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ALUMNI - Events and alumni shaping our world
RUNNING THE RACES - DAVID O'CONNELL '02
David O’Connell ’02 is no stranger to the challenges of running a political campaign; he spent the first five years of his career on the losing side of elections. Back in 2008, he was managing small congressional races and consistently losing. But, things changed in 2013 when O’Connell managed a competitive special congressional election in Charleston, South Carolina.
“There were 16 candidates, and we had to get into the top two spots of the run-off election. We were outspent by two million dollars, but we were able to advance despite the discrepancy. That changed my career, really.” People started to take notice of O’Connell more than ever, as he was able to hold his own even without the large budget that others had at their disposal. “After that, my career took off. I went to work for the chairman of the National Republican Congressional committee,” he said.
“I wasn’t expecting the job offer that I got three years ago.” O’Connell explained that after the South Carolina race, he got a call to come to the Party headquarters in Washington, D.C. “I met the chairman, who wanted to know how I designed the campaign because it was so unusual. I mobilized a large portion of the community that normally didn’t vote and got them involved.”
O’Connell didn’t know this was an interview. “I was just shooting the breeze, very casual and relaxed in my conversations. I didn’t realize that he wanted me to manage his race, and I wasn’t prepared for that to be an interview. I just spoke to him as someone I wanted to get to know.” Fortunately, O’Connell is someone who can easily speak about his field without any preparation. He was still surprised he was offered a job on the spot.
As a political campaign manager, mostly in the west, O’Connell has been in charge of running 10 different congressional campaigns. His name is on a short list of people that Republican candidates who run for congress can call. They can review his resume, interview him, and decide if they want to work with him.
One of his secrets to success? Maintaining consistent relationships with vendors across the country. “I try to make sure that the landscape and the candidates are the only things that change.”
David O'Connell ’02
He stays with the same firms to conduct survey research and polling, television advertising production, and digital media, including Facebook and websites. These ongoing relationships help O’Connell keep costs low, maintain consistency of work, and increase the potential for faster turnaround on projects.
O’Connell’s accomplishments as a campaign manager helped him launch a new chapter in his career at the time of the interview. Working for the National Republican Senatorial Committee as a project manager, he is in charge of running the ground operation in Pennsylvania on behalf of the senatorial committee, campaigning for one of the five seats that will decide which party controls the Senate Chamber next year. “I like the action and the challenge of it, it’s sport to me. ”
“This is something so different from what I normally do,” he commented. One of the biggest challenges for O’Connell today is managing people, something that wasn’t as prevalent in his previous roles. “I have a staff of 200 under me, and I even had to hire local people to go out and do door-to-door research. I’ve never been given a task that wasn’t possible, but many of them are daunting. Knocking on doors in an unfamiliar and heavily democratic community to survey them was one of those challenges.” O’Connell’s solution? Find local people passionate about the cause who could connect with voters on both sides of the aisle.
“I have to put together a budget that fits with the amount of financial resources that the candidate has … the budget is the biggest challenge in most campaigns.” O’Connell is no stranger to another obstacle when it comes to running campaigns, finances, as he proved with his achievements in 2013. He laughed, “I don’t have an accounting degree or background in human resources, but in this role, I’m both an accountant and an HR manager.” From balancing budgets to hiring new personnel, a project manager’s job on any campaign is to make sure everything gets done.
O’Connell has a vast network, and it has been influencing him for years, even as a student at Cheshire Academy. “David was a student with a seriousness of purpose few of his peers could match. He knew far more about American political culture than most adults,” said History Teacher James “Butch” Rogers, who had O’Connell as a student.
O’Connell pointed out that he didn’t come from a political family, but his father encouraged him to pursue his passion. “I was in Mr. Rogers’ government class at the time, and he had this poster for a high school lecture series down in DC. My dad went up and took one of those tear offs for more information and brought it to me. I threw it away.” Not one to give up, his father, Gregory O’Connell ’66, went back and got another one and forced him to go. “I ended up loving it. I was very into history and the government at the time,” he said.
“Perhaps it was in AP Government class where he really learned to articulate his political beliefs,” Rogers said. That particular class was made up of students who were very liberal, and O’Connell was the only true conservative in the room. But it didn’t bother him one bit. “I really enjoyed that competition. My experiences at Cheshire Academy shaped me more for my general direction than even my college did. I loved where I went to college, but I knew I wanted to get a political science degree and work in political campaign management before I went to college,” he said.
Since graduating, O’Connell has even come back to campus to share his experiences and insight of running a campaign with students, both as a speaker on the Cheshire Conversations career panel and in Rogers’ government class. His passion and leadership have lead him down a challenging but rewarding career path. “I was reading an article about how a lot of Americans have anxiety over the election. I’ve always been competitive and enjoy that aspect of this work.”
Now that this current race is over, O’Connell isn’t sure what the future will hold for him. He explained, “The new president will appoint a new cabinet, and inevitably will choose new congress members, which can spur special elections ... There’s a chance that I could be grabbed to manage one of those. Another option is that I could go after a position to become a recruiter to get people to run for congress themselves. I’d be responsible for 30-40 seats. I also have some connections to the senate committee too, and that could affect my direction. My network will greatly influence the career path I take after this.” Whatever happens, O’Connell is confident that, “only good things will happen for me in the future.”
THE MAN BEHIND THE MONEY - BRIAN GOLDMEIER ’02
ANY GOOD POLITICAL RACE requires a few basic necessities: a candidate, running platform, and money. When it comes to the money, Cheshire Academy alumnus Brian Goldmeier ’02 has quickly made a name for himself by raising millions of dollars for political candidates. His company, BYG Strategies Inc., is now the go-to resource for fundraising in South Florida. However, that wasn’t his original plan.
GOLDMEIER WITH PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA AT MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 2016 (DGA EVENT), COURTESY PHOTO
Looking back at his time at the Academy, Goldmeier admits that he lacked structure. “My parents sent me to boarding school at the age of 12,” Goldmeier stated. “When I landed at Cheshire Academy, I was very independent.” It wasn’t until he started playing tennis with Coach Chip Boyd that Goldmeier truly found a passion. “I really liked the teamwork and camaraderie of the team. It made me want to go into a profession that dealt with sports,” he reminisced.
When it was time for college, Goldmeier chose a small independent college just north of Boston, Massachusetts. Endicott College was home to just 3,000 undergraduates but gave Goldmeier a major he was interested in exploring called sports management. “I wanted to be a sports agent,” said Goldmeier.
- BRIAN GOLDMEIER ’02
After graduating Endicott, Goldmeier looked to start an internship with a professional sports team. However, none of the teams he approached were hiring at the time. While being a sports agent was still on his mind, he decided start the process of applying to law school. In the midst of taking the LSAT, Goldmeier’s father—who has experience in the political world through his real estate, housing, and development firm and by having a business partner close to the Clintons— suggested he try something in politics.
In 2007, Goldmeier was given the chance to intern with Hillary’s presidential campaign against Barack Obama. Positioned on the New England Finance Team, Goldmeier got his first taste of fundraising by helping to contact people in the area about giving to the campaign.
While not terribly excited about the opportunity, Goldmeier did get a first-hand glimpse at the role of politics in the world. “I really wasn’t very interested in politics, but in 2006 Deval Patrick was running for Governor of Massachusetts and it kind of caught my attention,” he noted. “Normally, I’d pick up a paper and read the sports section and now all of a sudden I was reading the political section.”
Once the Clinton campaign ended in 2008, Goldmeier spotted another political opportunity in New Hampshire that interested him. He ultimately decided to defer from law school and joined the Paul Hodes congressional campaign. However, he felt something was missing. “New Hampshire just wasn’t my cup of tea,” he said. “I’m more of an urban and city guy.”
After the Hodes campaign, Goldmeier discovered an interesting opening in Florida, where he was originally from. “I saw that Alex Sink, the current CFO for the state of Florida, was running for re-election,” he remembered. After moving to Florida, Goldmeier began working on the campaign finance team. “You learn quickly that in politics finance means fundraising. I think it makes us sound more professional to people,” he laughed.
During the re-election campaign, after some political musical chairs, Sink would end up running as the democratic nominee for Governor of Florida. During the campaign, the South Florida Finance Director decided to leave, which put Goldmeier in an interesting situation as the next in charge of the region. While the campaign looked for replacements, Goldmeier saw this as his opportunity. “Building your career is about seeing that moment,” he said. “I said to myself this is my opportunity. Time to sink or swim.”
While the campaign continued to look for a replacement, Goldmeier went to work. “I didn’t sleep,” he said. Goldmeier read business publications, conducted research, and built as many relationships as he could in the area. He constantly attended networking events and arranged meetings for Sink. At the end of the campaign, Goldmeier alone had raised about $7 million of Sink’s $30 million total amount. “Even though Sink ended up losing by nearly a 1% margin,” he said, “I had begun to make a name for myself and on the election night of Sink’s loss a friend came to me with another opportunity.”
Within the next couple days, Goldmeier began having conversations about working as the Finance Director on a new campaign for the current County Commissioner Carlos Giménez, who was considering a 2012 run for Miami- Dade County Mayor. In one of the biggest voter recalls in U.S. history, the current Mayor Carlos Alvarez was ousted in March 2011. Giménez decided to run in the special election for the mayoral position against some steep competition. “We started polling at six points, while our main competitor was in the thirties.” Polling wasn’t the only numbers Goldmeier had to be concerned about. The opponent had the backing of the establishment, which came with more financial backing. However, Goldmeier had managed, against all odds, to raise more than $2 million in the special election and it did the trick. “We won by two points, fifty-one to forty-nine.” Goldmeier smiled.
GOLDMEIER AND HILLARY CLINTON IN NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, 2015 (HRC NATIONAL FINANCE COMMITTEE EVENT), COURTESY PHOTO
RAHM EMANUAL, GOLDMEIER, AND MAYOR CARLOS A GIMENEZ IN MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA 2014 (RAHM EMANUEL EVENT), COURTESY PHOTO
When asked about what makes him successful at his job, it wasn’t the total amount of money raised that Goldmeier touted. In fact, it was the invaluable contacts he’s created. “My goal is to create relationships,” he said. “The more people and relationships I create, the more I can help others when it comes to fundraising.”
The approach is a bit unconventional for the field and is another reason he can fundraise for both democrat and republican candidates. Goldmeier thinks first about creating relationships and then later decides what may be the best giving plan for that individual, if any at all. “I’m extremely targeted,” he noted. “When it comes to political giving you have to be very strategic. Not everyone is the right person to ask for money for a given campaign.” Depending on the politician’s views, relationships, and office they are running for, Goldmeier will decide who is best to ask for donations. He used an example of not asking someone to support a new athletics stadium if you know the person is into the arts. “Again, you have to be very smart and strategic,” he reiterated. “I may not reach out to you for months, but when I do, I believe it's because this is the right cause or campaign for you to get involved in.”
Another reason Goldmeier is focused on creating these strong partnerships first is because his fundraising doesn’t end at political candidates. “The relationships I’ve created has allowed me to really help Miami, which I truly love,” he mentioned. “I have a number of charities I help fundraise for using my relationships.” Some of those charity organizations include his local United Way as well as celebrity basketball player Alonzo Mourning, who created the Mourning Family Foundation that supports after school programs for inner city youth.”
Goldmeier is also helping with a project called “The Underline.” The goal is to create a 10-mile linear park below Miami’s Metrorail, which will create an open space that will run from the Miami River to Dadeland South Station. The park will give residents a place to support a healthy lifestyle, art, and more.
Goldmeier isn’t just living in the present either when it comes to the relationships he’s creating. He’s actively attending networking events and connecting with the young professionals in the area as well. These individuals, in time, will become the political and societal front-runners in the years to come. “Life is about equity, not just retainers,” he said. “I believe that 15 years down the road all of these relationships will lead to amazing opportunities.” In short, Goldmeier is putting in the time with all of the residents of South Florida as he continues to focus on being a top fundraiser. Whether fundraising for a political campaign, commercial opportunity, or charity organization, he is there to help and has the connections to make it all happen.
At the end of the day, Goldmeier may have raised millions of dollars, but as he continues to support his community and grow relationships it’s evident that he’s so much more than just the man behind the money.
DETECTIVE OF THE HOUSE - NATALIE MADDOX ’02
“Are you interested in lowering your interest rates by an average of 33 percent?” On the other end of the line could be a consumer with high credit card debt, or it could be someone like Natalie Maddox ’02, investigating debt collection companies and gathering data that could drive government policy.
A s part of her job as Senior Public Policy Analyst with the Government Accountability Office (GAO), Maddox, twin sister of Nicole Maddox '02featured on page 50, has reviewed issues such as the Immigrant Investor Program, Internal Revenue Service (IRS) performance, and financial products specifically focused on debt settlement agencies. According to the agency’s website, the GAO is the “investigative arm of Congress,” focused on producing non-partisan, objective reports and recommendations related to the payment of public funds, recommendations that could end up as laws.
“We push for recommendations at the agency level. So every time I can push for recommendations that an agency implements, I count that as a win,” said Maddox. For debt settlement agencies, that meant banning deceptive marketing practices and putting a cap on the fees the companies could charge. “Consumers had to pay $500-$800 just to sign up, then they had to go delinquent on their cards, and often times they wouldn’t see any results from the companies. Now, these companies can’t charge consumers until a service has been rendered.”
While affecting public policy and creating reform is the end goal, hundreds of hours of research go into each report. “In grad school, we do everything on the computer, but for my job, the real information is in the hard copy and the follow up meetings where I can ask about every detail in the report,” she explained.
It’s not all reading reports and conducting interview though—detective work is involved, as well. Federal agencies rely on GAO analysts like Maddox to uncover the truth about how money is being spent and where fraud might be happening. “[Looking] into debt collecting companies who prey on individuals in debt, we actually went undercover and did a lot of covert phone calls pretending to be customers to see how they would communicate with a customer. The companies provided false information and gave a deceptive understanding of who they were.”
Looking back, Maddox knows that her work, which was used to create new policies, helped plenty of the United States’ most vulnerable consumers. In fact, non-partisan, independent government review agencies play a key part in our legislative system of checks and balances.
Natalie Maddox ’02
However, while the GAO is non-partisan, they do sometimes investigate issues with political undertones. Maddox most recently reviewed The Immigrant Investor Program (EB-5, which is set to expire this winter), a 1990 program that grants Visas and Green Cards to immigrants who invest in American companies and create jobs in the country.
“Both sides have different views about reauthorizing the program. The Democrats want to see more transparency and tighter controls, but they want the program to stay around, while Republicans push for complete reform and advocate for certain aspects of the program to expire,” said Maddox.
In addition to her work at the GAO, the 32 year-old attorney has her juris doctor degree from the University of Maryland School of Law. While earning her master of science degree in public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, Maddox said that, “about halfway through my first year I knew I still wanted to be an attorney. In 2008, I accepted the GAO position in Washington, D.C. and went to law school at night in Baltimore.”
Never one to pass up on a challenge, Maddox is also a partner in her Maryland law firm where she represents clients in family court, many of which are pro bono cases. At our time of speaking, Maddox had just accepted a special detail opportunity to work on Capitol Hill for one year in an Investigative Counsel position with the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, a standing committee which conducts hearings on potential federal judges, among other things.
THE POLICY DOCTOR - NICOLE MADDOX ’02
For those living in the United States, the last few years have been something of a crashcourse in healthcare policy. Even with the Affordable Healthcare Act fully in effect, Americans are hardly well-versed in phrases like “single-payer,” “universal,” and “federal mandate.”
For international healthcare policy experts like Nicole Maddox ’02, twin sister of Natalie Maddox ’02 however, making sure citizens get quality care is more than a partisan debate. Having worked in Zambia, Kenya, Arkansas, and now Milan, Maddox has an in-depth understanding of how national policies affect the real health of individual citizens.
“Healthcare policies are grounded by the healthcare issues in the country,” said Maddox. “In Africa, key concerns are HIV testing, malaria interventions, and access to medication. In the U.S. we’re interested in making sure everyone has health insurance and health coverage, and ensuring no one is exposed to secondhand smoke, as examples. The issues are different in Zambia.”
In Zambia, the majority of health services in the country are free to patients. Whether or not patients can access timely and quality services is another question, and one that policy analysts like Maddox are tasked with answering.
Maddox recalls one project in Kenya where she examined patient mortalities related to cervical cancer. “I was there for seven months, and I did a retrospective analysis looking back two years at the medical records of women who came for cancer services and a lot of them had died. The women were coming in the late stages of the disease, at the terminal stages, so there wasn’t much doctors could do.” Maddox said that her research showed that a number of the terminal patients had come to the clinic at stage one, but not returned until stage four. According to Maddox, “At the time there was only one public facility that could perform radiation on women with cervical cancer. The wait time was generally six to eight months.” Using that data, the clinic Maddox worked with proposed opening new radiation centers to provide care more quickly and at more affordable rates.
Much of Maddox’s work involves stacks of patient files. “You wonder where that cartoon image of a government worker’s desk covered in files comes from?” she joked, speaking to her own time going through over 100 patient files, each with their own manila folder.
- NICOLE MADDOX '02
To Maddox, policy changes that would mandate digitizing patient files would make not only her research, but also the quality of care a patient receives, happen more efficiently. According to Maddox, in Kenya, “every time you go into the hospital they give you a new ID number so tracking specific patients is very hard.” This is why it took a special healthcare policy analyst to notice that patients who were arriving at stage three had previously visited the hospital at stage one.
While digitizing records is key to helping healthcare policy analysts conduct research to improve patient care, Maddox warns that governments (and consumers) also need to focus on the money. “One of the things you need to look at when you think about improving care is how much will this cost, and who will pay for it? Is it going to fall to the patient? Is it going to fall to the government? Is it going to fall to someone else?”
As a country, the United States is dealing with this issue first-hand. In implementing a new healthcare policy that will cover more citizens, cost is a factor—along with who will provide the funds. “We are just entering the era of having [federally mandated] healthcare in all 50 states and we don't quite understand what the cost will be on the government. It will be interesting to look at the data in five years to see how this has impacted the quality of life in the United States and to examine its financial benefits.”
It’s for this reason that Maddox has decided to go back to school. She’s currently a PhD candidate in public policy and administration at Università Commerciale 'Luigi Bocconi' in Milan. Previously, she earned her master’s degree in public service from the Clinton School of Public Service after her time at Wellesley College where she earned her bachelor’s degree in Africana studies and biology. She believes her PhD will give her the skills necessary to further analyze healthcare policy from an economic perspective.
Maddox’s interest in healthcare was heavily influenced by the death of her grandmother. “I’ve been passionate about working on issues involving cancer since I lost my grandmother at 13,” she said, continuing with the caveat, “If you asked me what I wanted to be at 13, well, I would have said a doctor.”
Though not at the operating table, Maddox is still influencing the lives of patients through research; her work ensures governments develop better, more comprehensive policies when it comes to health.
“I would say this has been a path of discovery. When I went to do my master’s in public service, we were required to do an international service project. I chose Kenya and I really fell in love with the country and the work I was able to do, and I knew this is where I needed to be,” said Maddox. “It’s been an amazing journey thus far.”
