Austin
The Austin Chapter of Maverick PAC was created in 2010 and has given members and friends access to leaders such as former Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams and Texas Speaker of the House Joe Straus.
Austin Leadership
Brian Haley
Brian Haley’s record of forming strategic partnerships, implementing processes improvements, and advocating for change places him at the crossroads of business, finance, policy, and politics. Brian is the founder and president of Pericles Strategies LLC, a full service corporate development and public affairs firm based in Austin, TX. He currently serves on the boards of Whistlestop.com, the Texas Conservative Roundtable, Playoff PAC, and Texas Cowboy’s Alumni Association.
Brian previously led the national financing efforts for Pawlenty for President and John McCain 2008 where he was responsible for devising and executing strategies that raised almost $500M and grew national networks to over 1.3M members. Prior to his time in presidential politics, Brian worked for Dell, (China) Inc. in Xiamen, China; Public Strategies; the International Trade Administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce; and the Iraq and Afghanistan Reconstruction Taskforces.
Brian received a Bachelor of Arts in Government and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Texas, where he served as the student body president and was later appointed by Governor Rick Perry to the University of Texas System Board of Regents. In addition to his professional and educational experience, he has spent time volunteering for political and charitable organizations in India, Zambia, Brazil, Tunisia, Israel and Russia.
Elizabeth Pishny
Elizabeth Pishny joined the Austin leadership team in January 2011, bringing 5 years of management consulting expertise from her time at Accenture and an awareness on social media due to her current work at Bazaarvoice. Outside of work Elizabeth focuses on mentoring young women through Austin Life Care, teaching Sunday School at All Saint’s Presbyterian Church, and is involved with the Chi Omega alumni group. Elizabeth was active in the Kansas Republican Party before attending college at TCU and settling in Austin.
Jenifer Sarver
Jenifer Sarver has built a career out of breaking down complicated topics and turning them into effective key messages. At Burson-Marsteller, she provides crisis and strategic communications counsel and tactical support to a range of clients from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. Additionally, she supports global vice chair, Ambassador Karen Hughes, in new business development, client support and community outreach in Central Texas. She also manages the company’s Austin office.
Jenifer served in the Bush Administration as the Deputy Director of Public Affairs at the U.S. Department of Commerce. There she crafted and communicated messages on topics ranging from the digital television transition to the 2010 Census to free trade agreements. Jenifer helped place more than 60 opinion editorials on behalf of Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, launch two government websites and craft nearly 900 speeches, among other initiatives while at the Department.
Jenifer graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with bachelors’ degrees in journalism and speech communication, and received her Master’s in Public Administration from American University. Jenifer has served as an adjunct professor in topics ranging from public policy to writing and political communication at Concordia University in Austin, American University in Washington, D.C. and for the UT System instructing the Archer Fellows. She is on the Advisory Council for the College of Communication at UT Austin and is a Fellow at the College’s Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation. She regularly conducts media training and delivers presentations on topics from public speaking skills to crisis communications for organizations ranging from the National Association for Women in Communication to the Texas Nonprofit Summit.
Jose Sena
As co-founder, president and CEO of Blue Clover, Jose B. Sena’s innovative talent and relentless drive has helped distinguish Blue Clover as an award-winning, pioneering design firm. Jose spent many years on the client side of the business and felt that there was a missing link between what firms were offering clients as far as traditional marketing and the Internet. So, in 2003, after years working in successful companies, he and two other partners founded Blue Clover-a versatile, fast-moving On and Off-Line Branding firm that fuses Internet and traditional marketing.
As CEO of the firm, Jose is the guiding force and catalyst behind the firm’s growth in the existing divisions, with other U.S./global markets in his scope. Jose’s areas of expertise include branding, Web 3.0 Strategy, marketing and customer relations in multiple industries. With valuable experience in the international, federal, real estate, health care, financial and corporate sectors, his focus is exceeding Blue Clover’s clients’ expectations in all areas of contract. His proficiency in both the general and Hispanic markets has facilitated Jose’s innate ability to maximize his client’s reach in an increasingly multicultural setting. Jose is an outstanding speaker: extremely articulate, knowledgeable, and proficiently bilingual in Spanish.
Frank Ward
Frank Ward works for Public Strategies; he is a Principal in the Consulting practice group in the firm’s Austin office. Prior to his time there, Ward served as communications director for a top Texas legislator, managing the communications apparatus for Texas State Senator Florence Shapiro. Previously, he was a special assistant to a member of the Board of Directors at the Export-Import Bank of the United States, the official export credit agency of the U.S. Ward was also a speechwriter in the Office of U.S. Senator Mel Martinez, a research assistant in the Office of Speechwriting in The White House, and an executive assistant to the CFO of the Republican National Committee.
Ward is completing a Master of Arts in Government from Johns Hopkins University, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in English-Writing from Denison University.