Jim Messina’s talk with the Montana Entrepreneurship Club to air on MCAT

Jim Messina’s talk will be airing on MCAT Ch.7;

Nov. 13th at 9pm

Replaying on Nov. 15th at 7pm

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Jim Messina, the architect of President Barack Obama’s successful campaign for re-election and 2013 UM Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, will be the featured speaker during a Q&A session with the University of Montana Entrepreneurship Club on October 4.

Messina was named Political Strategist of the Year by the Political Consultants Association for his role as campaign manager for President Barack Obama’s re-election.

In preparation for the 2012 campaign, Messina met personally with CEOs and senior executives of companies like Apple, Facebook, Zynga, Google, Microsoft, Salesforce and DreamWorks. He used their advice on mobile, data-mining, social media, digital marketing and the power of the cloud to leverage technology in ways that hadn’t been possible before. Google’s Chair Eric Schmidt called Messina’s effort "the best run campaign ever."

According to a 2012 Bloomberg Businessweek article, "Messina believed modern presidential campaigns are more like fast-growing tech companies than anything found in a history book and his own job like that of the executives who run them. ‘What they’ve done is more readily applicable to me, because they all started very small and got big very quickly,’ he said."

A native of Boise, Idaho, Messina earned degrees from UM in 1993 and 2009. As a UM senior he ran the successful re-election campaign for Missoula Mayor Dan Kemmis and later served as chief of staff for U.S. Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

Prior to his selection as 2012 campaign manager, Mr. Messina was deputy chief of staff in the White House. In addition, he has founded The Messina Group, a consulting firm that advises corporations, politicians and nonprofits using the technology and grassroots lessons pioneered by the Obama campaign.

The public is invited to attend the Q&A session beginning at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Oct. 4, in the UM School of Music Recital Hall. For more information, contact [email protected].