Ben LaBolt
Speaker; Partner, Bully Pulpit Interactive; Former President Obama Press Secretary; Co-Founder, The Incite Agency
Ben LaBolt is a partner at Bully Pulpit Interactive who oversees strategic communications services and manages integrated client teams. He co-founded The Incite Agency, which became part of BPI in 2016.
He advises clients on how to transform their communications to break down barriers between paid, earned and owned in order to be more targeted and persuasive, reach beyond selling products by realizing a vision rooted in social impact and help organizations under siege regain their reputation.
Based in BPI's San Francisco office, LaBolt serves at the intersection of public affairs and the technology industry, helping brands understand how consumers, policymakers and regulators nationwide will respond to their products and services. He has advised high growth startups such as Airbnb, Sonos, Thumbtack and Uber, established companies like Google, YouTube and Fortune 500 consumer brands and major foundations like Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Laura and John Arnold Foundation and the Emerson Collective.
LaBolt was named to PR Week's 40 Under 40 list of industry leaders who "get results, never settle and represent the future of communications." For over a decade he served as a communications strategist on campaigns at the city, state and national level, on Capitol Hill and in the Obama White House. According to POLITICO, he was tasked with handling "tough questions" about "the most sensitive topics" at the White House and was one of the best sources "for intelligence on what the media are thinking and which story lines reporters are likely to pursue.”
His prior work includes serving as the national press secretary for President Obama’s re-election campaign, press secretary for then-Congressman Sherrod Brown’s campaign for Senate, communications director for Rahm Emanuel’s first campaign for Mayor and White House spokesman for the efforts to confirm Justices Sotomayor and Kagan to the Supreme Court. He has also served as an adjunct instructor in crisis management at NYU's School of Professional Studies.