Advancing Strategic Innovation for Interagency and Intergovernmental Affairs within 2023
From Leadership Connect
Interagency and Intergovernmental collaboration has become important in elevating the experience for citizens. When agencies and other governments’ collaboration with others begins to happen, they are able to take a step back and see best practices. By collaborating with other agencies and governments, innovation is able to happen at an expedited process which allows organizations to adapt to the speed of technology and policy change.
Tune into this webinar in order to hear from subject matter experts as they explore topics such as: best practices to achieve strategic innovation, best strategies to overcome current challenges going into 2023, and more. Listen as topic experts explore what it looks like to identify and build a strategy for government success.
Learning Objective(s)
Best practices to achieve strategic innovation through interagency collaboration
What strategies will help interagency collaboration?
What does it look like to identify and build a strategy for intergovernmental success?
How does interagency collaboration help the government overcome current challenges as they go into 2023?
Chief Public Policy Officer & Senior Vice President The Food Industry Association
Jennifer’s passion for the value of community and business associations has deep roots, emanating from her family’s ownership of three diverse small businesses in her native Knoxville, Tennessee. Here she experienced the valued camaraderie, creativity and the positive impact of trade associations–goals she has sought to achieve throughout her professional career.
Jennifer serves as Chief Public Policy Officer for FMI -the Food Industry Association overseeing FMI’s federal, state and regulatory efforts on public policy, legislative and political issues impacting the food industry. Jennifer has supported the expansion and growing complexity of the association for the past two decades that now includes retail, wholesale and manufacturing operations reflecting the full spectrum of the supply chain. She has been involved in leading successful advocacy efforts to reform the debit card marketplace; legislate and implement the Food Safety Modernization Act; and to preserve the confidentiality of business data via a U.S. Supreme Court case, FMI v. Argus Leader.
Jennifer has been recognized by the industry as a Top Woman in Grocery, 2016; and as one of The Hill’s Top Lobbyists, 2020, 2021. She was recognized in 2022 as Association Lobbyist of the Year by CEO Update.
Previously, Jennifer served as Chief of Staff to United States Congressman Spencer Bachus (AL), later Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee; Special Assistant and White House Liaison at the U.S. Department of the Treasury during President George H.W. Bush’s Administration; and a White House intern during President Ronald Reagan’s Administration. Jennifer has an undergraduate degree in Political Science and Communication from Vanderbilt University and a master’s in Government from Johns Hopkins University.
In her volunteer work, Jennifer is immediate past Chair of the Board of the Friends of the National Arboretum (2019-2021), charting a successful path for growth for the organization during an incredibly challenging time for non-profits. She is also a member of the DC Board of Directors of Common Threads providing children and families cooking and nutrition education.
David Keysor is the Chief Operating Officer of the McKeon Group. David provides a wealth of experience, vision, and knowledge to the team having spent more than 25 years as a business consultant in strategy, operations, marketing, business development, and PR for high growth companies. David has experience in crafting and influencing legislative language, as well as securing Federal funding through grants and “community projects”.
Over the years, David has been instrumental in transforming underdeveloped concepts into successful revenue generating products and services for companies such as Sprint Nextel, Siebel Systems (now Oracle), AmeriVon, and Intel Corporation. David leverages the skills and experience that made him successful in the private sector to the government sector as McKeon Group continues to expand its services and support its growing client base. David’s strength is his ability to leverage his consulting background to help McKeon Group clients effectively position themselves and create a message that resonates with members on the Hill. In addition, he works closely with clients strengthening their message through various PR and media channels.
David lives in the D.C. area with his wife Rosalie and their family after spending the last 18 years in Northern California’s Bay Area.
Director of Government Relations Department of Children and Families, State of Connecticut
Vincent Russo has worked for the Department of Children and Families since 2019. He is responsible for the development of the department’s legislative agenda and collaborates with leadership in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches to promote positive change at DCF.
Prior to his work with DCF, he spent 14 years as the manager of communications and intergovernmental relations for Probate Court Administration. He was the lead staff member in the restructuring of Probate Court system and was instrumental in the expansion of the nationally recognized Regional Children’s Probate Courts.
Vin also worked for five years in Connecticut House of Representatives where he focused on legislation concerning judicial operations, child welfare and environmental protection.
Vin graduated with a degree in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. He resides in Massachusetts with his wife and two sons.
President and Chief Executive Officer Leadership Connect
Michael is CEO of Leadership Connect and a long-time turnaround tech executive. Leadership Connect is a decision intelligence software company focused on building a more transparent, connected and data-driven public sector. The company works with over 40,000 users in government agencies, government affairs, and contracting using large datasets and algorithms to help clients make more informed and faster decisions. Prior to joining his current company, he created one of the main media & data services corporate bankers and lawyers used for public company stakeholder mapping and M&A intelligence (sold to Euromoney PLC). Prior to his work in corporate banking, he founded the hedge fund team at Thomson Reuters creating data-driven services for quant-focused, high frequency trading, and global-macro hedge funds. There, he learned the importance of large, complex datasets coming together to identify anomalies used for trading alpha. Prior to Thomson Reuters, he was a Product Director for AT&T Solutions in its web services business working with banks to outsource their networks to “the cloud”. And, prior to AT&T, he was CTO for an offshore brokerage firm in the Turks & Caicos. He grew up in Canada and is a veteran of 5 political campaigns and interned on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, ONT. He holds a B.A. in econometrics and MBA in finance from Dalhousie University in Canada.
