An 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.

Stephanie Swartz is a Vice President at Breakwater Strategy. Stephanie has spent her career helping companies tackle their most intricate and sensitive policy issues. She leverages that expertise to help clients facing complex challenges at the intersection of corporate reputation, business strategy, corporate social responsibility, and technology policy.

Stephanie most recently built the policy and public affairs team from the ground up at The Pill Club, a direct-to-consumer telehealth and pharmacy delivery company dedicated to expanding access to contraceptive care. During her tenure, she worked as part of The Pill Club’s leadership team to advance corporate interests and build the company’s reputation with advocates, researchers, government and elected officials, and insurance providers and payers.

Prior to that, Stephanie served as Uber’s lead on Safety and Consumer Protection as part of Uber’s global public policy strategy team. She drove the creation and launch of Uber’s groundbreaking Safety Transparency Report, which provided a detailed account of safety incidents, including sensitive issues like sexual assaults on the platform. Stephanie began her career on Google’s global policy strategy team, where she gained valuable experience in addressing global privacy issues that affect billions of users, shaping her path towards becoming a recognized authority in the field.

Stephanie graduated from California State University Long Beach with degrees in German Studies and International Studies and holds an MPhil in International Relations from Oxford University, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. Stephanie lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and dog and enjoys exploring the vibrant DMV area. As a native of San Diego—and a huge Padres fan—her heart still holds a special place for surfing, a passion that continues to draw her back to the West Coast.

Zoe is an Associate at Breakwater Strategy, where she conducts policy research and analysis to develop strategic communications and media recommendations for clients. She additionally supports senior staff in scenario planning and strategic messaging.

Prior to joining Breakwater, Zoe worked as a Research Associate at the Democratic National Committee (DNC). During the 2024 election cycle, she analyzed policy proposals from Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and developed strategic messaging frameworks for the American public. Zoe’s passion for policy research, democracy protection, and advocacy led her to her role at the DNC following a post-graduate internship with Ambassador Norman Eisen’s Ethics, Rule of Law, and Accountability team at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, Zoe co-authored a blog with Ambassador Eisen arguing for specific state legislative protections for female election officials. Zoe also served as the Maine State Director for the Every Voice Coalition, a national organization working to end sexual violence on college campuses through state-based advocacy and legislation. In May of 2022, Maine Governor Janet Mills signed Every Voice’s comprehensive campus safety legislation into law.

Zoe graduated magna cum laude with Honors from Bates College, earning a Major in Politics and a Minor in Spanish. While at Bates, Zoe was named a Dana Scholar, an award granted to students demonstrating academic excellence, community engagement, and leadership potential. She served as captain of the Women’s Club Water Polo Team and studied international policy in Sevilla, Spain. Her undergraduate Honors Politics thesis examined how state election law centralization affects local election officials’ resilience to misinformation and threats.

A Bay Area native now based in Washington, DC, Zoe spent a year living and working in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish. True to her West Coast roots, she spends her free time running, swimming, hiking, and skiing.

Kate is an Associate Director at Breakwater Strategy based in Washington, D.C. She works closely with the team to assist in all client needs, including drafting messaging, coordinating communications campaigns, researching client-specific policy and media opportunities, and providing additional support as needed.

Prior to Breakwater, Kate worked at Allison+Partners on the Global Reputation Risk + Public Affairs team. In this role she specialized in supporting clients through proactive and reactive crisis and reputation management, in addition to designing and executing national, state, and local level public affairs campaigns. Her work included conducting media landscape monitoring and analysis, background research, message development, and proactive and reactive media outreach. She brings a breadth of experience working for some of the biggest brands across various industries, including consumer tech, commercial real estate, health and health tech, nonprofit and government agencies, defense, aerospace and more.

Kate graduated with honors from East Carolina University with Bachelor of Science in Communication, concentrating in public relations and media studies. She is currently working towards a Master of Science in Strategic Communication from Columbia University. In her free time, she can typically be found exploring new restaurants in DC, cheering on the Capitals, or visiting parks around the DMV with her dog Nox.

Fleet Wilson is a Senior Associate at Breakwater Strategy. Based out of Washington D.C., he brings an extensive writing background to a strategic communications role that includes research, content development, and direct support of senior leadership.

Fleet arrives to Breakwater by way of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — where he was a Morehead-Cain Scholar majoring in journalism and political science with a minor in philosophy, politics and economics. During his time at UNC, Fleet served as the editor in chief of the Carolina Political Review, the Executive Director of the Eve Carson Scholarship Fund, and gained global experience studying democracy and digital media in both London and Buenos Aires.

Prior to joining Breakwater, Fleet interned at FGS Global in the Washington D.C. office. He has also contributed to the Hardaway Wire, a weekly digest published by the former Communications Director for Hakeem Jeffries and served as the writer/editor of the Daily Pnut, a global politics newsletter with 200,000+ subscribers.

Outside of work, you can find Fleet obsessing over Carolina sports, biking around DC, or hosting a raucous game of Family Feud with his friends.

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.

Patrick serves as an Associate Director on the Research and Insights team, which analyzes public opinion, investor relations and long-term trends for clients facing complex uncertainties. He supports quantitative and qualitative survey development, primary and secondary research, and strategic planning projects.

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.

Mark is the Founding Partner of Breakwater Capital Markets, a division of Breakwater Strategy, and Head of Capital Markets Advisory. He advises Venture Capital, Pre-IPO, Public Companies, Private Equity, Investment Partnerships and Family Offices on how to elevate valuation, business, and communication strategies. Additionally, Mark provides counsel to boards, management teams and investor relations officers on how to act on investor intelligence, strategic communications (including, Investor Days and Non-Deal Roadshows), IR Advisory, capital structure (including private credit), IR Advisory, hostile and complementary transactions, management change and other special situations including activist and short seller defense and complex business strategy.

Leveraging his diverse background, Mark engages effectively at all levels of an organization with agility and partner to develop highly differentiated strategy and operating plans.  He is deeply invested in the success of his clients and keenly focused on delivering transformational innovation that elevates value.

Before joining the firm, Mark was the Executive Vice President and Chief Client Officer of a globally oriented investor relations company where he led the development and execution of the rapidly growing business. Earlier in his career, Mark held executive leadership roles in Strategy, Finance, Operations, Technology, Marketing, Communications, Sales, People, Process and Organization and Product development driving significant improvements in operating performance and P&L results through industry leading levels of employee engagement and breakthrough innovation for impact, many of which set new benchmarks for their respective functions, most recently at a Fortune 15.

Mark has been an active member of the nonprofit community for over three decades and served on the Board of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra, where he was a member of the Executive Committee, Chair of the Governance Committee and past Chair of the Finance and Development Committees. Mark is also a past Executive Board Member of the World Affairs Council of Connecticut, Juvenile Diabetes of Greater Hartford, the Campaign Chair for the oldest continuously operating food bank in the United States, and the Campaign Chair for a best-in-class Annual Giving Campaign for a Fortune 50.

Expertise:

• Capital Markets, Investor Relations and Business Strategy
• Investor Intelligence (Perception), Strategic, Transaction & Financial Investor Communications, Strategy & Reputation, Special Situations and Crisis Management, Valuation
• Investor Relations Strategy & Process Development and Execution
• Investor Days and Non-Deal Roadshows
• Sell-Side/Global Buy-Side/Retail Investors
• Board, CEO & Management Team Advisory (Business Strategy & Operations)
• Transformational Business Strategy & Breakthrough Innovation
• All Sectors and Market Capitalizations

As an Associate Director on the Research and Insights team, Jin works on all things research, from custom quantitative survey development to qualitative focus group execution and beyond. He is particularly passionate about public opinion research and considering viewpoints that challenge his own opinions.   

Before joining the Breakwater team, Jin was a Director at Accelerant Research, where he led the quantitative research function and designed custom market research surveys for clients to help them better understand their brand perceptions. Prior to that, Jin worked with fellow Breakwater team member Ben Williams at High Lantern Group, where he gained an appreciation for strategic communications and the scenic views of the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Asheville, NC office.  

Jin is a graduate of the UNC Chapel Hill, where he majored in Economics and Psychology and minored in Business Administration. As a Chapel Hill native and UNC-alum, Jin remains a die-hard Tar Heel fan, and is known for annoying his co-workers with his hot takes and bold claims about all things Carolina sports.

As an Associate Director at Breakwater, Carly assists staff in the development and execution of strategic communications campaigns for a broad array of clients. Her main responsibilities include content development, media monitoring, research, and analysis. 

Prior to joining the Breakwater team, Carly worked as a legal writing and revision specialist at Hudson Business Immigration, an employment-based immigration law firm, where she prepared legal documents for clients’ green card applications. She has experience communicating around technical scientific research in a variety of industries, including energy, medicine, technology, and more. 

Carly graduated from Carleton College with distinction in Religion. While at Carleton, Carly worked at the Center for Community and Civic Engagement, interned with an environmental non-profit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and studied global security and religious pluralism in Dakar, Senegal. Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, she is a Tarheel, born and bred.