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Medium: What’s Next: Creating An Insights-Focused Public Affairs Shop

Medium is a new platform for me and the perfect way to share a new venture.

As of today, I am the new owner of Definers Public Affairs. I bought out my partner, Matt Rhoades, so that we could both chase new challenges. Matt is someone I’ve respected for a long time — I was his intern on the Bush-Cheney ’04 campaign and I’ve had the pleasure of working with him for over a decade now on one project or another. Together, we’ve built several great organizations and when he said he wanted to pursue a new opportunity, I decided I wanted to step back into Definers.

However, that’s just the beginning of the story. The public affairs market is evolving and so must Definers. That’s why I’m teaming up with Brian Rogers and Alex Angel to launch a new, insights-driven public affairs firm in the coming weeks called Bullpen Strategy Group (BSG). Brian and Alex are colleagues I’ve known for a long time. They are people I trust and respect, but also two talented individuals who have a history of chalking up wins for clients.

But what does insights-driven public affairs mean?

Clients today don’t just want an army of consultants. They want to anticipate threats, analyze and fully understand their challenges, and deploy strategies to address them driven by keen insights. BSG will specialize in analysis and insights to empower our clients to anticipate and manage competitive, regulatory, political, legal, and media risks.

Beyond traditional strategic communications, BSG will offer critical insights to inform the “how” of responding to the challenges they face. Our team will provide corporate due diligence, communications, rapid response, political intelligence, analytics, and media monitoring to empower smart decision making. Clients want an experience that gives them actionable insights and that’s what our collaborative offering from the “Bullpen” will do.

The team at Definers has been extremely effective, but it’s time for a new firm and a mission that rises to the opportunity we see.

Joe Pounder, BSG CEO

Read on Medium.