User:Cryslynn5/mckinnon

Intro
Mark McKinnon is President of Maverick Media and Vice-Chairman of Public Strategies, Inc., a business advisory firm located in Austin, Texas. He has been working for more than three decades to help solve complex strategic challenges for causes, companies and candidates, including former President George W. Bush, 2008 Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain, late former Governor Ann Richards, Congressman Goodtime Charlie Wilson, Lance Armstrong and Bono.

Career
Mark McKinnon began his career as a songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee, working along-side country music's legendary songwriter Kris Kristofferson. He returned to Texas to study at The University of Texas at Austin and was the editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Texan, where he was jailed briefly on a First Amendment issue. McKinnon’s first political campaign experience was volunteering for Senator Lloyd Doggett’s 1984 campaign. Paul Begala, who worked in the upper echelon of the campaign at the time, gave him his first big break moving him into the press office for Dogget’s campaign. Mark McKinnon then went to work for former Texas Governor Mark White during his 1986 campaign and then worked on former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer’s campaign in 1987. McKinnon later went to work for the New York-based international political media consulting company Sawyer Miller Group in 1998. McKinnon spent the next several years working on many Texas Democratic winning campaigns, including for late Governor Ann Richards, former Houston Mayor  Bob Lanier, and the late Congressman Charlie Wilson. After returning to Texas, he joined Public Strategies, Inc. in 1990 and in 1996, McKinnon announced in the Texas Monthly that he was shifting gears and leaving partisan politics in an article entitled, ‘’The Spin Doctor is Out.’’

McKinnon returned to politics after meeting then Governor George Bush at a dinner at the governor’s mansion. Following this encounter, McKinnon and Bush developed a personal relationship. Of his relationship with Bush, McKinnon said, “We had a personal relationship before we had a professional relationship. And when Texas’ Democratic lieutenant governor Bob Bullock endorsed Bush over the Democratic gubernatorial nominee-his own god-son- well that’s when I crossed the bridge. But it was not an easy decision.” During a Frontline interview describing the former president’s ascendance into the national political arena, McKinnon said, “this Governor Bush was doing some things that really got my attention. He was talking about education reform. He was talking about immigration reform. He was talking about issues that had typically been Democratic issues. He was talking about them in a really compassionate way.’’ McKinnon said that he was particularly “impressed with how he’d gotten ahead of the Republican Party.”

Shortly after this initial meeting, McKinnon returned to the world of politics and joined President Bush’s first presidential campaign as the chief media advisor, directing the advertising effort in 2000 and again in the 2004 elections. President Bush appointed McKinnon to serve as a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent, autonomous entity responsible for all U.S. government sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting. McKinnon began serving as the principal media advisor for Senator McCain’s presidential bid for the Republican primaries in January, 2007, but decided to leave the campaign on May 21, 2008. Regarding his decision, McKinnon stated that he preferred not to campaign against Illinois Senator Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for president because Obama's election "would send a great message to the country and the world." In leaving his advising role, McKinnon said he preferred to be a “fan, friend, and cheerleader” for McCain’s campaign, but preferred not to be the “tip of the spear in attacking him (Obama)”.

Former President George Bush says of McKinnon, “I was really impressed by Mark’s creativity, and I was particularly impressed by his honesty." Senator John McCain, in his typical straight talk fashion, says, "He’s almost a genius." And President Barack Obama calls McKinnon “a class act.”

McKinnon currently serves on the boards of Change Congress, an organization dedicated to campaign finance reform, and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. He lectures frequently at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and The Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin. He also writes a weekly column for The Daily Beast.

Personal Life
McKinnon attended The University of Texas at Austin and served as editor of the award-winning college newspaper, The Daily Texan. He has a tattoo on his right arm of the number “40” in remembrance of the NFL football player and US soldier Pat Tillman who was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan. McKinnon also is a two-time Ironman Triathlon finisher. He met his wife Annie before he could drive and they have two grown daughters, Brita and Kendall.