OD&A is proud to announce its weekly newsletter, Monday Morning Memo, is the recipient of a Silver Excalibur Award by the Buffalo Niagara Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). The award celebrates the best work in communications from Western New York’s top professionals and companies.

The Monday Morning Memo represents the efforts of the entire OD&A team, led by Managing Partner Jack O’Donnell, creator of the newsletter, with exceptional dedication from Vice-President and Policy Director Jim Moore, Associate Michael Greco, and Director of Communications Joanna Pasceri.

While we are honored to receive this recognition, the credit belongs to all of you, our faithful readers, who believe in our mission and have helped us grow tremendously over the years. Thank you for being a friend and supporter of OD&A!

Each year City & State NY identifies 100 leaders whose efforts exemplify what it means to be socially responsible. We’re thrilled to announce that our Kara Hughes, Senior Adviser and Head of NYC Practice at OD&A, was selected for her hard work creating meaningful partnerships between government and the private sector to make life better for all New Yorkers! Read her submission below:

Job description

I love working in the space between government and the private sector to create bespoke solutions to the challenges New Yorkers face every day.

Defining social responsibility

Ensuring that the work we do to create partnerships between government and the private sector benefits New Yorkers – especially the most vulnerable New Yorkers.

Best advice

The only way through is through. To me this means you must face things and walk through them in order to achieve your goals and get to the other side.

We’re on the move!

Our lobbying team, led by Managing Partner Jack O’Donnell, is climbing the power list of New York State’s Top 50 Lobbyists in 2023. The firm is now #24 in the City & State NY annual rankings of government relations pros guiding the Empire State.

Biggest achievements:

OD&A is proud of helping our clients make change all over New York, from the new 340B reinvestment fund, major investments in upstate transit, a flagship designation and over $110 million in investment for the University at Buffalo, worker protections and prevailing wages on green energy investments, billions in procurement wins for New York companies, and leading New York City to establish a groundbreaking drone policy including a public-private partnership between the Mayor’s Office and Pixis Drones to celebrate the 50th anniversary of hip-hop!

Key industries: Economic development, labor, energy, health care, transportation

Notable clients: North Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters, New York State Building Trades, AIDS Health Foundation, Trillium Health, Regional Transit System

Our Jack O’Donnell also collaborated with fellow D.C. lobbyist Winning Strategies Washington, which was named a top ‘Hired Gun’ on The Hill’s list of Top Lobbyists 2023.

The #MTV generation is keeping NYS rocking!

Congratulations to our Jack O’Donnell for being named to the first-ever City & State NY’s Above & Beyond: Gen X power list of leaders getting stuff done & making their mark on NY.

City and State NY writes: It was summer 1996, and Jack O’Donnell was waiting for his post-college job to start at a government agency. Meanwhile, he impulsively hitched a ride to the Democratic National Convention – and ended up working on the Clinton-Gore campaign.

He never did take that government job. “Once you’ve been on a campaign, it’s hard to go back,” says O’Donnell, now a managing partner at his government relations and public affairs firm.

In the quarter-century since, O’Donnell has worked on countless campaigns. Most memorably, he worked to elect U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer in 1998 “when he was 50 points behind in the primary,” O’Donnell says. “My mother told me I should get a real job.”

O’Donnell not only helped convince Upstaters to elect the Brooklyn candidate, he ultimately went on to work for the senator. Last month, Schumer was back in Buffalo to announce a regional tech hub. “He’s really kept that promise to upstate New York, and I’m happy to have been part of it,” O’Donnell says.

Indeed, while most of his ambitious peers have left Buffalo, O’Donnell is devoted to fortifying his home region. He recently helped secure funding for the Strong National Museum of Play’s $120 million expansion, and for the University at Buffalo’s new engineering building.

But O’Donnell’s most meaningful campaigns have been the ones he ran for his mother, an attorney general candidate, and his father, a state Supreme Court judge. “Getting to do that for your parents, after all they’ve done, was a highlight,” he says.”

More information on the recognition here.

We’re on the move!

Thank you to City & State NY for recognizing us as one of NY’s most effective campaign advisers in its Political Consultants Power 100!

O’Donnell & Associates has built an accomplished campaign management team to complement its burgeoning political services sector.

Led by Managing Partner Jack O’Donnell, a veteran political strategist, and OD&A VP and Director of Campaigns Alec Lewis, our team also includes media and government experts and highly-driven boots-on-the-ground support staff.
 
Find out more on how we are helping our clients win here.

OD&A works hard every day for our clients to fuel growth in Upstate NY and across the state, and we thank City & State NY for recognizing our efforts by ranking Managing Partner Jack O’Donnell #24 on its Upstate Power 100, a list featuring leaders who have the region on the up and up.

Jack is proud to be honored with NY’s top officials, including Governor Hochul, Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes and prominent State lawmakers and labor leaders. We also congratulate our clients who join us on the list, including UB President Satish Tripathi #19, Delaware North Chair Jeremy Jacobs #22, and Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation Chair Mary Wilson #32.

City & State NY writes: Jack O’Donnell is a top lobbyist who knows how to get stuff done in Albany and has a reach across the state. His clients include Alstom Transportation, Rise Light & Power, the New York State Building & Construction Trades Council, Delaware North and such venerable Western New York institutions as the University at Buffalo, Niagara University and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. O’Donnell is the author of “Bitten by the Tiger,” a book about former Gov. William Sulzer, the only New York governor to be impeached.

Congratulations Jack!

Our Jack O’Donnell is honored to be recognized for his work shaping New York State’s future.

Thank you to City & State NY for featuring Jack in its 2023 Albany Power 100, a list of key power players in the state Capitol.

We are proud to be included with many of our partners, clients, and elected officials who are dedicated to creating a better New York.

City and State NY writes, “Jack O’Donnell, a former aide to U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, is a top consultant in Western New York and in Albany. His firm, which represents corporations, nonprofits, biotech startups and unions, hired Kasirer alum Kara Hughes last year and counts labor expert Michael Cinquanti, former state Senate aide Alec Lewis and Schumer veteran Jim Moore among its staffers. O’Donnell is an expert on impeachment – his book “Bitten By The Tiger” is about William Sulzer, the only New York governor to be impeached – making him a go-to expert when then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo faced the prospect of impeachment.”