Nick Garcia

During his career, Nick has garnered significant public affairs experience executing multi-faceted government relations and communications strategies for elected officials and Fortune 50 corporations.  His experience navigating tough, often technical issues and repackaging them into easy-to-understand strategies has equaled success for his clients.  At Platinum Advisors, Nick helps direct winning legislative strategies for clients with a particular focus on developing strong coalitions and engaging key stakeholders to positively affect legislative matters.

Prior to joining Platinum Advisors, Nick served as managing director of Miller Public Affairs Group where he worked with private companies and non-profit organizations to enhance grassroots development and media relations.  His work involved integrating with government relations teams to drive support for issues before the California Legislature and Executive Branch.

Nick also served as regional director of government affairs and business development for lottery giant GTECH Corporation.  In this position he directed government affairs consultants in eight western states, helping the company grow market-share and extend existing state contracts using public affairs tactics that melded direct advocacy with robust outreach plans. 

Nick helped lead and navigate former-Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado’s drawn-out confirmation process through the California Legislature.  Nick built an unprecedented coalition of support from differing political spectrums and leveraged Capitol media to help drive the debate.  While Maldonado served in the Senate, Nick was his legislative director and chief of staff.

Previously, he directed corporate communications for Blue Cross of California and WellPoint – the state’s largest health care insurer.  At Blue Cross Nick worked as a crisis communications leader, pulling together rapid response teams from different business units to deal with pressing issues that aligned with company objectives often providing on-the-record responses to highly regarded outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MSNBC. 

Nick’s foray into politics was as a campaign aide during the historic recall election that swept Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger into office.  During the Schwarzenegger Administration, Nick traveled to dozens of states as well as Austria, Hong Kong and China leading event planning and coordination for the Governor and First Lady.