Zach Friend

Zach Friend is a global government affairs, communications and public affairs expert with significant experience crafting and shaping public policy and communications strategies on behalf of executive level business and political leaders.

He has built and led government affairs and communications teams, served as a spokesperson for multiple presidential campaigns and advised executive level business and political leaders on communications strategy, messaging and narrative development. He has extensive experience in crisis communications and speech writing and has acted as a global spokesperson on a multitude of high profile issues. He has counseled startups and Fortune 500 companies in crisis management, government affairs, public policy and messaging.

Zach has served at the highest levels of government and has extensive experience shaping and enacting local, state and federal legislation and regulatory policy. He has served in the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, the U.S. House of Representatives and at the local and state level in elected and appointed capacities.

For over a decade, Zach has served as a county-level elected official in California. He has chaired and served in leadership capacities on local, state and national commissions on health care and health access, artificial intelligence (AI), higher education and the University of California system, transportation, technology policy and broadband, criminal justice and law enforcement, environment and land use, California coastal regulatory policy, economic development and the film and television industries. He has substantial community organizing and campaign experience with grassroots policy influencers including community and business organizations, think tanks and advocacy groups. He has extensive experience advocating at, and testifying before, local, state and federal legislative bodies.

Zach is a regular commentator on national television on public affairs. He’s been featured on and quoted by CNN, ABC, CBSN, MSNBC, Fox News, National Public Radio, the LA Times, the New York Times, Politico and others.

He is the author of On Message: How a Compelling Narrative Will Make Your Organization Succeed, an Amazon.com best seller in the Marketing category and winner of the prestigious Axiom Business Book Award.

Zach has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a BA with Honors in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz.