Megan McDonald came to Washington DC to become an intelligence officer. John Doyle came here to go on a blind date.
Following a series of coincidences (each one a story in itself), they wound up working together at a well-known PR firm, managing national communications campaigns for high-profile clients with world-class challenges.
Because these were highly charged, polarizing issues—such as drunk driving laws, “fat taxes,” and mandated wage hikes—they became experts at turning controversies into conversations.
In 2007, they opened a practice dedicated to teaching organizations how to find and tell their story online, on the air, and on their terms.
Megan McDonald graduated from Yale University cum laude with a B.A. in Political Science/International Relations, with a term spent at the King’s College War Studies Program in London. She returned to London to obtain her MSc in Comparative Politics (Conflict Studies) from the London School of Economics.
She came to Washington, DC to participate in the highly competitive Air Force Intelligence PALACE Acquire Program, but declined the honor in order to pursue a career in the private sector.
She has served as the director of research for a nationally recognized labor policy think tank. While there, she worked with world-renowned economists from Cornell, Dartmouth, and Carnegie Mellon, as well as the Senate HELP Committee, the Council of Economic Advisors, and numerous think tanks at the state and federal levels.
As managing director of a national trade association, she routinely briefed Fortune 500 CEOs and executives, helping them to reposition their domestic policy issues within an international context.
She was the US manager of the Democracy & Security International Conference, a joint initiative of Soviet dissident and Israeli political leader Natan Sharansky; former President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Havel; and former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar.
As the US on-site manager for the conference, she served as liaison with the White House advance team, the US embassy, the dissidents, and attending media. She also produced the conference’s main press event, which was covered by all of the major media in the free world.
She has developed new messaging and branding for the Prague Security Studies Institute as it expanded into the US; aided a for-profit company as it sought to expand into Europe with its National Security Internship; and worked with Doyle to create The Retirement Security Coalition, a partnership between leading financial services companies and nonprofits to increase the nation’s retirement readiness. Her bylines and op-eds have run in the major national newspapers, including USA Today, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, San Diego Union-Tribune, Miami Herald, and Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
John Doyle started out as a newspaper reporter, but left the Fourth Estate to pursue a career that gave him more opportunity to influence people. Since then, he has appeared frequently on the leading national broadcast and cable network news programs and talk shows—from ABC’s World News Tonight to FOX’s O’Reilly Factor, from CNN’s Crossfire to Comedy Central’s Daily Show, from Diane Rehm to Rush Limbaugh.
He has been developing and managing communications strategies for the nation’s largest trade associations, top-tier universities, leading charities, and Fortune 500 companies for more than 20 years.
He has represented national organizations during critical—sometimes historic—challenges, including: leading a highly acclaimed media campaign against the national fuel-tax increase; defending the hospitality industry againstobesity lawsuits; and managing communications campaigns for the financial services industry during the Great Recession.
Doyle started talking professionally at age 12 when he landed the role of the Artful Dodger on one of the countless (and boring) “educational” television series that were big in the 70’s. He sharpened his delivery while bartending his way through college. And he learned the power of well-timed silence that year he worked loading ships in Port Newark, NJ.
He has been a speech writer, a lobbyist, an award-winning columnist, and the executive director of a national trade association. He earned his undergraduate degree in journalism from California State University, and was certified in “leadership and management” from the Wharton School of Business (though he feels compelled to point out that the admission requirement barely exceeded clearing the tuition check).
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