06.15.23
Firm Growth Generates Two New Positions, Expanding Roster of Senior Counselors
Seven Letter, a full-service bipartisan strategic communications firm with offices in Washington and Boston, today announced that Blair Taylor, most recently Communications Director for Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and the Senate Appropriations Committee, has joined the firm as a Managing Director. Additionally, Maura Hogan, a US Department of State alum and former senior vice president with Direct Impact-Burson, Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) where she specialized in corporate reputation, executive visibility, public affairs and ESG/sustainability, has joined the firm as a Senior Director.
“Senior-level expertise is the cornerstone of our offering to clients,” said founding partner Trevor Francis. “With Blair and Maura joining the firm, we are deepening an already impressive bench, expanding our corporate communications practice and broadening our expertise in public affairs.”
Having served as a senior communications advisor on Capitol Hill for nearly a decade, Blair Taylor brings a wealth of experience in crisis communications and public affairs strategy to Seven Letter, as well as deep expertise in appropriations, defense, energy, health care, and financial services policy. In her role as Communications Director for Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama and the Senate Appropriations Committee, Blair worked closely with the Senator, his staff, and senior Senate leadership aides to build and execute an effective press strategy for five annual appropriations processes and numerous emergency supplemental appropriations bills. Blair was on the front lines of many high-intensity, crisis situations throughout her work with Appropriations Chairman Shelby, including the fight for border wall resources, supplemental appropriations bills for several natural disasters, funding legislation to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and address its impacts on the country, and international security situations like the war in Ukraine and the Afghanistan withdrawal crisis. Serving as the chief spokesperson for the Senator and the Appropriations Committee, Blair regularly shepherded Senate Republican communicators through intense policy messaging battles. Blair will work in Seven Letter’s Washington office.
Maura Hogan brings to Seven Letter more than a decade of experience working in both the public and private sectors, most recently as a senior vice president with Direct Impact-Burson, Cohn & Wolfe (BCW) where she specialized in corporate reputation, executive visibility, public affairs and ESG/sustainability, and as an assistant vice president for Global Marketing and Corporate Communications at State Street Corporation. Prior to her time in the private sector, Maura worked at the US Department of State where she served as digital communications advisor to Secretary of State John F. Kerry and chief liaison to the White House Office of Digital Strategy. Additionally, Maura spent time in the Department’s Office of Public-Private Partnerships where she led all communications strategy, elevating cross-sector partnerships at the highest levels, including on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Maura will work in Seven Letter’s Boston office.
Seven Letter is a full-service bipartisan strategic communications firm with specialties in crisis communications, creative content development, brand and reputation management, public affairs, digital strategy and grasstops/grassroots mobilization. In 2019, Seven Letter launched Seven Letter Labs, expanding and enhancing its digital strategy services. The firm’s 2020 merger with the communications practice of Boston-based O’Neill and Associates expanded the firm’s geographic footprint, its team and reach. In 2020, Seven Letter launched Seven Letter Insight, an opinion and messaging research offering. Seven Letter was named to the 2022 PR News Agency Elite Top 100, is a multi-year “PR News Top Places to Work” award winner, a PR Week “Best Place to Work” award winner, and senior leaders of the firm have received numerous awards for industry excellence.For more information on Seven Letter, including to learn more about these new team members, please visit the firm’s new website or follow the firm on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.