FIVE CORNERS STRATEGIES - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Senior Director
- Senior Director / Chicago
Chad Thompson has positioned himself as an innovator of corporate marketing campaigns and is recognized as a national expert in land use politics. With twenty years of political experience, working for the nation's top political strategists and management consulting firms, Chad has proven he can design and implement winning grassroots political strategies.
Prior to joining Five Corners Strategies as Director of Project Management, Chad founded Thompson Public Strategies, a boutique, grassroots political consulting firm. Over the course of the past ten years, he served as a Senior Project Manager at a national management consulting firm, specializing in helping clients navigate difficult political terrain.
Thompson honed his land use skills managing local zoning and grassroots political campaigns by designing strategies for Fortune 100 companies across a diverse set of industries. Thompson has successfully managed multiple corporate marketing and land use campaigns in 34 states and over 200 local jurisdictions.
Prior to that, Thompson worked for over a decade managing 25 local, state and national political campaigns. Following graduation from college, at the age of 21, Chad ran as one of the youngest candidates in state history for the state legislature defeating a heavily favored candidate to win his party's nomination before narrowly losing the general election.
He went on to serve as Press Secretary for Congressman Bart Gordon and Special Assistant to James Carville, former senior political advisor to President Bill Clinton and Mary Matalin, former senior political advisor to President George W. Bush. There he helped with the scheduling and management of both principals. Thompson was the chief political strategist for the Tennessee Senate and helped maintain their majority in three different election cycles. He ended his service to the senate caucus by securing a victory in an open-seat, special election. He also was the lead architect of the Tennessee Senate redistricting plan, which netted one new seat for the majority.
Thompson is a graduate of the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. He attended The George Washington University Graduate School of Political Management and completed the Summer Scholar Program earning a graduate certificate in campaign management. Thompson has done additional study at the Harvard-MIT Institute for Public Disputes.
A native of Tennessee, he resides in Northern Virginia with his wife Elizabeth, an attorney, and their four children. He enjoys backpacking, coaching baseball, and serving as a scout leader.
Danny brings over ten years of grassroots organizing and public outreach experience to Five Corners Strategies' clients. A natural organizer and strategist, Danny regularly leads the execution of grassroots strategy for many of Five Corners Strategies' toughest projects, particularly on legislative advocacy and large-scale development projects.
Danny earned his role at Five Corners Strategies via his creative and successful approach to winning new advocates on their doorstep. He has worked extensively on building public support for the legislative priorities of the energy industry including his tireless work on behalf of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, multiple pipeline projects and the wind power developers.
He also won public support for numerous large-scale and controversial real estate development projects, including logistics centers for Goodman Birtcher, grocery stores for Giant Food and Safeway as well as multiple residential and mixed-use proposals. His political campaign experience includes successful independent expenditure campaigns for corporate and association clients as well as for gaming interests.
Danny is an avid runner and photographer. He is also a passionate baseball fan who believes he would make a great general manager of a major league team. Danny resides in Washington DC.
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources and Business Operations
Tom serves the clients of Five Corners Strategies by developing innovative grassroots and public affairs campaigns for commercial and residential developers, energy companies, casinos, industry associations and non-profit clients.
After a 20+ year career in public advocacy, he co-founded Five Corners to help our clients successfully manage the political and community challenges that often arise when seeking land use permits, legislative approvals and support in ballot measure campaigns. Tom's extensive experience in the public and private sector has helped clients better understand how government works, and how the grassroots support of citizens can be the best ally for businesses seeking results.
The public approvals process for land use/zoning, energy, gaming and urban development can be a frustrating experience. For the past twelve years, Tom has been creating and executing successful political strategies for over 150 land use development projects in 22 states. In that time, he's become an expert in understanding what moves elected officials to support one side over another, how to develop local support for our client's projects and how to engage the community in ways that encourages everyone to fine common ground.
During breaks from his time in the public sector, Tom developed his approach to grassroots advocacy, political strategy and public affairs by serving as a strategist, consultant or field director on three mayoral campaigns, a governor's campaign, two congressional campaigns, two U.S. Senate campaigns, three presidential campaigns and more than a dozen campaigns for local offices. He is still involved in numerous campaigns each year, providing guidance to friends and colleagues running at the state and local level.
Tom lives in Wellesley, Massachusetts with his wife and five children. During his free time, he enjoys golfing, running, skiing and coaching Little League. He serves on the Wellesley Middle School Council and despite all good sense, is a rabid fan of the New York Jets.
Many of these skills were developed on the campaign trail and working alongside some of the best public officials in the country. As Deputy Director of the Boston Redevelopment Authority under Mayor Thomas Menino, he successfully reconciled the interests and concerns of citizens and local businesses with those of developers of controversial real estate and industrial projects.
He also served as the city's Director of Brownfields Redevelopment and was a member of the Massachusetts Brownfields Advisory Committee. Prior to that, Tom worked in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he served as Chief of Staff to the Taxation Committee. While in this role, he worked to successfully develop broad-based support for legislation on brownfields cleanup and the deregulation of the electric utility industry.