USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy is pleased to announce a new senior fellow, Matthew Dowd. Dowd, 53, served as the chief strategist for George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign and currently serves as a political analyst for ABC News.
As a CCLP senior fellow, Dowd will focus on “examining what we can do to bridge the political divides today in America involving campaigns, communication, and governing.” He will also focus on “creating momentum in the social impact entrepreneur space with emphasis on linking capitalism and social consciousness.”
During the past 30 years, Matthew Dowd has helped shape strategies and campaigns for CEOs, corporations, foundations, governments, candidates and presidents. He most recently founded Paradox Capital, a social impact venture fund which is focused on for-profit social good companies. His experience in business and politics will help bridge the paradox between capitalism and social consciousness.
Over the last 25 years, Dowd has been an active entrepreneur in Austin, Texas, founding three highly successful companies, including Vianovo and Public Strategies.
Dowd has worked both sides of the political aisle, but now considers himself an Independent. Dowd’s political work includes serving as the chief strategist on two winning re-election efforts – for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006 and for President George W. Bush in 2004. His innovative approach on the 2004 and 2000 campaigns led the bi-partisan American Association of Political Consultants to name him Strategist of the Year.
In the 1980s and 1990s, he advised a wide variety of political clients including helping former Democratic Texas Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock win election and re-election. He began his career as a member of Democrat U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen’s staff, and has worked on the staffs of two Democratic Congressmen, including Dick Gephardt.
Dowd currently serves as a special correspondent and analyst for ABC News where he appears on “This Week,” “Good Morning America,” and “Nightline,” and writes a regular column for various publications. Dowd covers not only politics but cultural, economic and spiritual trends as well. He has served on the boards of various non-profit entities including Seton Family of Hospitals, a Catholic nonprofit health system in Texas. He was adviser to Bono at the One Campaign, and to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has taught seminars at Harvard, Yale, Stanford and the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs.
Dowd is the co-author of Applebee’s America: How Successful Political, Business and Religious Leaders Connect with the New American Community, a New York Times bestseller published by Simon & Schuster.
