Matt Klink specializes in strategic and crisis communications, public affairs and political campaigns. He has more than three decades of experience working on complex, controversial and high-profile issues for public and private sector clients, as well as candidates for elected office and ballot measure campaigns. During the last five years, Matt has worked on some of California’s and the L.A.-region’s most high-profile and expensive political issues, winning more than 80% of the campaigns on which he has worked.
Throughout his career, Matt has worked for numerous heavily regulated and taxed clients encompassing a range of industries and subjects, including automotive, cable, energy, fast-moving consumer goods, finance, healthcare/pharmaceutical, oil and natural gas, retail, shipping, sports and entertainment, telecommunications, water and other regulated and taxed industries. Additionally, Klink has worked on candidate and initiative campaigns at multiple levels of government, where he has performed a variety of roles that include general consulting, campaign management, media consulting, campaign spokesperson, direct mail design and production, and coalition building.
Matt is an adept communicator skilled at crafting and implementing strategic campaigns and crisis communication programs. He has substantial experience in integrating grassroots outreach and alliance development efforts to support lobbying activities. An award-winning writer, Klink has developed effective messaging and captivating copy to meet a variety of client needs, including targeted direct mail, speeches, brochures, op-eds, and other types of traditional, online and digital materials. Skilled at working with the news media, Matt has functioned as a spokesperson and primary media contact for a number of corporate clients and statewide initiative campaigns. He has appeared on international, national and local television news broadcasts on behalf of his clients and offered political analysis and commentary.
Matt’s past work experience includes a senior-level position as Director of Government Affairs for Philip Morris International, based in Lausanne, Switzerland. He led a team that created and executed communications and stakeholder outreach programs on regulatory and fiscal issues in more than 35 countries on six continents. Klink has also been an owner and partner of two Los Angeles-based public affairs and government relations firms. Matt also worked as a corporate communications consultant to America Honda Motor Co., Inc. and, while living in Arlington, Virginia, as a media consultant to candidates for U.S. Congress and the Virginia House of Delegates.
Matt holds an MA in political management from The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management and a BA in history from the University of California at Berkeley. He is the current president of the International Association of Political Consultants, where he travels and speaks around the world on the importance of democracy.
