2024 Power Players in Public Relations & Lobbying

Jonathan Greenspun is a managing director and serves as Mercury’s key contact for New York City public affairs. His core expertise includes New York City government relations, strategic communications, crisis communication, media relations and community grassroots organizing. He has worked with some of the city’s most prestigious corporations and served clients in a variety of industries. Born in Brooklyn, Jonathan and his wife Rosesara currently reside in Riverdale with their three children.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
Stay informed and adapt to what is an ever-changing political and governmental landscape. Anticipate, anticipate, anticipate. To quote Wayne Gretzky, “I skate where the puck is going to be, not where it has been”

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
The need for broad and consistent relationship building.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
Learn how to properly greet someone in at least 25 languages.

Michael Hardaway is a managing director at Mercury Public Affairs, where he specializes in crisis management, media relations, political affairs and strategic messaging. A Capitol Hill veteran, Hardaway worked as longtime spokesman and director of communications for House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries. He also worked for President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin and NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. Hardaway is a member of the Economic Club of New York.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
There are two kinds of people in this world: those who deliver and those who don’t. Make sure you’re the former.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
Early failure is part of the process.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
I want to help American companies win the global race on AI and microchips.

Karen Mústiga is a senior vice president at Mercury Public Affairs. She specializes in strategic communications and media relations. At Mercury, she advises diverse clients on communications and public affairs campaigns, provides counsel on messaging and reputation management and conducts media training in English and Spanish. Before Mercury, she helped manage external affairs for the NYC Mayor’s Office of MWBEs and worked in financial communications doing both in-house communications and reporting from the NYSE.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
Read the Elements of Style. The line: A sentence should contain no unnecessary words is everything if you want to improve your writing skills.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
A vast rolodex of media contacts is not a prerequisite for success when you first start in the public relations industry. Persistence, creativity and attention to detail go a much longer way in determining your trajectory. 

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
I want to read and finish The Rulebreaker: The Life and Times of Barbara Walters. As a new mom, I miss reading for fun.

With more than 20 years of experience on both sides of the media landscape, Tony advises corporate clients on strategic communications and brand building. Tony previously served as the Javits Center’s chief communications officer, overseeing all communications, government affairs and community partnerships. He also served as associate commissioner of communications and public affairs at the NYC Department of Buildings, press secretary at the FDNY and a police reporter for the New York Daily News.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
Success is rarely found in your comfort zone. It’s achieved when you enter the unknown, find your way and determine a path toward success. That was one of the best pieces of advice I received when a mentor encouraged me to take a leap of faith and start a new direction in my career. I recognized my destiny was in my own hands, and I had the power to choose and create my own path.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
Success is not determined solely by merit. It comes from a variety of evolving factors, some of which are in – and out – of your control.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
Exceed all expectations.

Greg is a trusted advisor to C-suite and nonprofit executives, founders, and elected leaders. His career spans policy, politics, government, higher education, and the private sector. Key roles include senior advisor in the U.S. Senate, national role on a presidential campaign, manager for a mayoral campaign, and executive team member on a $49M hybrid complex. Greg made history as “the first Black campaign manager” for a U.S. Senator. He’s a member of The Economic Club of NY.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
I’ve been blessed with key mentors who continue to impart advice. Some advice I use daily. Terence D. Tolbert, my late mentor, would remind me not to “drink the Kool-aid,” meaning don’t lose yourself in the work. Stay centered on who and whose you are. Ray McGuire, another mentor, emphasizes the keys to success as Prayer, Preparation, Performance, and a little Paranoia. To compete and perform with excellence requires all of the above.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
Sponsorship vs mentorship: Both have value, but one multiplies personal and professional growth. If you are succeeding professionally but lack growth as a human, eventually, you will hit a wall, for some, literally. Sponsorship is perhaps the best asset I’ve received in my career and as an individual. Sponsors supported both my career and my personal development. It took me some time to differentiate the two.

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
There are several overlooked and growing markets in this hemisphere, one being CARICOM countries, which have a combined GDP of over $100B US. America is lagging behind in investing and finding synergies with these countries. My goal is to provide value to the leaders driving change in CARICOM’s public and private sectors. My other 2024 goal is pro bono work addressing a major lapse in the media’s coverage of juvenile justice. It’s personal to me.

Luis A. Miranda Jr. served in key roles for the Koch, Dinkins, and Giuliani administrations. As a founding partner of the MirRam Group, he consulted on noted political campaigns, including the senatorial campaigns of Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, and Kirsten Gillibrand; and Attorney General Letitia James’ reelection. Miranda is the founding president of the Hispanic Federation and is currently chairperson of the Latino Victory Fund, the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, Viva Broadway, and the Public Theater.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
That you should never do to others what you don’t want anyone to do to you. If you want to be respected, you need to respect people. For example, if you want people to have intelligent and rewarding conversations, you have to engage them in the same way.  

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
I wish I had known how unforgiving, tough, and competitive this industry is. I would have been better prepared to understand that in this business, you need to be relentless and unwavering.  Sometimes you are swimming with barracudas – not everyone wishes you well, nor rejoices for your success.  

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
It is actually three.  First: to elect the Harris/Walz team. Second: to elect a record number of Latinos to Congress. And third: to have a record number of Latinos nationwide going out to vote.

Roberto Ramírez made history as the first Puerto Rican chair of a county committee in NY, helping to diversify the judiciary and elevating countless elected officials. An attorney, former president of the Puerto Rican Bar Association, he orchestrated historic campaigns including Fernando Ferrer’s and William C. Thompson Jr’s. A founding partner of the MirRam Group, Ramírez served as an influential NY State Assembly Member – chairperson of the social services committee.

What is the best advice you have received from a mentor?
Be true to yourself, know what you believe in, and don’t yield.

Is there something you wish you knew before starting your career in this industry?
There are many different ways to achieve the same objective, and you don’t always have to choose the hardest one.  

What is one thing you hope to accomplish in 2024?
To strive to achieve a balance between reaching my objectives, and treating people well.