My Next Big Thing

Today, I am becoming Chief Digital Officer of DCI Group, a Washington, DC public affairs firm.

Ten years ago I left Washington, DC and became an entrepreneur. During the course of that decade, I have founded or co-founded more than a half dozen different companies, all of them at the intersection of media, communications, and the Internet.

In this new role, I will be an entrepreneur from within, helping to build an innovative digital communications practice for one of the nation’s leading public affairs firms. I will bring the same skill and enthusiasm that I have used to develop companies like CustomScoop into leading innovators in their industries.

When I got my first job on Capitol Hill as an intern in 1991, I knew I loved the public policy arena. My subsequent experience working for a public relations firm, a think tank, and a Congressional committee solidified that interest and bolstered it with experience in the trenches.

In 1997, I was named CEO of TownHall.com. That married my interest in politics with my longtime hobby of computers and the Internet. Ever since, I have kept one foot in the public affairs world and the other in the online world.

At DCI, I will work to build upon the firm’s existing efforts in the digital space and more fully integrate it with their robust offerings. I will be pushing the envelope and seeking to bring the same fast pace of innovation I have experienced in launching startup companies.

In some respects, this was a difficult decision. Stepping away from my day-to-day responsibilities at CustomScoop in particular will be a change for me – after all I have been at the helm of that company since 2000.

At the same time, however, it is really a natural move that capitalizes on my dual interests. It is an exciting time to be in the digital public affairs arena, and I look forward to being part of it every day.

Fortunately, this new role will continue to keep me involved in the social media community. I expect to continue blogging regularly (probably even more regularly than I have been of late) and participating in discussions on Twitter, podcasts, and elsewhere.

I will be splitting my time between my home in New Hampshire and Washington, DC. Many weekdays will find me in our nation’s capital, while the weekends will see me back in New Hampshire with my family. It’s a schedule I’m pretty familiar with from my work of the past decade, and though challenging it does help me have the best of both worlds.

Since I hope to bring a lot of my experience in the startup sector to bear, I’m sure I’ll be reaching out to many of you to see how we might partner on some innovative public affairs campaigns. I look forward to continuing the dialogue with all of you.