Arthur R. Collins

Last updated

Art Collins (born March 16, 1960) is a Founding and Managing Partner of theGROUP, a strategy, policy and communications firm established in 2011. He was previously President and Chief Executive Officer of Public Private Partnership, Inc., an independent strategic planning and political consulting firm he founded in 1989. theGROUP provides strategic advice to multinational corporations, political campaigns, political parties, elected officials, nonprofit and government organizations, and advocacy groups. [1]

Contents

Biography

Collins received his B.S. degree in Accounting in 1982 and an honorary D.H.L. degree in 2009, both from Florida A & M University in Tallahassee, Florida. [2] He furthermore has studied international law at the University of Miami School of Law in Coral Gables, Florida and abroad at the University of Montpellier in Montpellier, France.

In 1982, Collins started his professional career as a systems engineer and account marketing representative at the IBM Corporation. During 1987 and 1988 he served as a Deputy Receiver and Legislative Affairs Director with the Florida Department of Insurance.

Collins was appointed in 1989 by the Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives to the position of Staff Director for the Office of Black Affairs providing technical and political support to African-American legislators.

Collins is a member of the Board of Trustees of RLJ Lodging Trust, a self-advised, publicly traded real estate investment trust focused on acquiring premium-branded, focused-service and compact full-service hotels.

As part of his commitment to public policy and global advocacy, Collins serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institution, the globe's leading public policy think tank, and Meridian International Center, a leading non-partisan, non-profit organization dedicated to international understanding. Collins is Chairman of the Morehouse School of Medicine Board of Trustees and he serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) Political Education & Leadership Institute and is Chairman of its think tank, the 21st Century Council. He served as a board member and the Treasurer for both the CBC Political Action Committee and the CBC Foundation. [3]

Art Collins is the husband of Sela Thompson Collins and has six children. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and is a Freemason.

Political campaigns

In 2008 Collins served as Senior Political Strategist for President of the United States Barack Obama during the 2008 Presidential campaign. [4] Following the election he served as a Public Liaison within the Obama-Biden Transition Project. In 2004, Collins was senior advisor to United States Senator John Kerry, the Presidential Democratic Nominee, during his general election campaign for President of the United States. [5] [6] In 1990, he served as campaign manager for Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Leander J. Shaw, Jr. Collins was also a member of the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) Democratic Business Council during the tenure of DNC Chairman Ron Brown.

Public service

Florida Governor Jeb Bush appointed Collins in 2001 to the Board of Trustees of Florida A&M University, the largest public Historically Black College or University (HBCU) in America, where he was elected its first Chairman. [7] Following his tenure as a U.S. Senator, the late former Florida Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Collins to the Florida Small and Minority Business Advisory Council and the Florida Prepaid Postsecondary Education Expense Board, where he served on the investment committee overseeing over $2 billion in investments. Collins was also appointed by former U.S. Senator and then Florida Governor Bob Graham to serve on the Governor’s Business Advisory Council on Education and the State Board of Independent Postsecondary Vocational, Technical, Trade and Business Schools. Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Bob Crawford appointed Collins to the Florida Consumers' Council, where he served as its Chairman.

Related Research Articles

Herman Carl McCall is an American politician of the Democratic Party. A former New York State Comptroller and New York State Senator, McCall was the Democratic candidate for Governor of New York in 2002. McCall was the first African-American to be elected New York State Comptroller. He is an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ, and he currently serves on the board of directors of several corporations. From October 17, 2011 until his retirement on June 30, 2019, McCall served as chairman of the State University of New York Board of Trustees.

2004 Democratic National Convention U.S. political event held in Boston, Massachusetts

The 2004 Democratic National Convention convened from July 26 to 29, 2004 at the FleetCenter in Boston, Massachusetts, and nominated Senator John Kerry from Massachusetts for president and Senator John Edwards from North Carolina for vice president, respectively, in the 2004 presidential election.

Christopher G. Kennedy

Christopher George Kennedy is an American businessman, politician, and Chair of Joseph P. Kennedy Enterprises, Inc. He is a son of former U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, a member of the Kennedy family. Kennedy served as Chair of the Board of Trustees for the University of Illinois from 2009 to 2015. Until April 2012, he was also president of Merchandise Mart Properties, a commercial property management firm based in Chicago.

John W. Thompson

John Wendell Thompson is an American technology executive who was the chair of Microsoft from 2014 until June 2021, and chair of Illumina since 2021. He is a former chief executive of Virtual Instruments, a vice-president at IBM and the former chief executive of Symantec. Thompson later became an independent director on the board of Microsoft, and in February 2014, was named chairman. He led the search for Microsoft's next CEO; as a result, Satya Nadella was selected.

Paul G. Kirk American politician

Paul Grattan Kirk Jr. is an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from 2009 to 2010, having been appointed to fill the vacancy created by the death of Ted Kennedy. From 1985 to 1989, he chaired the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

Howard Dean American politician

Howard Brush Dean III is an American physician, author, lobbyist, and retired politician who served as Governor of Vermont from 1991 to 2003 and Chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC) from 2005 to 2009. Dean was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2004 presidential election. His implementation of the fifty-state strategy as head of the DNC is credited with the Democratic victories in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Afterward, he became a political commentator and consultant to McKenna Long & Aldridge, a law and lobbying firm.

James A. Joseph is an American former diplomat.

Mike Davis is an American politician who served in the California State Assembly. Davis was declared the fourth most loyal Democratic voter in the California State Legislature in the Sacramento Bee 2011–2012 listing. He voted against the Democratic Party only 2% of the time given over 3,500 of votes taken. Mike Davis currently serves as president pro tem of the City of Los Angeles Board of Public Works.

Tom Perez Former DNC Chair and 26th United States Secretary of Labor

Thomas Edward Perez is an American politician and attorney who served as the Chair of the Democratic National Committee from February 2017 until January 2021. Perez was previously Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights (2009–2013) and United States Secretary of Labor (2013–2017). He was a GU Politics Fellow at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service in 2021.

Fred Ryan American newspaper executive and political consultant

Frederick Joseph Ryan Jr. is an American media proprietor, political adviser, and lawyer who serves as the publisher and chief executive officer of The Washington Post. He was the president and chief operating officer of Allbritton Communications Company and founding chief executive officer and president of Politico. He was the chief of staff for former President Ronald Reagan from 1989 to 1995, and is chairman of the board of trustees of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation.

Ramona Martinez a member of the Democratic National Committee from Colorado for 16 years. A businesswoman and former president of the Denver City Council, Martinez has served on the DNC from 1992 to 2009. As a superdelegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Martinez has publicly supported Bill Richardson, and then Hillary Clinton. She was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.

Robert Wolf is the former Chairman and CEO of UBS Americas as well as the President and Chief Operating Officer of UBS# Investment Bank.

Bill Thompson (New York politician)

William Colridge Thompson Jr.. is an American politician who served as the 42nd Comptroller of New York City; sworn into office on January 1, 2002, he was reelected to serve a second term that began on January 1, 2006. He did not seek re-election in 2009. Instead he ran for mayor, and he was succeeded as comptroller by John Liu. On June 15, 2016, Thompson was appointed by New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo as chairman of the board of trustees of The City University of New York; his term ends in June 2022.

William "Bill" Sweeney, Jr. OBE is a businessman and politician who was the president and chief executive officer of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) from 2009-2018. He currently serves as an Executive-in-Residence at the American University School of Public Affairs.

Jamie Merisotis

Jamie Merisotis is president and CEO of Lumina Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States whose mission is to increase the proportion of Americans with degrees, certificates, and other high-quality credentials to 60 percent by 2025. Merisotis oversees the foundation's use of a $1.2 billion endowment.

Ann Marie Fudge serves on a number of corporate boards, including those of General Electric, Novartis, Unilever and Infosys, as well as on several non-profit boards. She is former chairman and CEO of Young & Rubicam Brands, a global network of marketing communications companies. In 2010, Fudge served on President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform.

Eugene William Stetson III is an American businessman, film producer and environmental policy advisor to numerous entrepreneurial, not-for-profit and political organizations.

Mo Cowan 29th United States Senator from Massachusetts (Class 2)

William Maurice Cowan is an American lawyer who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts from February 1, 2013, to July 16, 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as legal counsel and chief of staff to Governor Deval Patrick. Patrick appointed him on an interim basis to fill the vacancy left by fellow Democrat John Kerry, who resigned to become U.S. Secretary of State.

Clyde Williams was a candidate for Congress in New York’s 13th Congressional District. He was political director of the Democratic National Committee and domestic policy advisor to former President Bill Clinton.

Lois Ann Combs Weinberg is a politician and an advocate for improvements in public education in Kentucky. A native of the eastern region of Kentucky, Weinberg has served on the University of Kentucky Board of Trustees, the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, and the Kentucky Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.