Peyton Shelburne is a Senior Associate on the Capital Markets team at Breakwater Strategy. She supports the team’s research initiatives by developing actionable insights and tailored recommendations to stakeholders.

Peyton’s background includes marketing and content strategy roles at data-driven companies. Before joining Breakwater, she held a marketing position at Akkio, an AI-powered data platform for advertising agencies, where she contributed to ABM strategies and campaign development. Prior to that, she spent over three years at Morning Consult, a global data intelligence company, as part of the content strategy and operations team. In her role, she authored original content, streamlined internal processes, and analyzed survey data to update trend tracker webpages across various sectors, strengthening the company’s insights-driven offerings.

Peyton graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown University with a B.A. in linguistics and a minor in Chinese.

Outside of work, Peyton enjoys following and playing tennis. She also loves volleyball, curating music playlists, and exploring hiking trails.

Expertise:

• Market Research
• Marketing

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.

Karianna works with senior staff to create strategic communications campaigns and develop impactful messaging materials. Her main responsibilities include planning and producing social content, tracking and analyzing media, sharing insights from qualitative research, and creating written client deliverables. She has experience and knowledge of a wide array of industries including entertainment, tech, financial services, and non-profit. 

Prior to joining Breakwater, Karianna was an Education Relations Intern for C-SPAN where she created content for their education website and helped generate press coverage for C-SPAN’s 2019 StudentCam Competition. She also drafted blog post articles as a Community Contributor for SHE Media and managed the daily operations as an intern for DREAM Charter High School in East Harlem. 

Karianna graduated from Hamilton College with a bachelor’s degree in Literature and a minor in Mathematics as a HEOP Scholar. While at Hamilton, Karianna worked as a student assistant for Nesbitt-Johnston Writing Center, participated in Hamilton’s Washington D.C. program, and was an active leader of La Vanguardia, Hamilton’s Latinx cultural club.   

Karianna was born and raised in the Bronx, so of course she is a die-hard Yankees fan. Growing up she tried to memorize every train and bus route that ran through the Bronx so that she could traverse the whole borough with ease. She loves how the Bronx is full of diverse hard-working people. 

Maggie Tween is an Associate at Breakwater Strategy on the Capital Markets team, based in New York. In her role, she supports senior staff on market research and client interaction. With prior internship experience in financial research, Maggie’s professional foundation lies at the intersection of global markets and client advisory.

Maggie graduated from Boston College as an Economics major, where she was involved in volunteer groups, business organizations, and club sports. With minors in Finance and English, she developed her passions for both business and writing during her time at BC.

Outside of work, Maggie can be found at the gym or on a run, and cheering on the Mets in the summer and the Rangers in the winter.

Annelise Vella is an Associate at Breakwater Strategy, where she leverages her background in global government affairs to help clients drive impactful strategies.

Based in Washington DC, Annelise graduated from Georgetown in 2024 with a bachelor’s in Business and Global Affairs with a Chinese minor. Through her degree program, she gained experience in geopolitical business strategy as a student consultant for corporations and government entities. Her work included exploring AI in capital markets for the government of Ghana and working with PayPal to evaluate a public-private partnership for small businesses.

Having grown up in Shanghai, China, Annelise is passionate about the global impacts of the US-China relationship on business strategy, particularly in the technology and consumer products spaces. Prior to joining Breakwater, this interest led her to the US-China Business Council, where she interned with the Government Affairs team to monitor policy developments and provide strategic analysis to US firms with Chinese operations.

Outside the office, she is an amateur baker and Chinese cuisine enthusiast, and an active member of her local church in D.C.

As a Senior Associate at Breakwater, Adi works with clients and senior staff in the development of strategic communications and messaging materials. She engages her public policy-focused academic background to assist with policy research and content analysis, memo drafting, media relations, and more. 

Prior to joining Breakwater, Adi held several internships within the US federal government, including the House of Representatives, focusing specifically on criminal justice equity and policy. She graduated with a degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice and History from the University of Maryland, College Park. She was also part of Global Communities, an Honors living and learning program focused on global policy. As part of this program, she studied abroad in London and Vienna, focusing on the history and policy development of nuclear non-proliferation issues. She is fluent in Russian, and proficient in French. 

Born in Jerusalem Israel, Adi was raised in Newton, MA, a suburb of Boston, but currently lives in Washington D.C., where she continues to defend her Massachusetts roots, and more importantly, sports, proudly. 

Nora Wahlbrink is a Director at Breakwater Strategy. In her role, Nora works directly with clients and senior leadership to manage emerging risks in the marketplace, on the Hill and with all stakeholders. As a skilled writer and communicator, she is responsible for crafting messaging and using it to develop a suite of public deliverables such as press releases, blog posts, and social content. Though she specializes in the entertainment and technology industries, she also has experience in health, telecommunication, financial services, news media and more. She is particularly passionate about the role of the media in public relations and preparing spokespeople for successful high-stakes public appearances and interactions with reporters. 

Prior to joining the Breakwater team, Nora worked at Levick, a D.C.-based crisis communications firm, where she addressed rapid response issues. She has experience communicating around high-profile litigation, mergers and acquisitions, executive transitions, data breaches, foreign policy, personal events, and other issues. Originally from Rockville, MD, Nora graduated with honors from the University of Alabama as a presidential scholar with a bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and a minor in Business. 

Nora loves to cook and explore the DC food scene. When she’s not working, she’s most likely reading about a new restaurant, searching for weekend reservations, or on a good night – making something delicious at home. If you’re in need of a restaurant recommendation in the DC area, look no further. 

As a Partner at Breakwater, Steve brings his core expertise in strategy and decision making to the most complex challenges facing organizations at the intersection of economics, technology, politics, regulation, and human understanding through narrative. 

Alongside a thirty-year academic career at the University of California Berkeley (where he has a joint appointment as Professor at the School of Information and in the department of Political Science), Steve has advised global firms, government agencies, and non-profit organizations around the world on risk analysis, strategy, and communications, using a diverse set of qualitative and quantitative methods fit to purpose. Recognized as one of the world’s most expert practitioners of scenario planning, Steve has worked with more than 50 companies and organizations to develop this discipline as a strategy planning tool in uncertain and turbulent business environments. He started his advisory career at the boutique consulting firm Global Business Network in the 1990s and in the 2000s worked with The Monitor Group to help clients navigate transitions in information technology, finance, health care, consumer goods, and other sectors transformed by digital and by evolving global and national political economy. 

Steve served as special political advisor to the first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He was Director of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley from 2003 to 2009, and in 2015 he founded the Center for Long Term Cybersecurity at UC Berkeley, where he directs a multi-disciplinary research program on emerging digital security issues at the intersection of new technologies, human behavior, and risk calculations made by firms and governments. His best-known book, The Success of Open Source, was the first extensive study of how the open source software community works. His most recent book  Bloc by Bloc:  How to Organize a Global Enterprise (2019) explains how economic geography is evolving around machine learning, and the consequences for multinational organizations in the post financial and Covid crises world. 

Steve brings a research-based innovation discipline to strategy and communications problems, along with a deep commitment to creative engagement with how people understand their environment, change their minds, and ultimately change the world through narrative. Steve lives in the Hudson River Valley north of New York City with his partner Regina and two Burmese cats named Napoleon and Mrs. Peel.  All four are life-long-suffering fans of the New York Football Giants. 

A Director at Breakwater Strategy, Ben brings a passion for brand positioning, leadership and policy to develop strategic communications programs across an array of issues and industries. His main responsibilities include strategic advisory, messaging and content development, media relations and internal and external project management. He has helped advise clients from Fortune 500’s to nonprofits, and collaborated with leaders to develop and execute strategies to position brands within complex political and regulatory environments, elevate profiles, launch new initiatives, successfully navigate crises and more.  

Prior to joining Breakwater, Ben got his start in strategic communications in the D.C. office of High Lantern Group, a strategic communications and positioning firm, where he worked on a number of global communications and issues management projects. From 2013-2016, he was on the research team at Correct The Record a part of the coordinated Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, where he helped shape the positive narrative around Secretary Clinton’s service at the State Department.    

A Massachusetts native and sometimes Mainer, Ben has a BA in history from Bates College in Lewiston, Maine. When he’s not at home in DC with his wife, dog and cat, he can be found supporting his favorite Boston sports teams, relaxing in Maine, skiing or at a Pearl Jam show. 

Fleet Wilson is an 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.