Our Leadership

Jim Morrell    |    Chad Kolton    |    Mark Dion

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JIM MORRELL

Managing Partner

Jim Morrell has more than twenty years of communications experience spanning private business, political campaigns, Capitol Hill and the White House. Over the course of his career, he has provided strategic communications advice to many top companies, trade associations, and government officials.

Morrell is a founding partner of Blueprint Communications, which he launched with colleague Chad Kolton in 2013.  Prior to that, he was a partner at public affairs firm in Washington, DC where he worked with a diverse group of clients helping them to hone their messages and craft successful communications strategies designed to impact public policies.

In 2006, Morrell served as deputy chief of staff for the House Republican Conference under then-Chair Deborah Pryce (R-OH), where he oversaw all of the Conference’s public communications operations. Prior to joining the Conference, he worked at Quinn Gillespie & Associates crafting crisis communications plans, entailing both media and lobbying strategies, for numerous clients including Fortune 500 companies.

Morrell previously served as spokesperson in the White House Office of Media Affairs. In that capacity, he was the principal White House spokesperson during the 2004 presidential campaign for media outlets in fourteen states, including the battleground states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Michigan.

In 2000, Morrell worked as a writer for the Bush-Cheney campaign in Austin, Texas where he handled rapid response. Morrell has worked in numerous capacities on Capitol Hill. He was communications director for Congressman Rob Portman (R-OH), where he worked extensively on tax and pension issues. Morrell also served as speechwriter for the U.S. Speaker of the House and a senior legislative aide to the U.S. House Majority Whip. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and two sons.

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CHAD KOLTON

Managing Partner

With almost 25 years of experience in the public and private sectors, Chad Kolton has established an expertise in developing public relations strategies that successfully influence policymaking and effectively respond to crises at the global, national and regional levels. As a spokesperson for Republican and Democrat administrations, he has been quoted in nearly every major media outlet in the country and has created and placed opinion content in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and Foreign Affairs.

Kolton has extensive experience in providing executive-level public relations counsel and in implementing comprehensive media strategies. He has headed the public affairs office for both the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In both positions, he was tasked with developing communications strategies with international implications and directing national crisis response communications.

Kolton has also served as the press secretary for the White House Office of Management and Budget. In this role, he created and articulated messages to support Administration initiatives on fiscal, tax and trade policy as well as federal regulations.

In the private sector, Kolton has provided strategic communications counsel for corporate, political and government clients, including developing strategic public relations and crisis communications plans, reorganizing communications departments and providing comprehensive media relations support. His work encompassed a broad range of issues, including international affairs, homeland security, trade, energy and regulatory oversight.

Kolton began his career on Capitol Hill as deputy press secretary for the House Republican Conference under its then-Chair, U.S. Representative John Boehner (R-OH), the former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

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MARK DION

Managing Partner

Mark Dion is a veteran public affairs and political communications strategist.  With over two decades of experience working at the highest levels of government and politics, Mark serves as the primary strategic and creative consultant to political committees, industry associations, issue groups, foreign governments and politicians.

Serving at the forefront of some of the most visible issue advocacy campaigns, Mark has developed, managed and executed key national, statewide and DC-centric advertising and grassroots campaigns.  As a battle-tested campaign consultant and strategist, Mark has played an important role for candidates for president, governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House – winning in some of the most difficult political environments in the country.

Prior to joining Blueprint, Mark founded and built a highly successful public affairs firm that specialized in developing fully-integrated issue and branding campaigns. In recent years, Mark has directed a series of high-profile issue advertising campaigns for the National Association of Manufacturers, provided strategic advice to Daytona International Speedway and the International Speedway Corp., and produced a series of ads for the American Petroleum Institute.

Mark started his career as an aide in the U.S. Senate, served as a chief of staff and legislative director in the U.S. House of Representatives, guided a political action committee for a major national trade association, lobbied on federal health care issues, and managed campaigns for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate.

Mark earned his degree from Syracuse University where he had a lot of fun serving as the school’s mascot, “Otto the Orange.” He and his wife Stacey, live in Washington, D.C. with their two children.

 

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