Why Government Belongs in the Boardroom: Making the Case for Public Affairs Expertise — Tammie Kilpatrick
Boardrooms today are laser-focused on financial expertise, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies like AI — and rightly so. But there’s another important area of expertise that some organizations may be overlooking: the impact of politics and government on business outcomes.
Whether your company operates in a highly regulated industry or not, decisions made in statehouses and on Capitol Hill affect everything — from taxes and financing to cybersecurity risks and talent pipelines. I’ve spent over 30 years at the intersection of business and politics, and I’ve come to believe that Government isn’t just a factor — it’s the nucleus.
At my public affairs firm, politics sits at the center of everything we do. It’s not a side function. It’s the axle of the wheel — not the spokes. Why? Because legislation and regulation underpin every other strategic concern with which companies must grapple. Financial stability, risk, AI, ESG, compliance, crisis — they’re all impacted by the laws that get written and the policymakers who write them.
Too often, I see boards and executive teams address these issues in silos — with little understanding of how interconnected they really are. When companies bring in someone who can navigate this complexity, they gain more than just a “government affairs” voice. They gain a strategist — someone who knows how to influence legislation, decode regulations, and anticipate political shifts that will either create opportunity or cause unnecessary cost.
I’ve represented everyone from small, local businesses to Fortune 500 companies. Sometimes the work involves proactively advancing legislation to help a company thrive. Other times, it’s about stopping policies that could be detrimental — the kind that might go unnoticed until it’s too late.
This isn’t just about lobbying. It’s about understanding what resonates with policymakers — who they are, where they come from, and what matters to them. It’s about knowing how to translate your company’s needs into a language that lawmakers understand. I’ve been on both sides of the table — as a state official and as an advisor — and that experience gives me unique insight into how to communicate across the aisle, across sectors, and across silos.
In today’s climate, a board without public affairs expertise is flying blind in one of the most volatile dimensions of business. It’s time we rethink who belongs at the table — and why.
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