Navigating a Changing World

As the world in which the public affairs profession operates was undergoing tremendous change, Pinkham also realized the Council “could provide the expertise to help members navigate that world. The pace of change has only accelerated in recent years, making the need for this kind of help increasingly vital. And Ken Gross became a primary member of a roster that has since then only grown.”

With the challenges that public affairs professionals face becoming more complex, the Council has responded, offering resources that few comparable organizations can make available. Pinkham’s own background was on the communications side of the profession, so he could see areas where others with similar career paths would need guidance.

Over the years, he helped build out the Council’s expertise in campaign finance and PAC management; strategic philanthropy; local, state and federal government relations; corporate social responsibility; global public affairs; policy communications; and digital advocacy.

Sometimes this involved locating experts in various disciplines, developing relationships with them and finding ways to make their expertise available to Council members. For example, the Council recruited Nathan Gonzales, the editor and publisher of Inside Elections, cohost of the Inside Elections Podcast and an elections analyst for CQ Roll Call, who speaks at Council events and writes a monthly column for Impact. “Nathan’s understanding of American elections and the forces that drive them is second to none,” Pinkham says.

Real PAC Experience

In many companies, public affairs activities “are now understood to be part of overall enterprise risk management (ERM), which, until recent years, was confined largely to legal, operational and financial risks — disclosure of lawsuits, for example,” Pinkham says. “Today, thanks to efforts Council members have made to educate their own corporate leadership, ERM covers political and reputational risks. And reputational risks are, of course, often political in nature. And now we not only have developed relationships with experts in all of these disciplines, we have made a point to bring subject-matter experts onto our full-time staff. At one time, we might have had two or three experts on staff, where we now have six or more.”

Before joining the Council as its senior director of public affairs practice, Kristin Brackemyre served as senior manager, PAC and political affairs, at the Consumer Technology Association, where, among other responsibilities, she ran CTAPAC. Before that, Brackemyre was manager, political affairs, at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Part of her duties there was developing solicitation and disbursement campaigns for PAC receipts of more than $3 million per election cycle. “Kristin has run a major PAC,” Pinkham says. “There might have been a time when the Council could direct a member with a question to an expert on PAC management, but now we have two people on staff — Kristin and Tori Ellington — who are experts.”

“Doug encourages the practice team staff at the Council to be innovative in how we offer guidance to members,” Brackemyre says. “We answer questions and give advice in a variety of ways – phone, email, on our Council Connect member portal, and of course at our signature events when we gather as a community. Members often tell us it’s reassuring to know an answer to a question is just a phone call away.”

And this expertise is by no means confined to the American political scene. In September 2013, the Council opened an office in Brussels, Belgium, to establish its European presence. The managing director of the Brussels office, João Sousa, is responsible for program development, member relations and strategic planning in Europe. He also heads the association’s entire global public affairs practice.

Before joining the Council, Sousa had worked for the European Union, leading communications teams operating in Africa, Brussels and the Western Balkans. With postgraduate degrees from the University of Lisbon and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Sousa “brings a depth of experience and a level of expertise in global public affairs that is unsurpassed,” Pinkham says. “And in an increasingly interconnected world, this is essential.”

The AI Challenge

The world has changed, and the Council has changed with it. “We will continue to evolve, and with the expertise we have assembled, I believe we are well positioned to help member companies succeed,” Pinkham says. “A pressing concern, of course, is how the public affairs profession will be affected by AI, and the findings of the Council’s annual Trends in European Public Affairs suggest that our members — with our help, I like to think — will make the transition as smoothly and effectively as any other profession.”

A majority of survey respondents (70%) said they believe AI tools will be adopted by most European organizations for their public affairs and communications work in 2025, a substantial increase over last year, when only 46% held this belief. “What struck me is that only 20% of European corporate executives said they are not using AI in their work, which indicates the vast majority are already doing so,” Pinkham points out. “This suggests a level of confidence on their part as we all make this important transition.”

Communicating in a ‘Hybrid’ World

Even so, Pinkham is convinced that success in public affairs depends on people and their relationships. “We adopted the tools of digital advocacy, for example, but personal relationships have never been more important, and these tools have simply made it possible for us to communicate — person to person — more effectively,” he says, “especially in a ‘hybrid’ world.”

Nathan Gonzales seems to support this conclusion, at least based on his own experience when his relationship with the Council was just beginning. “When I first met Doug Pinkham, I was on a panel with Charlie Cook,” Gonzales recalls. “This was in February 2015, and I was a little intimidated back then to be sharing the same platform with a legend. But if Doug didn’t think I belonged up there, he never mentioned that to me!”

Pinkham supported recruiting Gonzales, who has since spoken at numerous Council events and, like Gross, has been accessible to members who seek his expertise. “I owe a lot to Doug and the Council team,” Gonzales says. “They always believed in me and gave me the courage to take risks. Doug helped elevate me to the next level of my career. If I can be of help to Council members, that’s great. But in a sense, the members don’t have me to thank for that, they have Doug. I have never forgotten that.”

Learn more about the Council’s team of experts.

Read the other articles on thought leadership and executive education in our legacy series on innovations during the nearly 28 years that Doug Pinkham has been president of the Public Affairs Council.