Mark Penn
Pollster, Political Strategist, Author

Mark Penn is the Chairman and CEO of Stagwell Inc., a NASDAQ-listed company, with over 12,000 employees and $2 billion of annual revenue. His career spans 40 years in market research, advertising, public relations, polling, and consulting. A globally recognized strategist, Penn has advised top world leaders, led companies, and written two bestselling books.

Prior to founding Stagwell, Penn served as Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. He sat on the company’s 12-member Senior Leadership Team, managing a $2 billion advertising budget and later overall strategy for the world’s largest company.

Penn was the co-founder and CEO of Penn Schoen Berland — a high-tech market research powerhouse that he built and sold to WPP. At WPP, he became CEO of Burson-Marsteller, one of the world’s largest public relations companies.

For six years, Penn served as White House Pollster to President Bill Clinton and was chief strategist of his 1996 re-election campaign and developed the concept behind “Soccer Moms.” He is credited with developing several unique ad and polling methods and was first to implement overnight polling.

Liz Mair
Political and Communications Consultant

Liz Mair is the owner, founder and President of Mair Strategies LLC and the US’ leading right-of-center online communications operative. She principally writes about politics, with additional commentary on sports, travel and other assorted topics. 

A libertarian Republican and Arsenal FC fan, Liz served as Online Communications Director at the Republican National Committee during 2008, where she led an aggressive and groundbreaking online media outreach effort aimed at electing John McCain, Sarah Palin and Republicans across the US. In this capacity, she also served as a spokesperson, undertaking on-camera interviews and debates on behalf of the RNC and the campaign against representatives of the Obama campaign and the DNC. 

A frequent TV news commentator on politics and policy and a social media presence in her own right, Liz was named one of Campaigns & Elections’ INFLUENCERS 50 in the field of communications in 2013. She regularly features as a guest on MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and Real Time with Bill Maher.

A recovering private equity/debt finance lawyer, Liz has an MA in International Relations from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, and a Certificate in Political and Social Sciences from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po). She studied law at the College of Law in London and practiced at Macfarlanes LLP.

She is also the founder, owner and President of art and home furnishings start-up Mair Collections LLC, which features her nature, wildlife and travel photography.

Allan Lichtman
Historian, Author

Allan J. Lichtman is Distinguished Professor of History at American University. He has provided expert testimony in some 110 civil rights cases. He has written 13 books, many hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, and provided worldwide media commentary. His books have won the National Jewish Book Award in American Jewish History (FDR and the Jews, with Richard Breitman) and were finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction and the Los Angeles Book Prize in History. His recent books include The Embattled Vote In America, Repeal the Second Amendment, and 21 Cracks: Repairing American Democracy After Trump. His Keys to the White House prediction system, has successfully forecasted the results of presidential elections since 1984, including Donald Trump’s win in 2016. Dr. Lichtman received the Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and ranked # 85 among the world’s 100 most influential geopolitical experts per rise.global.