Dan Allen

One of Washington’s best communications pros, Dan Allen brings focus to the message. Dan served as Director of Communications for the Majority Leader in the US House of Representatives, in previous elections he’s served on the Senior Staff at the NRSC. During the 2004 cycle, he was Director of Communications as the GOP strengthened their majority with a net gain of four Senate seats. In the 2002 cycle, Dan was Press Secretary as Republicans defied history to regain the Senate Majority. Before that, Dan was Director of Communications for the New York Republican State Committee.

Pete Havel

A veteran strategist and operative for three of America's leading business advocacy groups, Pete Havel has been a fixture in nearly every major legislative and political battle facing the business community throughout the last 15 years.

In addition to previous tenure as a regional director for both Associated Builders and Contractors and the National Federation of Independent Business, Pete recently completed 7 years as Executive Director for the Southwest and South Central Regions of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

He served as both the voice and face of the Chamber throughout the region, as well as an adviser to numerous corporations, campaigns and associations who sought his legislative, political and communications expertise. Pete's relationships with key opinion leaders, lawmakers, and stakeholders throughout the business community and his understanding of how the business and legislative worlds work and connect have made him a trusted resource for organizations in need of targeting their message to the right audience.

Bethany Jordan

Bethany is a two-time Emmy award winning producer, her most recent Emmy awarded for production of NBC’s 2008 Presidential election coverage. Before joining The Wolf Group to run our post-production operations, Bethany was a producer for NBC News, with her work appearing on the Today Show, Nightly News with Brian Williams and MSNBC. In 2008, Bethany traveled with John McCain’s presidential campaign as part of the national press corps. Now that she doesn’t spend all her time on a jet crammed with grumpy reporters and spirited campaign staffers, Bethany has time to run and bicycle which offsets her other passion: cooking.

Lauren Messer

Lauren is a graduate of the University of Alabama with a Masters degree in Communication Studies. After studying abroad in Seville, Spain, she also received her Bachelors degree in Spanish. As a Rhetorician and self-admitted word nerd, Lauren concentrated on gender and political communication and graduated magna cum laude. The former Miss Austin and Miss Texas interview winner is an avid CrossFit athlete and enjoys baking and painting in her spare time.

Vinny Minchillo

An award-winning creative, Vinny Minchillo has delivered breakthrough work for successful congressional, senatorial and presidential campaigns. One TV spot for the John Thune for Senate campaign was the first political ad ever to receive an Addy from the Dallas Advertising League. In 2007, he was named Best Copywriter in Dallas. Prior to joining The Wolf Group he was creative director for TM Advertising working with major brands like American Airlines, Pace Picante Sauce, Nationwide Insurance, Subaru and more. He’s a former stand up comic, "Wheel of Fortune" contestant, lawnmower racer and contributor to the best-selling "Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook."

Mark Ryan

Mark draws on almost three decades of experience in corporate strategic communications. In his career, he helped Exxon understand the complexity of the consumer backlash to the Valdez oil spill, Texas Instruments deal with negative publicity surrounding product recalls, and American Airlines contend with overwhelming public sentiment to do away with the Wright Amendment. With a specialty in analytics and research, he developed tools to evaluate customers’ value perception in products and promotions for McDonald’s, and contributed to new product development for companies as diverse as Pilgrim’s Pride (food products), Hawker Beechcraft (aircraft) and FirstCity Bank (consumer banking products). Mark served as director of media and research for McCann-Erickson’s Houston office and as general manager of McCann Dallas. Prior to helping start The Wolf Group in 2002, he also had stints as marketing director for a national theatre chain (Silver Cinemas) and VP/marketing for an online industrial goods auction site (Trinity e-Ventures).

Mark Smith

Mark brings over 20 years of design, advertising and new product experience to The Wolf Group. In his career Mark has helped Pepsi explore new product innovations, Pizza Hut re-energize their employee retention, Gambrinus Company explore the brand potential for Pete’s Wicked Ale, Federal Express take advantage of their increased holiday traffic to promote low first quarter sales, Velamints reposition their chocolate mints as an adult indulgence, take the "old" out of Mug Root Beer, Discover Card develop the keychain credit card, Elmer’s Glue develop an Imaginarium Store, and Procter & Gamble develop positioning for a new line of Crest products.

Mark has a MA in Graphic Communication from Texas A&M at Commerce and a BA in Studio Arts from The University of Texas at Austin. He lives in Dallas with his wife, son, 4 cats and one tri-lingual, red, long-haired dachshund.

Mike Snyder

Mike Snyder brings 30 years at NBC-Television and a unique blend of talents to The Wolf Group. As a chief correspondent and then lead anchor at NBC-5 Dallas, Mike has amassed a rare mix of skill sets in broadcast, internet and emerging media. Those abilities are blended with his journalistic acuity to assess public relations, political situations, marketing challenges and crisis management. Mike is also an accomplished philanthropic fundraiser, organizer and manager. Mike is Chairman of the Airpower Foundation which partners with American Airlines and others to assist families of deployed and wounded military. Mike serves on the boards of several foundations and is deeply involved with military veterans, Salvation Army Angel Tree, Muscular Dystrophy Association and Junior Achievement. Among Mike’s latest philanthropic projects were Sky Ball (to raise financial support for military families), Snowball Express (supporting children who have lost a parent in the global war on terror) and Tribute to the Troops (taking wounded warriors, mostly amputees and burn casualties, on a Las Vegas extravaganza).