• Michael Colton

    Michael Colton

    A senior associate with Breakwater, Michael supports clients with day-to-day media and communications needs, including content development, coverage monitoring, and ad-hoc research requests. Michael joined the Breakwater team in February of 2024. Prior to coming aboard, he worked as a Corporate Communications intern with the Zeno Group, where he helped identify and articulate thought leadership and media relations strategies for clients ranging from leading biotech firms to top skincare brands. In addition to PR and communications experience, Michael has a variety of experience in content marketing and social media strategy. In 2023, he spearheaded social media strategy for the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, a professional association of over 15,000 members; while in college, Michael worked as a content development specialist for Credibly Retail Capital, where he developed and executed organic social content and thought leadership pieces on behalf of the mid-sized credit firm. Michael graduated from Columbia University in 2022 with a major in History and a concentration in Economics. While in school, Michael served as an editor for the Blue & White, Columbia’s oldest literary magazine as well as a content supervisor for the Columbia Journal of Politics and Society. Additionally, he worked as a research and tech assistant in Columbia’s library system, where he connected students and faculty with scholarship resources in support of their academic work. Raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Michael is a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, in spite of their long history of mediocrity.

    Senior
    Associate

    michael@breakwaterstrategy.com

    A senior associate with Breakwater, Michael supports clients with day-to-day media and communications needs, including content development, coverage monitoring, and ad-hoc research requests.

    Michael joined the Breakwater team in February of 2024. Prior to coming aboard, he worked as a Corporate Communications intern with the Zeno Group, where he helped identify and articulate thought leadership and media relations strategies for clients ranging from leading biotech firms to top skincare brands.

    In addition to PR and communications experience, Michael has a variety of experience in content marketing and social media strategy. In 2023, he spearheaded social media strategy for the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, a professional association of over 15,000 members; while in college, Michael worked as a content development specialist for Credibly Retail Capital, where he developed and executed organic social content and thought leadership pieces on behalf of the mid-sized credit firm.

    Michael graduated from Columbia University in 2022 with a major in History and a concentration in Economics. While in school, Michael served as an editor for the Blue & White, Columbia’s oldest literary magazine as well as a content supervisor for the Columbia Journal of Politics and Society. Additionally, he worked as a research and tech assistant in Columbia’s library system, where he connected students and faculty with scholarship resources in support of their academic work.

    Raised in the suburbs of Chicago, Michael is a die-hard Chicago Bears fan, in spite of their long history of mediocrity.

  • Patrick Conley

    Patrick Conley

    Patrick is an Associate Director at Breakwater Strategy, where he works with clients on stakeholder engagement, organizational strategy and reputation management. He brings experience across emerging technologies, international markets, and consumer brands, helping organizations navigate complex policy and business challenges from strategy to execution. Before joining Breakwater, Patrick completed internships with non-profits working in anti-corruption and conflict prevention, and worked on democracy and governance organization IRI’s Southern Africa team. In the latter role, he attended and helped organize political party trainings ahead of Angola’s 2022 General Elections and a regional party summit in Johannesburg. Patrick was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in Political Science and African Diaspora studies. He spent four months studying in Accra, Ghana and travelled to Togo, Kenya and Tanzania after finishing his semester. He enjoys following Wisconsin sports teams, professional tennis and Brighton & Hove Albion.

    Associate
    Director

    patrick@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Patrick is an Associate Director at Breakwater Strategy, where he works with clients on stakeholder engagement, organizational strategy and reputation management. He brings experience across emerging technologies, international markets, and consumer brands, helping organizations navigate complex policy and business challenges from strategy to execution.

    Before joining Breakwater, Patrick completed internships with non-profits working in anti-corruption and conflict prevention, and worked on democracy and governance organization IRI’s Southern Africa team. In the latter role, he attended and helped organize political party trainings ahead of Angola’s 2022 General Elections and a regional party summit in Johannesburg.

    Patrick was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin and graduated from Kenyon College with a degree in Political Science and African Diaspora studies. He spent four months studying in Accra, Ghana and travelled to Togo, Kenya and Tanzania after finishing his semester. He enjoys following Wisconsin sports teams, professional tennis and Brighton & Hove Albion.

  • Austin Cook

    Austin Cook

    Austin Cook is a Director at Breakwater Strategy, where he draws on a decade of experience in public affairs, crisis communications, and media strategy. He has led high-stakes communications efforts for political campaigns, elected officials, and businesses, helping clients navigate complex reputational challenges in fast-moving environments.  Before joining Breakwater, Austin served as Communications Director for Elissa Slotkin’s successful 2024 U.S. Senate campaign, where he oversaw all media engagement, rapid response, and messaging strategy in one of the most competitive elections in the country. He previously served as Slotkin’s Communications Director in the U.S. House of Representatives, managing press strategy on national security, emerging technology, and defense policy. He also helped Slotkin prepare for her response to President Donald Trump’s 2025 Joint Address to Congress. Earlier in his career, Austin was Communications Director for the North Carolina Democratic Party during the 2020 election cycle and held key communications roles on Senator Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign. He also has agency-side experience advising Fortune 500 companies and advocacy groups on strategic messaging and reputation management.  Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and international Affairs from Wake Forest University, where he served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and a master’s degree in national security policy from Duke University. He lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend and their dog.

    Director

    austin@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Austin Cook is a Director at Breakwater Strategy, where he draws on a decade of experience in public affairs, crisis communications, and media strategy. He has led high-stakes communications efforts for political campaigns, elected officials, and businesses, helping clients navigate complex reputational challenges in fast-moving environments. 

    Before joining Breakwater, Austin served as Communications Director for Elissa Slotkin’s successful 2024 U.S. Senate campaign, where he oversaw all media engagement, rapid response, and messaging strategy in one of the most competitive elections in the country. He previously served as Slotkin’s Communications Director in the U.S. House of Representatives, managing press strategy on national security, emerging technology, and defense policy. He also helped Slotkin prepare for her response to President Donald Trump’s 2025 Joint Address to Congress.

    Earlier in his career, Austin was Communications Director for the North Carolina Democratic Party during the 2020 election cycle and held key communications roles on Senator Amy Klobuchar’s presidential campaign. He also has agency-side experience advising Fortune 500 companies and advocacy groups on strategic messaging and reputation management. 

    Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in politics and international Affairs from Wake Forest University, where he served as editor-in-chief of the student newspaper, and a master’s degree in national security policy from Duke University. He lives in Brooklyn with his girlfriend and their dog.

  • Sam Fossum

    Sam Fossum

    Sam is an Associate Director at Breakwater Strategy. As a former journalist, Sam works with clients to help them build insightful communications strategies and manage reputational risks. Sam has a deep interest and understanding of the media landscape and is passionate about helping prepare clients for high-stakes appearances. He is particularly focused on the intersection of financial services, emerging technologies and policymaking.    Prior to Breakwater, Sam was an Emmy-award-winning producer/reporter who covered the White House and Capitol Hill for CNN. He regularly filed stories for digital and worked with the network’s top correspondents and anchors. His stories spanned the intersection of politics and public policy, from debt ceiling negotiations and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster to the 2024 presidential campaign.   After being born in Anchorage, Alaska, Sam spent his childhood in Russia before later moving to the UK. He then returned to the U.S. for university, graduating from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a bachelor’s degree in History and Writing Seminars. He first got involved in communications and journalism while writing for the undergraduate newspaper.   When not in the office, you can often find Sam tinkering with his sourdough starter, exploring a new museum or finding a quiet place to enjoy a good book.  

    Associate
    Director

    sam@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Sam is an Associate Director at Breakwater Strategy. As a former journalist, Sam works with clients to help them build insightful communications strategies and manage reputational risks. Sam has a deep interest and understanding of the media landscape and is passionate about helping prepare clients for high-stakes appearances. He is particularly focused on the intersection of financial services, emerging technologies and policymaking.   

    Prior to Breakwater, Sam was an Emmy-award-winning producer/reporter who covered the White House and Capitol Hill for CNN. He regularly filed stories for digital and worked with the network’s top correspondents and anchors. His stories spanned the intersection of politics and public policy, from debt ceiling negotiations and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster to the 2024 presidential campaign.  

    After being born in Anchorage, Alaska, Sam spent his childhood in Russia before later moving to the UK. He then returned to the U.S. for university, graduating from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a bachelor’s degree in History and Writing Seminars. He first got involved in communications and journalism while writing for the undergraduate newspaper.  

    When not in the office, you can often find Sam tinkering with his sourdough starter, exploring a new museum or finding a quiet place to enjoy a good book.  

  • Gary Ginsberg

    Gary Ginsberg

    Gary Ginsberg is a lawyer, corporate advisor, author and venture fund partner, serving at the intersection of media, politics, investing and philanthropy for more than 25 years. A native of Buffalo, New York, Ginsberg is a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University and the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.  He began his legal career as an attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He left the firm in 1992 for a position in the Clinton presidential campaign and later served in the Clinton Administration in the Office of the White House Counsel and at the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1995, Ginsberg became Senior Editor and legal counsel of George, the monthly political magazine started by John F. Kennedy, Jr. Ginsberg spent eleven years at News Corporation as the company’s Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs and a member of the Chairman’s seven-person Executive Management Committee. In 2010, he joined Time Warner as the entertainment company’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Marketing and Communications, where he led the company’s integrated sales and marketing division, the Time Warner Foundation and was responsible for evangelizing the company’s major initiatives across the media landscape. After the sale of the company to AT&T in 2018, Ginsberg joined Softbank as the company’s Senior Vice President and Global Chief Communications Officer, where he remained until December 2020. Ginsberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents (Twelve). He has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNN.com, and was a former on-air political contributor to MSNBC. Ginsberg is the chairman of the Board of New Visions for Public Schools, New York City’s premier educational reform organization; he is also a Director of The City, the online not-for-profit news service covering NYC, and Malaria No More.  From 2015-2018, Ginsberg was an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Business School where he co-taught the course Entrepreneurship in Incumbent Media. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Ginsberg is a founding partner of 25Madison, the New York City-based VC firm and start-up studio.  He is also a director of Schrodinger, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDGR) and Townsquare Media, Inc. (NYSE: TSQ). He lives in New York City with his wife Susanna Aaron and two sons.

    Senior
    Advisor

    Gary Ginsberg is a lawyer, corporate advisor, author and venture fund partner, serving at the intersection of media, politics, investing and philanthropy for more than 25 years.

    A native of Buffalo, New York, Ginsberg is a magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Brown University and the Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.  He began his legal career as an attorney at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett. He left the firm in 1992 for a position in the Clinton presidential campaign and later served in the Clinton Administration in the Office of the White House Counsel and at the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1995, Ginsberg became Senior Editor and legal counsel of George, the monthly political magazine started by John F. Kennedy, Jr.

    Ginsberg spent eleven years at News Corporation as the company’s Executive Vice President of Global Marketing and Corporate Affairs and a member of the Chairman’s seven-person Executive Management Committee. In 2010, he joined Time Warner as the entertainment company’s Executive Vice President for Corporate Marketing and Communications, where he led the company’s integrated sales and marketing division, the Time Warner Foundation and was responsible for evangelizing the company’s major initiatives across the media landscape. After the sale of the company to AT&T in 2018, Ginsberg joined Softbank as the company’s Senior Vice President and Global Chief Communications Officer, where he remained until December 2020.

    Ginsberg is the author of the New York Times bestseller First Friends: The Powerful, Unsung (And Unelected) People Who Shaped Our Presidents (Twelve). He has published opinion pieces in The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CNN.com, and was a former on-air political contributor to MSNBC.

    Ginsberg is the chairman of the Board of New Visions for Public Schools, New York City’s premier educational reform organization; he is also a Director of The City, the online not-for-profit news service covering NYC, and Malaria No More.  From 2015-2018, Ginsberg was an adjunct professor at the Columbia University Business School where he co-taught the course Entrepreneurship in Incumbent Media. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Ginsberg is a founding partner of 25Madison, the New York City-based VC firm and start-up studio.  He is also a director of Schrodinger, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDGR) and Townsquare Media, Inc. (NYSE: TSQ).

    He lives in New York City with his wife Susanna Aaron and two sons.
  • Emi Groth

    Emi Groth

    Emi Groth is a Senior Associate at Breakwater Strategy. Based in San Francisco, she collaborates with colleagues across the BWS firm to support clients on announcement planning, research asks, media relations, and communications strategy. Prior to Breakwater, Emi worked at a boutique PR agency focused on early-stage tech companies and startups. While there, she developed strategic communications plans, managed media outreach campaigns, drafted messaging materials, and helped emerging companies shape their narratives.Emi graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a minor in Art History. While attending undergrad, she played on UCSB’s collegiate D1 women’s soccer team for three years. Later, she studied abroad in Florence, Italy, interning as an art gallery assistant. As a California native, you'll find Emi outside hiking coastal trails or local parks, though she's just as content at home trying out new recipes or getting hooked on the latest TV show or movie.

    Senior
    Associate

    emi@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Emi Groth is a Senior Associate at Breakwater Strategy. Based in San Francisco, she collaborates with colleagues across the BWS firm to support clients on announcement planning, research asks, media relations, and communications strategy.

    Prior to Breakwater, Emi worked at a boutique PR agency focused on early-stage tech companies and startups. While there, she developed strategic communications plans, managed media outreach campaigns, drafted messaging materials, and helped emerging companies shape their narratives.Emi graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts in Communication and a minor in Art History. While attending undergrad, she played on UCSB’s collegiate D1 women’s soccer team for three years. Later, she studied abroad in Florence, Italy, interning as an art gallery assistant.

    As a California native, you’ll find Emi outside hiking coastal trails or local parks, though she’s just as content at home trying out new recipes or getting hooked on the latest TV show or movie.

  • Terry Wade

    Terry Wade

    Terry Wade is a strategic communications advisor who helps energy companies navigate complex public affairs challenges, drawing on more than two decades of experience across media, communications, international affairs, and the energy sector. Based in Houston, TX, Wade is the founder of TLW Consulting. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has held senior leadership positions at some of the world's largest energy, public relations, and media companies. He has extensive experience engaging corporate leaders, public officials, and top-tier journalists to manage reputation, mitigate risk, and craft narratives that resonate with diverse stakeholders.  Wade served as Global Head of Media Relations at ExxonMobil from 2024 to 2026, where he directed all top-tier media engagements, crafted earnings scripts for the CFO, and helped launch a retail shareholder voting program. Prior to that, he spent six years as Supervisor of Corporate and Digital Communications at Aramco Americas, overseeing strategy for content creation, media relations, digital channels, and crisis communications. Earlier in his career, Wade was a Senior Vice President at Edelman, where he led the corporate affairs and energy practice in Houston, secured new business, and repositioned corporate narratives for major clients. Before moving into corporate communications, he spent twelve years as a journalist at Reuters News, serving as Bureau Chief, Senior Correspondent, and Correspondent in Houston, Lima, and São Paulo, covering energy, commodities, financial markets, politics, and economics. Wade holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley.

    Senior
    Advisor

    Terry Wade is a strategic communications advisor who helps energy companies navigate complex public affairs challenges, drawing on more than two decades of experience across media, communications, international affairs, and the energy sector.

    Based in Houston, TX, Wade is the founder of TLW Consulting. He is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese and has held senior leadership positions at some of the world’s largest energy, public relations, and media companies. He has extensive experience engaging corporate leaders, public officials, and top-tier journalists to manage reputation, mitigate risk, and craft narratives that resonate with diverse stakeholders. 

    Wade served as Global Head of Media Relations at ExxonMobil from 2024 to 2026, where he directed all top-tier media engagements, crafted earnings scripts for the CFO, and helped launch a retail shareholder voting program. Prior to that, he spent six years as Supervisor of Corporate and Digital Communications at Aramco Americas, overseeing strategy for content creation, media relations, digital channels, and crisis communications.

    Earlier in his career, Wade was a Senior Vice President at Edelman, where he led the corporate affairs and energy practice in Houston, secured new business, and repositioned corporate narratives for major clients. Before moving into corporate communications, he spent twelve years as a journalist at Reuters News, serving as Bureau Chief, Senior Correspondent, and Correspondent in Houston, Lima, and São Paulo, covering energy, commodities, financial markets, politics, and economics.

    Wade holds degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley.
  • Mark Hayes

    Mark Hayes

    Mark is the Founding Partner of Breakwater Capital Markets, the capital markets advisory practice of Breakwater Strategy. He advises boards, chief executive officers, chief financial officers, Investor Relations Officers, and senior leadership teams on consequential decisions affecting enterprise value, investor confidence, and access to capital. Across hundreds of engagements spanning North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, Mark has advised public companies, pre-IPO, IPO, and venture-backed businesses, private equity sponsors, investment partnerships, and family offices. His experience extends across sectors and the full market-capitalization spectrum, from small-cap and emerging-growth companies to complex, mega-cap global enterprises. Mark advises clients at moments when strategic judgment, investor understanding, and market credibility are especially important. His experience includes IPO readiness, capital raising, investor and capital markets days, non-deal roadshows, strategic repositioning, leadership transitions, transactions, market dislocation, activist campaigns, short-seller situations, and other complex or high-stakes matters. In these situations, he helps boards and management teams understand how investors are likely to assess a company’s strategy, performance, capital allocation, leadership, competitive position, and long-term prospects. His work focuses on identifying the issues that most influence investor judgment, strengthening the enterprise-value narrative, aligning strategic and financial communications, prioritizing the investors who matter most, and supporting better-informed capital markets decisions. Here he has pioneered the application of next-generation technologies to enable capital markets strategy and investor relations. Mark developed the Valuation Operating System™, Breakwater’s proprietary framework for helping companies understand, manage, and influence valuation. The framework integrates business strategy, operating performance, capital allocation, investor intelligence, investor engagement, and communications into a disciplined system for value creation. It gives boards and management teams a practical way to assess how valuation is formed, strengthened, defended, and accelerated across the investor ecosystem, particularly during periods of growth, transformation, transactions, market dislocation, and structural change. His advisory work is supported by the globally leading platform for proprietary analytics and enabling capabilities that translate complex investor, market, financial, and valuation information into actionable intelligence to build, defend and accelerate value creation. Through these capabilities, leadership teams can identify emerging risks and opportunities, evaluate investor perspectives, prioritize engagement, test strategic positioning, and anticipate how consequential decisions may be interpreted by the market. Mark’s perspectives on valuation formation, investor relations, and capital markets strategy have been published and presented internationally and shared through media interviews, including with the Financial Times. He helps companies and investors interpret market dynamics, sharpen strategic narratives, strengthen institutional credibility, and make decisions in complex or high-stakes situations. He also contributes to the advancement of investor relations as a global strategic discipline through Elevating IR: A Global Perspective, a series examining the forces reshaping the role of the investor relations officer across international markets. Mark is also the host of The IR 10: Judgement that Shapes Measurable Value, Breakwater Capital Markets’ weekly 10-minute podcast offering concise, decision-grade perspectives for global investor relations leaders. His experience includes investor relations strategy and execution; investor intelligence and perception research; equity-story and enterprise-value narrative development; valuation strategy; investor and capital markets days; non-deal roadshows; strategic, transaction, and financial communications; capital-structure strategy, including private credit; and special-situations advisory, including activism, short-seller defense, hostile and friendly transactions, management transitions, and crisis environments. Before founding Breakwater Capital Markets, Mark served as Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer of a global investor relations advisory firm. He played a central role in building the business from an emerging platform into a recognized international advisory firm, helping shape its strategy, client model, capabilities, and market positioning through a period of accelerated growth. Earlier in his career, Mark held senior leadership roles across strategy, finance, operations, technology, marketing, communications, commercial development, product development, and organizational design. His corporate experience includes leadership within a Fortune 15 company, where he led initiatives that improved operating performance, P&L results, employee engagement, and innovation. That operating experience informs his advisory approach and his conviction that lasting investor confidence must be grounded in sound strategy, disciplined execution, credible leadership, and measurable performance. Mark has been active in the nonprofit community for more than three decades. He served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and held leadership roles in governance, finance, and development. He is also a former Executive Board Member of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut and Juvenile Diabetes of Greater Hartford. Areas of Expertise: Board, CEO, CFO, and senior leadership advisory Capital markets and investor relations strategy Enterprise-value positioning and valuation strategy The Valuation Operating System™ Investor intelligence and perception research Proprietary analytics and decision technology Equity-story and enterprise-value narrative development Strategic, transaction, financial, and reputation communications Global institutional, sell-side, and individual-investor engagement Investor days, capital markets days, and non-deal roadshows IPO readiness, capital raising, and capital-structure strategy Activism, short-seller defense, transactions, and crisis situations Business transformation and operating strategy Global capital markets dynamics Cross-sector advisory from small-cap to mega-cap enterprises

    Partner,
    Head of Breakwater Capital Markets

    mark@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Mark is the Founding Partner of Breakwater Capital Markets, the capital markets advisory practice of Breakwater Strategy. He advises boards, chief executive officers, chief financial officers, Investor Relations Officers, and senior leadership teams on consequential decisions affecting enterprise value, investor confidence, and access to capital.

    Across hundreds of engagements spanning North America, the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Australia, Mark has advised public companies, pre-IPO, IPO, and venture-backed businesses, private equity sponsors, investment partnerships, and family offices. His experience extends across sectors and the full market-capitalization spectrum, from small-cap and emerging-growth companies to complex, mega-cap global enterprises.

    Mark advises clients at moments when strategic judgment, investor understanding, and market credibility are especially important. His experience includes IPO readiness, capital raising, investor and capital markets days, non-deal roadshows, strategic repositioning, leadership transitions, transactions, market dislocation, activist campaigns, short-seller situations, and other complex or high-stakes matters.

    In these situations, he helps boards and management teams understand how investors are likely to assess a company’s strategy, performance, capital allocation, leadership, competitive position, and long-term prospects. His work focuses on identifying the issues that most influence investor judgment, strengthening the enterprise-value narrative, aligning strategic and financial communications, prioritizing the investors who matter most, and supporting better-informed capital markets decisions. Here he has pioneered the application of next-generation technologies to enable capital markets strategy and investor relations.

    Mark developed the Valuation Operating System™, Breakwater’s proprietary framework for helping companies understand, manage, and influence valuation. The framework integrates business strategy, operating performance, capital allocation, investor intelligence, investor engagement, and communications into a disciplined system for value creation. It gives boards and management teams a practical way to assess how valuation is formed, strengthened, defended, and accelerated across the investor ecosystem, particularly during periods of growth, transformation, transactions, market dislocation, and structural change.

    His advisory work is supported by the globally leading platform for proprietary analytics and enabling capabilities that translate complex investor, market, financial, and valuation information into actionable intelligence to build, defend and accelerate value creation. Through these capabilities, leadership teams can identify emerging risks and opportunities, evaluate investor perspectives, prioritize engagement, test strategic positioning, and anticipate how consequential decisions may be interpreted by the market.

    Mark’s perspectives on valuation formation, investor relations, and capital markets strategy have been published and presented internationally and shared through media interviews, including with the Financial Times. He helps companies and investors interpret market dynamics, sharpen strategic narratives, strengthen institutional credibility, and make decisions in complex or high-stakes situations.

    He also contributes to the advancement of investor relations as a global strategic discipline through Elevating IR: A Global Perspective, a series examining the forces reshaping the role of the investor relations officer across international markets. Mark is also the host of The IR 10: Judgement that Shapes Measurable Value, Breakwater Capital Markets’ weekly 10-minute podcast offering concise, decision-grade perspectives for global investor relations leaders.

    His experience includes investor relations strategy and execution; investor intelligence and perception research; equity-story and enterprise-value narrative development; valuation strategy; investor and capital markets days; non-deal roadshows; strategic, transaction, and financial communications; capital-structure strategy, including private credit; and special-situations advisory, including activism, short-seller defense, hostile and friendly transactions, management transitions, and crisis environments.

    Before founding Breakwater Capital Markets, Mark served as Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer of a global investor relations advisory firm. He played a central role in building the business from an emerging platform into a recognized international advisory firm, helping shape its strategy, client model, capabilities, and market positioning through a period of accelerated growth.

    Earlier in his career, Mark held senior leadership roles across strategy, finance, operations, technology, marketing, communications, commercial development, product development, and organizational design. His corporate experience includes leadership within a Fortune 15 company, where he led initiatives that improved operating performance, P&L results, employee engagement, and innovation.

    That operating experience informs his advisory approach and his conviction that lasting investor confidence must be grounded in sound strategy, disciplined execution, credible leadership, and measurable performance.

    Mark has been active in the nonprofit community for more than three decades. He served on the Board and Executive Committee of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra and held leadership roles in governance, finance, and development. He is also a former Executive Board Member of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut and Juvenile Diabetes of Greater Hartford.

    Areas of Expertise:

    • Board, CEO, CFO, and senior leadership advisory

    • Capital markets and investor relations strategy

    • Enterprise-value positioning and valuation strategy

    • The Valuation Operating System™

    • Investor intelligence and perception research

    • Proprietary analytics and decision technology

    • Equity-story and enterprise-value narrative development

    • Strategic, transaction, financial, and reputation communications

    • Global institutional, sell-side, and individual-investor engagement

    • Investor days, capital markets days, and non-deal roadshows

    • IPO readiness, capital raising, and capital-structure strategy

    • Activism, short-seller defense, transactions, and crisis situations

    • Business transformation and operating strategy

    • Global capital markets dynamics

    • Cross-sector advisory from small-cap to mega-cap enterprises

  • Elayna Herrera

    Elayna Herrera

    Elayna Herrera is an Associate at Breakwater Strategy based in Washington D.C. Elayna utilizes her experience in corporate communications, research, and writing to support her teams and aid clients in achieving their goals. As an associate, her day-to-day includes media monitoring, research, administrative work, and crafting communication deliverables. Elayna graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism and political science. During her time in college, Elayna was a campus tour guide where she leveraged her storytelling ability to attract prospective students from all over the country to come to Carolina. It served as a rewarding role that polished her communication skills and allowed her to build special connections with the individuals on her tours. If she wasn’t giving tours, Elayna was helping craft new packages for her school’s student-run broadcast, Carolina Week, while also contributing to her sorority's judicial and DEI committee. Before joining Breakwater in October 2025, Elayna held a variety of internship roles working across different industries, including energy and renewables, philanthropy, biotech, and higher education. As a corporate communications intern at Duke Energy, Elayna published two stories on Duke Energy’s Illumination site highlighting the company’s philanthropic contributions to the environment. She also worked as a consumer troubleshooter intern at ABC11, a newsroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as a public affairs intern at SKDK, a public affairs and political consulting firm. Outside of work, Elayna enjoys running, trying new food, reading, and travelling. Her favorite international destination is Granada, Spain, a small town in the southern region of the country that offers delicious tapas and scenic architecture.

    Associate

    elayna@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Elayna Herrera is an Associate at Breakwater Strategy based in Washington D.C. Elayna utilizes her experience in corporate communications, research, and writing to support her teams and aid clients in achieving their goals. As an associate, her day-to-day includes media monitoring, research, administrative work, and crafting communication deliverables.

    Elayna graduated from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill with a degree in journalism and political science. During her time in college, Elayna was a campus tour guide where she leveraged her storytelling ability to attract prospective students from all over the country to come to Carolina. It served as a rewarding role that polished her communication skills and allowed her to build special connections with the individuals on her tours. If she wasn’t giving tours, Elayna was helping craft new packages for her school’s student-run broadcast, Carolina Week, while also contributing to her sorority’s judicial and DEI committee.

    Before joining Breakwater in October 2025, Elayna held a variety of internship roles working across different industries, including energy and renewables, philanthropy, biotech, and higher education. As a corporate communications intern at Duke Energy, Elayna published two stories on Duke Energy’s Illumination site highlighting the company’s philanthropic contributions to the environment. She also worked as a consumer troubleshooter intern at ABC11, a newsroom in Raleigh, North Carolina, as well as a public affairs intern at SKDK, a public affairs and political consulting firm.

    Outside of work, Elayna enjoys running, trying new food, reading, and travelling. Her favorite international destination is Granada, Spain, a small town in the southern region of the country that offers delicious tapas and scenic architecture.

  • Simone Jackenthal

    Simone Jackenthal

    Simone Jackenthal is a Director at Breakwater Strategy. She brings a passion for strategic communications, crisis support, and reputation management. Simone has substantial experience leading and executing public relations, public affairs, and other strategic communications campaigns for high-profile clients in highly regulated sectors. Her work includes media relations, thought leadership, crisis management, internal and external communications strategies. Simone’s experience spans several industries including political advocacy, technology, consumer products, health, nutrition, fintech, fashion, entertainment, and crypto, among others. Most recently, Simone was a Director at Trident DMG where she largely advised clients on crisis communications and reputation management. She organized strategic communications campaigns for clients across various sectors, advised Fortune 500 companies on media trainings, and recommended approaches to C-suite executives for crisis mitigation. Simone led various funding announcements for technology startups, securing media coverage in top-tier national outlets, local media, and trades. She also coordinated with legal teams when necessary to create cohesive media strategies for clients engaged in litigation. Previously, Simone served as an Associate at Weber Shandwick where she supported the Public Affairs team with government relations, marketing, internal communications, media relations, and social media. In this role, Simone organized events on the Hill to engage various clients with Members of Congress, drafted press releases for distribution, and secured media coverage with reporters. She also assisted with health and nutrition clients and supported the paid media and digital advertising team. Simone earned a Master of Arts in Media and Strategic Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Communications from The George Washington University. Her published thesis focuses on media framing effects of the Black Lives Matter movement, and she currently lives in Potomac, Maryland with her wife and two dogs.

    Director

    simone@breakwaterstrategy.com

    Simone Jackenthal is a Director at Breakwater Strategy. She brings a passion for strategic communications, crisis support, and reputation management. Simone has substantial experience leading and executing public relations, public affairs, and other strategic communications campaigns for high–profile clients in highly regulated sectors. Her work includes media relations, thought leadership, crisis management, internal and external communications strategies. Simone’s experience spans several industries including political advocacy, technology, consumer products, health, nutrition, fintech, fashion, entertainment, and crypto, among others.

    Most recently, Simone was a Director at Trident DMG where she largely advised clients on crisis communications and reputation management. She organized strategic communications campaigns for clients across various sectors, advised Fortune 500 companies on media trainings, and recommended approaches to C–suite executives for crisis mitigation. Simone led various funding announcements for technology startups, securing media coverage in top–tier national outlets, local media, and trades. She also coordinated with legal teams when necessary to create cohesive media strategies for clients engaged in litigation.

    Previously, Simone served as an Associate at Weber Shandwick where she supported the Public Affairs team with government relations, marketing, internal communications, media relations, and social media. In this role, Simone organized events on the Hill to engage various clients with Members of Congress, drafted press releases for distribution, and secured media coverage with reporters. She also assisted with health and nutrition clients and supported the paid media and digital advertising team.

    Simone earned a Master of Arts in Media and Strategic Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Political Communications from The George Washington University. Her published thesis focuses on media framing effects of the Black Lives Matter movement, and she currently lives in Potomac, Maryland with her wife and two dogs.