radius Kommunikation and has worked with media and counselling for several years with particular emphasis on political relations. He worked as campaign manager to the former Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in connection with his election to the European Parliament in 2004, where Nyrup gained the highest number of personal votes for any Member of the European Parliament. He has in addition been employed as head of the Social Democratic Party’s press office from 2000 to 2003 and prior to that, worked as editor of public opinion at the newspaper ‘Dagbladet Aktuelt’.

He has a Master of Social Science in Public Relations from the University of Roskilde in Denmark and is the co-author of the book "Back to freedom".

Yehonatan Abelson

Yehonatan Abelson has a Master´s Degree and is academic associate of The George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management, and is founding partner of BIA Consulting and publisher associate to the Spanish edition of Campaigns & Elections.

He has worked in several campaigns in Argentina, such as the Mauricio Macri´s running for congress in 2005 and for Buenos Aires Mayor in 2007, the presidencial campaign of Paraguay in 2008, and the 2010 campaing for Veracruz governor.

He has been project manager in one of the most important consultants of the Democrat Party for the 2010 mid-term´s.

He has been Speechwriter first, and vice director of communications later of the president of the legislature in Buenos Aires and consultant for the vice-secretary of government of the Buenos Aires province.

Marco Cacciotto

Marco Cacciotto is an expert in political marketing, public affairs and issues management. He has been a political consultant since 1994, one of the top in Italy, and gives strategic advice to parties, candidates, public administrations, interest groups and labour unions.

He has advised more than 40 campaigns at national and local level. He teaches “Political Marketing and Public Affairs” at the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University of Milano and at Master Maspi of IULM University of Milan. General Secretary of Aicop (the Italian Association of Political and Public Affairs Consultants), he is founder of "Public - strategie per il consenso", network of professionals and firms specialized in public interest strategies, communication and research.

Necati Özkan

Necati Özkan is the founder and president of Öykü Advertising Agency, a full service agency with offices in Istanbul and Ankara. He graduated from Military College and studied law at the Ankara University. He started his career as a political consultant in 1983, during general elections. He has served as a political consultant and as a campaign leader for Socialdemocrats.

He concentrated in developing the communication strategy, organizing the campaign task forces and understanding the voters. He has also worked for several politicians and mayors. He is a lecturer in the Communication Faculty of I²stanbul Maltepe University. Mr. Özkan has published tens of articles about political marketing and also has a book, titled ‘ Election Winner Campaigns’, that analizes the successful political campaigns of Turkey. He is a member of IAA and IAPC.

Mario Tascón

He is a Journalist specialized in development and management of digital media. Back in 1996, he set up the digital edition of the newspaper El Mundo: elmundo.es. It became from the beginning a reference digital media. Since 2000, and for seven years, he was the Operating Officer of the Prisa Group´s internet branch, directing sites like elpais.com, the economic journal Cinco Días', the sport newpaper AS', Cadena SER radio's, the music radio 40 Principales' and the tv channel Cuatro's, among others.

In 2008, he created Diximedia Digital, a company of new internet prokects, as the 233grados.com blog, about the future of mass media, and the journalistic site lainformacion.com.

He has been consultant for more than fifteen international communication media, (from El Corriere della Sera to La Nacion) and is Professor of the FNPI of García Marquez. He es also Managing Partner of the communication consultant Prodigioso Volcan.

Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí

Communication Consultant, he is part of the EAPC (European Association of Political Consultants), ACOP (Political Communication Association), DIRCOM, and the Catalan Society for Communication and Political Strategies.

Currently he is consultant on public, private and social communication strategies, to state and private enterprises, politicians, and political parties, electoral campaigns, foundations, associations, universities, entities and institutions.

He has been writer and speaker for the last ten years on themes related to his domains of expertise and he is a regular professor on Political Communication post-grad studies and Masters.

Ramón Salaverría

Ramón Salaverría has a PhD in journalism and is Director of the Journalism Projects Department of the University of Navarra, where he teaches the subjects Specialized Journalism and Information Technologies.

He is the President of the Journalism Studies Section at the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA). He is also teacher of cyberjournalism on several post-grad national and international studies, and he participates on various spanish and european research projects about the impact of internet on the Mass media.

Borja Bergareche

Borja Bergareche has a Degree in Laws by the University of Deusto and a Master Degree on International Relations by the Columbia University.

He started working as lawyer at Iberunion Legal, and he became later the foreign and constitutional affairs consultant at the European Parliament. After that he started journalism and worked in several spanish newspapers, being among them El País and El Correo.

He is vice-director of the ABC and works as european consultant of the New-York based journalist´s protection committee. Furthermore, he is press correspondent in London.

Rosalía Lloret

Rosalía Lloret is Managing Director for Digital Development of Unidad Editorial, the company that runs El Mundo, Marca, Expansión and other front line Spanish Newspapers, and Board member since June 2010.

Previously, she was Director of Interactive Media at the RTVE Corp. and part of its direction commitee. It was there where she developped the new internet strategy, mobile phones and other Public radio and tv plattforms.

She has a degree in Journalism by the Universidad Complutense of Madrid, and has three master degrees: International Relations, (Ortega y Gasset Institute) Journalism (El País school) and Global Politics (London School of Economics).

Sebastián Muriel

He graduated as Telecomm Engineer by the ETSIT Madrid Politechnical University in 1996 and made a program for Finances et the Enterprise Institute, and the Executive MBA at the IESE from 2004 to 2006.

He is currently the VP of Corporate Affairs of the Spanish social network Tuenti. Since end of November 2006 and until February 2011, he was Managing Director of the entity Red.es, which aims to boost the society to the internet. He recognizes himself as a passionate of his work. He has also been the Vicepresident Executive of Inteco and is part of it´s Board. He works with several associations and foundations.

He started working for Hewlett Packard in 1995, and then went to Lucent Technologies in 1997 on the microelectronics division. In 2001, he became  part of the estrategic and business consultant team for Price Waterhouse Coopers until August 2006.

Carlos Salas

Carlos Salas is the director of lainformacion.com, the general information website with more audience in Spain. Previously, the renowned Venezuelan journalist had worked for the web regularly.

Salas has run newspapers such as El Economista and Metro and magazines such as the monthly Capital. He started his career in Actualidad Económica and has been also editor of El Mundo. Since its launching, he has written a successful blog in lainformacion.com and another in the Yahoo finance website.