Since 2005, I have worked as a public relations and business consultant for not-for-profit organizations and Fortune 500 companies. I am also a freelance writer, with articles, opinions and reviews published in Minnesota Monthly, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Rain Taxi and Human Resource Executive.
From 1997 through 2004, I worked as an executive at Ovations, a UnitedHealth Group company focused on health and well-being for people age 50 and older. During my tenure with Ovations, I held a number of leadership positions in such diverse areas as communications, public relations, public policy, client relations, operations, business integration and sales. I was originally hired to help manage a $3 billion business relationship with AARP and was part of the team that branded Ovations in 1999. As the principal press spokesperson, I spearheaded the company’s public relations strategies for new product launches, market expansions, mergers and acquisitions. I authored the company’s media crisis plan, provided media training to Ovations executives and was interviewed by dozens of newspapers and periodicals, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
I led the integration of Lifemark Corporation, a $200 million Medicaid business acquired by Ovations in 2001, and managed the transfer of the $1.8 billion Medicare and Medicaid managed care business from UnitedHealthcare to Ovations in 2002. In 2003, I was asked to create and lead a new Revenue and Recovery department, which was successful in recovering more than $50 million in lost revenue and overpayments to physicians and hospitals. In 2004, I created and led Ovations Group Retiree Solutions, which provides products and services to employer-based retiree programs.
Prior to my work at Ovations, I served as a political appointee at the U.S. Department of Justice. From 1993-1994, I was Deputy Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs, worked with state and local law enforcement to gather support for the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill and the Assault Weapons Ban, and regularly staffed Attorney General Janet Reno on issues related to state and local law enforcement. In 1995, I worked with the Corporation for National Service on public safety programs and served as Counsel in Justice’s Office of Legislative Affairs in 1996, representing the Department on various matters before Congress.
In 1992, I was on the Little Rock staff of then-Governor Bill Clinton’s Presidential campaign. During the primaries, I gathered superdelegate support for the Governor’s candidacy, and after the nomination was clinched, staffed the Platform committee hearings and the Democratic National Convention in New York. In the general election, I coordinated all surrogate activity in the Northeast states. During the Presidential transition, I helped shepherd the nominations of Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, CIA Director James Woolsey and U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor through the Senate confirmation process.
A lawyer by training, I am licensed to practice law in Maine, Massachusetts and New York. I received my law degree from George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., and graduated cum laude with a degree in History from Boston College. I currently live in the Twin Cities with my wife and two children.
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