Joe Baerlein is a well-known strategic communications advisor to some of the nation’s largest companies, trade associations, and large not-for-profit organizations, specializing in reputation and advocacy matters.

Working with law firms and businesses all over the country, Joe has managed over 100 crisis and reputation assignments on a variety of topics including Department of Justice (DOJ), US Attorney and State Attorneys Generals investigations, sex abuse at private schools, airplane crashes, data breaches and media investigations into high-profile individuals.

He has also directed major advocacy campaigns for corporate clients on a variety of issues and is known as the leading ballot strategist in Massachusetts, having won eight statewide races over a 20-plus year period.

Joe is a member of the Massachusetts Bar Association and serves on the boards of Associated Industries of Massachusetts, The New England Council and Mass Association for Mental Health.

He was formerly a partner in one of the country’s top 25 independent strategic communications and public affairs companies for 18 years.

Earlier in his career, Joe was Of Counsel to Choate, Hall & Stewart Law Firm in Boston and President of their public strategies subsidiary, The Choate Group.

He also served in two major cabinet positions in Massachusetts state government and directed the winning campaign for Lt. Governor Evelyn F. Murphy, the first woman ever elected to statewide office in the Commonwealth.

Joe has an undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of Rhode Island, a Masters in Communications from Boston University and a JD from Suffolk University Law School.

He has lectured at universities and companies on the topics of protecting reputation and brand as well as the organization and execution of challenging advocacy projects.

Edward Davis is the founder and CEO of The Edward Davis Company. As the former Police Commissioner of Boston, Ed is a leader in security and law enforcement and an expert in that sector’s intersection with innovative technology.

His leadership in the handling of the Boston Marathon bombing won him and the Boston Police widespread praise and recognition for performance in the midst of a serious terrorist crisis.

Ed represents Fortune 500 and other large corporations, including AT&T, Kinder Morgan, National Grid, Uber, Deloitte, Draft Kings, the St. Louis Cardinals and the Boston Red Sox, as well as venture-backed technology startups and government agencies.

Ed leads a team of security and technology experts, that includes former federal agents, local law enforcement, military officials, technical experts and attorneys, with strong links to academic institutions, national and international governments and the intelligence community.

The collective experience of the Davis Team lends their expertise to crisis response, risk management, physical security assessment and policy review of large-scale venues along with cybersecurity, government consulting and product strategy.

The Davis Team has also participated in the review of policies and procedures for major universities and conducted large-scale investigations for companies across the world.

Ed is a frequent contributor to Fox News Network and has appeared on “Meet the Press” and “60 Minutes”. He was a Fellow at Harvard’s Institute of Politics and has lectured extensively at Harvard and MIT.

Ed Davis has collaborated with Joe Baerlein for three years on large-scale advocacy projects, crisis investigations and thought leadership.

Sharon Hanson is the Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel of The Edward Davis Company. She oversees the day-to-day operations of the entire Davis Team, providing leadership and management throughout the execution of all of the firm’s projects.

She previously served as Chief of Staff for the Boston Police Department and is a veteran prosecutor, having served in the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office.

In her role as Chief of Staff for the Boston Police Department, she was part of the Command Staff, senior leadership team responsible for the daily management of the Department and high-profile police investigations.

In her 14 years at the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office, Sharon prosecuted cases in District Court, Jury of Six and Superior Court, including multiple homicides and other major felonies. She was appointed Deputy First Assistant District Attorney, responsible for overseeing the attorneys assigned to the Superior Court division of the District Attorney’s Office.

She is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School. She holds a Professional Director Certification from the American College of Corporate Directors, a public company director’s education, and credentialing organization.

Sharon and her business partner, Ed Davis, have worked closely with Joe Baerlein on client issues for three years.

Eran Lobel founded ELEMENT Productions in 1998 and grew it into one of New England’s most award-winning full-service video production, post-production, and integrated content companies.

He is a national leader in all aspects of digital content marketing creation and distribution and a senior advisor to some of the nation’s leading corporations, higher education and not-for-profit organizations.

The expertise of ELEMENT includes digital marketing, creative video content, and expertise in all aspects of Google analytics.

Eran also leads a collaborative talented team of producers, directors, and editors as well as writers, designers, and strategists who produce Emmy award-winning commercials, web videos, television programs, and documentaries.

ELEMENT works with top brands such as Nike, Subway, SNHU, Dunkin Donuts, Buick, Fidelity, Verizon, and ESPN. ELEMENT’s creative team can develop concepts, shoot, edit, create graphics, build video players and distribute video content across multiple digital channels.

Eran, a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, received an MBA from Boston University, is a founding member of FILMA (the advocacy organization for the film business in Massachusetts), a member of the Massachusetts Production Coalition (MPC), and a current board member of the Advertising Club of Boston and City Year.

Eran has worked closely with Joe Baerlein for over eight years as ELEMENT has created and produced all the TV and Radio commercials for several statewide ballot campaigns that Joe directed.

Jonathan Karush is a leading international expert in political technology and social media organizing.

While an undergraduate at the University of Pennsylvania, he founded Liberty Concepts Inc, one of America’s leading digital advocacy and marketing firms.

He has served as a consultant to numerous governments, political candidates, advocacy groups and corporations.

Jonathan is a former Sagner Fellow at the Century Institute and has served as a US State Department Technical delegate on international assignments.

He is the former Chief Technology Officer for both Citylife and Democracy.com. He also serves on the advisory board of the Shorenstein Center at Harvard.

Jonathan graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania with distinction in Political Science and has a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University.

Jon has worked with Joe Baerlein for the last six years on a variety of crisis and advocacy initiatives and leads the digital strategies unit of Baerlein & Partners.

Rosemary Petta is nationally recognized for strategic planning and expertise in media consumption, research, methodology, and trends.

After building one of the top 10 independent media firms in the U.S., she is now Principal and Co-founder of Petta, Ryan & Company, a Massachusetts certified Women Business Enterprise.

Designing plans for numerous advocacy campaigns and Fortune 500 companies, Rosemary expertly negotiates network and local television, radio and digital buys across all platforms throughout the U.S. and Canada.

In addition, Rosemary is an accomplished media analyst in the gaming, resort, and hospitality industries and has worked with over 60 companies in this sector.

Rosemary served on the Advertising Research Foundation Advisory Committee and continues to work in sponsorship development with PBS and NPR.

Her community/charitable activities include the Catholic Charities Executive Committee and she currently serves on mentoring/nurturing programs with Wellesley College and Babson College students.

Rosemary has worked with Joe Baerlein on a variety of client matters for over 20 years.

Susan Ryan is widely regarded as one of the top media planning and buying specialists in the U.S.

Having successfully built one of the top 10 independent media firms in the country, she is now Principal and Co-founder of Petta, Ryan & Company, a Massachusetts certified Women Business Enterprise (WEB).

Susan’s media planning and placement specializations include sports, retail, trade associations and franchises, new product launches, branding, not-for-profit and federal, state and local political campaigns.

Susan’s career highlights include negotiating a major network TV in-game NFL sponsorship; naming rights for NFL and NHL on CBS Radio; media planning, buying and activations for 1,000+ retail grand openings; and numerous candidate/advocacy campaigns nationally.

Among her community charitable activities, Susan serves as a board member of Empower Peace and works with the New England Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Like Rosemary, Susan has worked with Joe Baerlein on a variety of clients for over 20 years.

Peter R. Brown is the principal of Peter Brown Communications of Boston. Peter brings to his company a rich and diverse background in media and healthcare.

He served as Chief of Staff to the President and CEO of Partners HealthCare.  In this role, Peter worked directly with the CEO and senior leadership to support the mission of Partners.

Among his responsibilities, Peter oversaw external affairs for Partners, which includes Government Affairs, Public Affairs, and Communication and Community Health.

Prior to this position, Peter was Vice-President of Public Affairs and Communication for Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He was responsible with his team for managing external messaging and internal communications for a hospital community of 15,000 people.

Peter spent more than twenty-five years in television journalism, concluding his television career at CBS Boston (WBZ-TV), where he was News Director from 1993-2004 and led a staff or more than 125 journalists.

During Peter’s television news career, he was honored with numerous awards from the Associated Press and United Press International. In addition, he and his WBZ-TV news team were the recipients of the Edward R. Murrow Award for best local news station in America.

Peter Brown is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island, current President of the Massachusetts Broadcasters Hall of Fame, and serves on the board of Governors for the Boston Athletic Association.  He is also a past Chair of the Board of the Family Justice Center of Boston, a venture dedicated to offering support and services to victims of domestic violence and child abuse.

Joe Baerlein and Peter Brown have known each other professionally for 25 years and Peter is now part of the Baerlein & Partners team.

Leslie Griffin provides public affairs and executive communications support to companies, trade associations, universities, and other organizations, particularly those with a global focus.

As principal of Allinea LLC, Leslie helps clients translate complex business ideas and public policy objectives into language that is understandable and persuasive to different audiences. Her primary areas of work are public policy communications, thought leadership communications, and government relations strategy.

Recent client work has included drafting op-eds and blogs for the CEO of a Boston-headquartered multinational; preparing position papers for a prominent biotech company for use in global advocacy; advising a Boston-based university on strategic communications with the governments of countries where it maintains overseas campuses; preparing scripts for a trade association’s public dialogues with senior government officials and business leaders; and leading a corporate workshop for a state economic development agency on Persuasive Communications.

Leslie was previously Senior Vice President for International Public Policy for UPS, Vice President for International Governmental Affairs for New York Life Insurance Company, and Managing Director for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, DC.

Over her career, Leslie has advocated for policy provisions that supported business growth, including elimination of joint venture requirements, reductions in capital requirements, and removal of discriminatory regulations.

For UPS, she designed a comprehensive international public affairs strategy to guide its entry into a new Middle Eastern market. For New York Life, she helped shape advocacy efforts leading to the granting of an insurance operating license in a key Southeast Asian market.

While Chief of Staff to the Chairman and CEO of New York Life International, and in other past positions, Leslie provided extensive support to C-suite executives, including preparation of public remarks, briefing materials for meetings with policymakers, and content for board meetings and quarterly earnings calls.

Leslie’s work with companies operating in overseas markets draws on her deep background in U.S. trade and investment policy. She serves as President of the National Foreign Trade Council Foundation in Washington, DC; Co-founder of Women in World Trade, New England; and a member of the board of WorldBoston. She is also a past President of the Association of Women in International Trade in Washington, DC, an organization made up of over 700 trade professionals.

Leslie taught and studied in Nanjing, China and is a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations. She holds an M.Sc. in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a B.A. in Economics from Wellesley College.

Chris Anderson is president and founder of Beacon Research, a full-service market research firm serving ballot campaigns, political candidates, non-profits and corporations.

Chris has been the Democratic partner conducting the Fox News Poll since 2008—a highly scrutinized poll which has earned a national reputation for accuracy.

He also serves on the Fox News election night decision team and regularly appears on the Fox News Channel to discuss the latest polling trends.

National clients include Eli Lilly, Fidelity Investments, Environmental Voter Project, Iron Mountain, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation, American Beverage Association and Mohegan Sun.

His Massachusetts clients include preeminent leaders across sectors, including Attorney General Maura Healey, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, the ACLU of MA, and Harvard University.

Chris specializes in customizing methodologies to meet the unique situation of every client using a range of tools, including phone and online surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and online qualitative.

With his dedicated team at Beacon Research, Chris is continually tracking and testing the latest developments in market research.

Chris founded Beacon Research’s predecessor firm, Anderson Robbins Research, in 2010. He learned the trade from two pioneers and legends of Democratic political polling— John Gorman at Opinion Dynamics and Tom Kiley at Kiley & Company.

He graduated from Colby College with a B.A. in English and earned an M.A. from Columbia University in Statistical Analysis, Public Opinion and Political Science.

Chris is an advocate and former Board Chair for Read to a Child: Boston, and a little league coach in the JP Reagan Youth League. He is an active member in the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR).

Chris first worked with Joe Baerlein in 2010 when they partnered on the successful No on 2 ballot campaign which stopped the repeal of Massachusetts affordable housing law.

John P. Marttila, an integral part of Baerlein & Partners, and our dear friend, passed away on November 3, 2018, at the age of 78.

John was the president of Marttila Strategies, a company specializing in strategic planning and opinion research that focuses on the underlying values of public issues. For more than 20 years, he measured American attitudes and opinions on a wide range of topics, with a special emphasis on the issues surrounding health care, immigration, financial services, and taxes.

John Marttila also enjoyed a long and successful history of advising ballot campaigns in different regions of the country. These victories included increasing the income tax in Detroit, passing the authorizing referendum for New Orleans’ only major casino, increasing the sales tax on tobacco in Massachusetts, stopping the sale of wine in Washington State and defeating a proposal for draconian cuts in the Massachusetts state budget. Earlier in his career, he was a partner in the Democratic consulting firm of Martilla, Payne, Kiley, and Thorne, one of the top Democratic candidate consulting firms for almost twenty years. He enjoyed a lifelong friendship with his former partners and colleagues.

John was one of the leading national Democratic strategists in the United States, overseeing winning candidate campaigns for Mayors and members of Congress across the country, including Father Robert Drinan’s upset victory for Congress in 1970. With a long and important history in the campaigns of former US Senator and Vice President Joe Biden, former US Senator, nominee for President and Secretary of State John Kerry, and Senator Ed Markey, John remained a close advisor to all of them until his passing.

In the last 12 years of his wonderful life, John worked closely with the Baerlein & Partners team on high stakes ballot campaigns and advocacy initiatives. He was the very best in the business and even a better human being. We will all miss him, but carry on his high standards of work and professionalism. We will never forget John’s edict to always follow the data and never give up.