Speaker Profile

Eric Schultz

Senior Advisor to President Obama

Eric Schultz, now a senior advisor to former President Barack Obama, brings two decades of experience at the highest levels of politics and government to help clients navigate the intertwined national media and political landscape. Schultz counsels high-profile individuals, organizations, and companies across the political, financial, and tech sectors seeking to cultivate relationships, raise their profile, and shape conversations among influencial voices in Washington.

During the Obama Administration, Schultz served as White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary, speaking on behalf of the Administration on Air Force One and in the White House briefing room, and managing the Administration’s proactive messaging and news-of-the-day responses. Schultz was originally hired by the White House to handle the Administration’s response to congressional oversight investigations, gaining recognition in Politico as the strategist “White House officials turn to in a crisis to handle communications.”

Before joining the White House, Schultz spent nearly ten years on Capitol Hill working for key U.S. Senators, including as communications director to the current Democratic Leader, Charles Schumer and for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, overseeing messaging strategies of campaigns in 18 competitive states. He is also a veteran of numerous campaigns including Al Franken’s 2008 Senate race, to which the Washington Post credited Schultz for bringing “order and discipline.” In each of these roles, Schultz worked to proactively define opponents, becoming “well-known among Washington reporters for his aggressive, behind-the-scenes approach,” as noted by Politico.

Schultz is originally from Syracuse, New York, and got his start in politics as an opposition researcher on then-First Lady Hillary Clinton’s 2000 Senate campaign. Schultz earned a B.A. in political science at Washington University in St. Louis and received the University’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2018Schultz serves on the National Advisory Council for the Gephardt Institute for Civic and Community Engagement and on the board of Reading Partners DC, a nonprofit group promoting literacy among young students.