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sally painter 220x220 - Sally Painter

Sally Painter

Chief Operating Officer, Blue Star Strategies

Bio Current as of September 7, 2016

Sally A. Painter is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer at Blue Star Strategies, LLC. Ms. Painter’s work experience includes time spent at both the highest level of government and at major corporations in the private sector. Given this diverse background, she provides corporate, institutional and public sector clients with results-oriented external affairs, foreign/security policy and business development strategies. Ms. Painter has an extensive track record working with Central Europe on security and policy issues, including successfully representing many of these countries on their NATO and EU bids, as well as an historic Visa Equity Coalition of seven countries where legislation was passed in the U.S. Congress which allows their citizens to enter the US visa-free. Ms. Painter has managed many large-scale public-private projects, including as a senior advisor on the global NATO Summits including: Washington, DC–1999, Prague — 2002, Istanbul — 2004 and Riga — 2006. In this capacity, she worked directly with the leadership of the host country, CEOs of global corporations, the U.S. Congress, NATO Headquarters and the Bush and Clinton White Houses to promote and educate transatlantic leaders on the importance of the NATO Alliance. Ms. Painter is also a member of the Board of the US Committee on NATO. As such, she played a significant role in supporting NATO expansion. Instrumental in this successful process was a thorough understanding and ability to work with the foreign policy decision-makers within the transatlantic community. For the last 15 years, Ms. Painter has also worked with opposition leaders to promote democracy and transparency in countries in transition, including: Albania, Argentina, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan, Romania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Venezuela. Throughout 2000 she served as Executive Director of the Business Coalition for U.S.-China Trade, a business group of 100 major corporate leaders that secured passage of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China — the largest trade legislation ever concluded. For three and a half years, Ms. Painter served as the Director of International at Tenneco Inc, a Fortune 500 company with manufacturing facilities in 42 countries. In this capacity, she advanced the corporation’s business interests, negotiating new ventures with host governments in more than 20 countries. While at Tenneco, she was instrumental in the creation and early management of the Transatlantic Business Dialogue (TABD) and the French American Business Council, two public-private organizations designed to engage business leaders and government officials to resolve trade disputes. Prior to joining Tenneco, Ms. Painter was a senior advisor in the Clinton Administration. As such, she helped manage the outreach and advocacy program for the late Secretary of Commerce, Ronald H. Brown, by providing strategic advice and advocacy to U.S companies bidding and winning overseas contracts. Ms. Painter is on the Board of Directors of The Truman National Security Project, the Global Fairness Initiative, Partners for Democratic Change, and 4D PAC, a progressive national security political action committee. She is also a member of the Atlantic Council and on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Sustainable Development. She writes frequently on European issues and has been published in the Washington Post, Politico, WE-NATO, The Hill, and the Progressive Policy Institute’s Progressive Fix, among others.  Ms. Painter’s accomplishments have been featured in The Wall Street Journal and she has been a guest speaker on Fox News Live and Al Jazeera. She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Golden Laurel Branch Award (the highest honor of the Foreign Ministry of the Republic of Bulgaria), the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit from the Republic of Hungary, and The Minister of Defense’s Award for Distinction from the Republic of Latvia. In addition, she is a producer for the Broadway production Ann, a critically acclaimed dramatization of the life of former Texas Governor Ann Richards. She is a certified downhill ski instructor and has one son, George, a design stylist.