In the final installment of From the Lobby‘s Meet the Team series, host Joanna Pasceri sits down with Jack O’Donnell, the founder and managing partner of O’Donnell & Associates, to mark the firm’s 25th anniversary. O’Donnell traces the arc from a lost race in western New York a quarter-century ago to a statewide public affairs practice with offices in New York and Washington. Along the way, he reflects on a family steeped in public service, a health crisis that reshaped his outlook on leadership, and the clients whose causes have become the firm’s mission. It’s a candid look at the man behind the masthead — and where he wants O’Donnell & Associates to go next.
Joanna Pasceri
For the final Meet the Team episode, we’re meeting the person who started it all. Jack O’Donnell is the founder and managing partner of O’Donnell and Associates — the man who, 25 years ago, had a vision for a different kind of public affairs firm, an idea that has grown into a team working across New York and Washington, helping clients solve complicated problems, shape policy, secure critical funding, and get results. But the story of ODNA is also the story of Jack — his upbringing around public service, his time in government and politics, the decision to strike out on his own, and the personal challenges that shaped his outlook along the way. So for this Meet the Team, we’re looking back at where it all started and ahead at where it’s going. Jack, thanks for joining us from the lobby.
Jack O’Donnell
Hi. It’s great to be with you, Joanna. Happy towards the end of summer.
Joanna Pasceri
Exactly. It’s winding down pretty quickly, so we thought this might be a good time to maybe wind the clock back a little bit on O’Donnell and Associates. We want to go back about 25 years. We want to know what made you decide to start O’Donnell and Associates.
Jack O’Donnell
What a good question. Yes, a great time to ride on the wayback machine. I had been working in politics, working in government, and I lost a race. And that happens a lot when you’re in politics and when you’re doing things in government, but especially politics in western New York. 25 years ago, I think that there was a real dissatisfaction with the community and the state of the community. So many of the folks I had gone to high school with and college with — they were moving to North Carolina, they were moving to Phoenix, they were moving all these other places to find jobs. And that was really disappointing to me. A big part of my work in politics was with challengers, with people who wanted to change the status quo, people who were willing to take those risks. I had done it on a case by case basis, but the idea of starting O’Donnell Associates was so I could do it a little more professionally and I could really start to build it out as, I guess, as an entrepreneur.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, 25 years later, here we are. ODNA has grown from a new venture into a firm with offices across New York and Washington, representing major companies, nonprofits, entrepreneurs, and labor organizations. When you look at that growth, what surprises you the most? What are you most proud of?
Jack O’Donnell
The whole thing is surprising to me. I always like to tell people that I could talk for hours about the cause and effects of the War of 1812, but I don’t know as much about EBITDA and running a small business. The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that surrounding yourself with really good people who are really good at what they do makes you look a lot better. I’ve been fortunate to find a lot of really great people who are open to working with me. You’re one of them, Joanna, and you’re part of this and part of helping us tell the world about it. In terms of really being proud, I am just so proud of what we’ve done, of the people that we help, kind of where we stand in the community. I think people really trust us and they hire us and they know us. They’re willing to put their business, their ideas, their causes on the line with us because they know we care and we care just as much about the families of New York State as they do, and so they’re willing to stand with us. Those people who take a chance on us and give us that opportunity, frankly, with their dreams and their life work — that’s what I’m most proud.
Joanna Pasceri
That truly is an honor.
Jack O’Donnell
It is. As much as O’Donnell and Associates is what I have invested my blood, sweat and tears and toil into, for the most part, a lot of what we’re working on are the things that are other people’s dreams — whether that’s a community health provider, a cultural institution, a small business. And so they say, we want you on our side in this fight. It really is Henry V’s band of brothers, and we get to do it. I feel really honored by that.
Joanna Pasceri
You talked about your work in government and politics before landing in lobbying. You’ve been inside the Senate, worked in the comptroller’s office, advised campaigns, and spent years navigating Albany. How do all of those experiences shape the way you approach a client problem today?
Jack O’Donnell
They form who I am, and they form the backbone of how I understand government to work. I’ve had the unique opportunity to work with so many really great people in government and around government, and I learned something from all of their styles and really try to take the best of each bit and apply it. It is that real world experience — having seen how people make decisions on the inside, what motivates them, how do you get attention for your issue, knowing how those bodies function, knowing how staff interact with their bosses, knowing how elected officials choose what they’re going to use their limited political capital on. All of those things go — the secret sauce that we have here — that is the magic when we’re trying to solve other people’s problems.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, early on in your career, you faced a serious health challenge. Explain that time, how you got through it and how that experience changed you.
Jack O’Donnell
I’m one of the most fortunate people you’ll ever meet. I got very, very sick, and I got very sick very quickly. I went from feeling well on Monday morning to an emergency room visit on Monday afternoon, evening, to a coma later that night. Two days later, they figured out it was my liver, and I moved to the Strong Elisano Hospital in Rochester. And on Friday, I got less. The doctors, the team really thought that was the end for me. And then Friday night, I got a liver transplant. I woke up, I don’t know, a couple days later with 98 staples in my chest. I didn’t know where I was or really what was happening. It was a struggle, but a great, wonderful struggle. You tell people about that, and folks say, oh, I’m sorry. My reaction is so different. It’s a story with a happy ending. And so it’s a blessing. It forced me to really take stock of who I was and what I was doing. It has helped make every day a gift since then. I wake up just really still, really excited to be alive. It’s been over 19 years since that happened. I think you can hear in my voice sort of how emotional that still is for me. But it puts everything in perspective. It also puts this work we do into perspective. Are we helping a doctor who’s going to go save a life like someone saved mine? That’s really heady stuff, and just a great opportunity to kind of give back to a community that has kept me going.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, public service has been a part of your life long before public affairs became your career. Your father and grandfather were judges, your mother had high profile positions in law enforcement, including as the U.S. Attorney for the Western District. What did you learn from growing up in that environment?
Jack O’Donnell
My sister has a line where people say stuff like that to her, and they say, oh, you have big footsteps to follow in. She likes to say, I have big footprints to follow, which I think is pretty cute. This was instilled into me early on — that places where you get the opportunity to do well, whether that’s public schools that I went to, whether that’s being safe in a community, whether that’s getting to go to these cultural institutions or have a job and have opportunity, you owe something back to that community. That’s, again, really a big part of who we are at O’Donnell Associates and really what we try to do. The opportunity to be a boy from Buffalo and work in the United States Senate, and help elect someone who became the United States Majority Leader, the first one from New York, to work in state government, local government, campaign for president, and kind of everything in between — how cool is that? So to not take some of that experience, not take some of the learning and that opportunity and not use it to help make this community better would just be wrong. I’m really excited to be in the position I am today where we get to do this and we do it really well. Joanna, we just have such a great team here. I talk to folks and I hear what they’re up against, and I think — I know we can fix this for them. I know it might take a year, it might take two years, that’s going to be harder than we think and much harder than they want. But I hear these things, and I know, I think about what’s happened and what I’ve learned and other work we’ve done and who would care about this issue. I just know we can do it. Being able to do that is pretty cool.
Joanna Pasceri
We’ve built a firm around one simple idea — solve the problem. Now, after 25 years, what do you want ODNA to be known for in the next 25 years?
Jack O’Donnell
I don’t think any of that changes. I don’t think who we are and what we do changes at all. Obviously we continue to be able to solve even bigger problems. When it was just one or two of us in Buffalo, we could do so much. But now this statewide team is so much more powerful. It is so much more experienced. It is so much more even better connected than just me when I started. Being able to continue to take on these problems, but even be able to take on and help people solve even bigger ones — that’s my biggest ambition.
Joanna Pasceri
Well, it’s been wonderful for me helping you make things work for others. I’ve been very proud to help you with your mission and I hope we have another 25 years.
Jack O’Donnell
People like you and Ralph and Kara who have a ton of experience, people like Jim who’ve been with me for a decade, and Michael has been with me for a while. And to these younger people who are just so incredibly talented and have come up and want to be a part of this — man, it’s the best team in the business. I believe that.
Joanna Pasceri
Jack, thanks for sharing your story. Congratulations on a great run.
Jack O’Donnell
This was so much fun. Thanks for this conversation, Joanna.
Joanna Pasceri
This story is about taking a chance, solving problems, learning from the hard moments and continuing to build. Thanks for joining us for this special Meet the Team episode. If you’d like to know more about Jack and the rest of our exceptional team, we always look forward to a chat. Connect with us — just head to our website at odonnellsolutions.com. We’ll be back with more of the politics, people and decisions happening in New York and D.C. See you soon from the lobby with Jack O’Donnell.
