Mark McKinnon solves complicated problems–in Washington, of all places, where solutions are increasingly rare. Managing the hurricane of modern media is no walk on the National Mall, but McKinnon always delivers the message. His long list of clients has included President George W. Bush (“I was particularly impressed by Mark’s honesty”) and Senator John McCain (“He’s almost a genius”), as well as iconoclastic politicians like the late Governor Ann Richards and Congressman “Good Time” Charlie Wilson. Yup, he works both sides of the aisle. (And you noticed those last two? Yup, he’s from Texas.) But don’t hold his open-mindedness against him. He won’t hold your political views against you. In fact, he’s on a #FixNotFight political mission with his non-profit organization NoLabels.Org, which welcomes “people right, left and everything in between as long as they have a problem solver’s attitude.” Even President Barack Obama calls McKinnon “a class act.”
How does he do it? From a presumably ergonomic seat at Hill + Knowlton Strategies (down the hall from former US Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, a Dem who served in the Bush administration), and with the connections he’s made sitting on the boards of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and Change Congress (now part of United Republic). Who knows, maybe the years he spent in Nashville working as a songwriter with Kris Kristofferson helps too. His latest efforts, at least, are clearly aimed at having American society avoid the predicament Kristofferson described in his most famous song: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.”