MPA Hires Jonathan Powell For Strategic Communications Role

Jonathan Powell has been hired as the MPA‘s senior vice president for strategic communications.

Powell will shape “the organization’s messaging to local, national, and regional stakeholders around the world,” the MPA said. In the newly created position, he will report to Charles Rivkin, MPA chairman and CEO, and the executive vice president of media relations and communications. The latter role is unfilled with the departure of Emily Lenzner, who has been with the trade association since 2019.

Powell previously worked at the State Department, where he served under then-Secretary of State John Kerry and most recently as a senior advisor to deputy secretaries Wendy Sherman, Richard Verma and Victoria Nuland. He previously was an adviser to other public officials including Nancy Pelosi, as well as Alejandro Mayorkas, Penny Pritzker, Eric Garcetti and Antonio Villaraigosa.

Rivkin said in a statement that Powell’s “global policy expertise and his gift for connecting with a wide range of audiences around the world, honed through years of service at the highest levels of the U.S. government, make him the ideal choice for this important new role.”