The Firm

Alex Clemens is a veteran political operative and communications expert who has served four elected officials in San Francisco and Washington, DC. In 2003, Alex founded Barbary Coast Consulting, which the New York Times named an elite public affairs firm – and in 2016, he joined Rich Peterson and Boe Hayward to merge their firms, co-founding Lighthouse Public Affairs.

Alex has been involved in public issues his entire life: he volunteered on his first political campaign at age twelve. (And his candidate won.) He is a sought-after speaker at civic events, regularly breaking down and forecasting political trends and translating election results for Bay Area organizations including the Chamber of Commerce, SPUR, Leadership San Francisco, San Francisco Public Relations Roundtable, Lambda Alpha, San Francisco Travel, Urban Land Institute, the Battery, San Francisco Consular Corps, the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods and others. He has served as a lecturer at the University of San Francisco’s Leo McCarthy Center, teaching Masters candidates about advocacy, lobbying and ethics. His political analysis has been quoted in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, Politico, Bay Area television and radio stations, and dozens of other outlets.

Alex has served a broad range of well-known clients as a strategic advisor regarding surrounding political direction, relationship-building, media challenges and procurement efforts. A representative sample include Visa, the San Francisco Giants, Dolby, Cisco, Albertsons/Safeway, Google, Pinterest, the San Francisco SPCA, Axon, the Kilroy Realty Corporation, the San Francisco 49ers, The Mills Corporation, the California Academy of Sciences, the Southern Land Company, the Exploratorium, Public Storage, the Bank of San Francisco, the San Francisco Foundation, Umpqua Bank, Lemonade, Walgreens, the Koret Foundation, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and the Association of Bay Area Governments.

An accomplished lobbyist, Alex has been involved in two decades of negotiations surrounding San Francisco’s favorite political pastime: debating location, height and density. Alex has helped facilitate City Hall, community and stakeholder conversations that have shaped housing and development policy throughout San Francisco. From the Kilroy Flower Mart, San Francisco’s largest-ever office entitlement, to California Pacific Medical Center’s Cathedral Hill campus, to six Rincon Hill condo towers, to MacFarlane Partners, to the Jewish Home of San Francisco in the Excelsior District, to the Market Street Place shopping center on Market Street at Fifth, to the 2015 expansion of the Moscone Center, to the transformation of One Steuart Lane from an antiquated parking garage to a sleek residential building, to the expansion of two dozen independent schools across San Francisco, Oakland, Marin and the Peninsula, to the re-envisioning of Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco, Alex and his team have assisted their clients in moving the needle towards success.

Alex has led crisis communications efforts for a variety of clients, almost all of whom would prefer not to be mentioned in this space – but he’s been tested by white-hot media spotlights again and again. Most famously, the day after Capt. Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger successfully ditched his crippled Airbus A-320 in the Hudson River in 2009, Alex became Sully’s advisor. Alex managed the media tsunami created by Sully’s work (along with his crew) to save 155 lives, and as he transitioned from his role as a highly competent pilot and safety trainer to that of an internationally-recognized hero. From negotiating the multi-segment 60 Minutes feature, to creating and executing several national media tours, to assisting with negotiations for book and speaker deals, to preparing for various addresses to Congress, Alex assisted Sully and his family as they navigated their unexpected notoriety and fame. (And yes, if you were wondering, Sully is just like he appears in public – thoughtful, strong, disciplined, smart, wise, and quietly funny. Sometimes circumstantial fame is visited upon the right person.)

Alex also has earned a reputation as a creative political operative. In addition to his efforts as a campaign policy wonk, strategist and speechwriter, he worked as a Bay Area advance man for the Clinton/Gore ticket in 1992, serving as lead organizer for an eight-thousand person rally at 24th and Mission in the days leading up to the June primary. He co-wrote his boss Supervisor Roberta Achtenberg’s ceiling-shattering address to the Democratic Convention held the same year, marking the first time an out lesbian addressed a national political convention. In early 1993, when President Clinton named Achtenberg his designee to serve as Assistant HUD Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, she became the first out gay person to be placed before the United States Senate for a confirmation vote. On the day of the vote, the outcome of which was still unclear, Alex staffed Vice President Al Gore as he worked the phones and twisted arms from the Vice President’s office in the frantic, unsure hours leading up to the vote. The 58-31 result cemented Roberta Achtenberg’s place in civil rights history.

Alex is a proud graduate of UC Santa Cruz, holding a degree in International Politics. (He believes he may have minored in Ultimate Frisbee, as well, but the transcripts are somewhat hazy on that point.) Alex is a licensed private investigator in the state of California, is the co-founder of the Gabriel Zimmerman Scholarship Fund at UC Santa Cruz, and serves on the boards of the San Francisco Boys Chorus and the storied Sacramento Seminar civic discussion group. He and his wife Priya, the host of KQED Newsroom, reside in Strawberry with their two young children.