Christopher Dunn, Vice President

Dunn has more than 20 years of public policy and public affairs experience.  The Oak Park native has served in senior policy and strategy positions for AT&T Wireless, AT&T, the Administrators of NASA and the U.S. General Services Administration, the City of Chicago and the late Senator Paul Simon, among others.  Dunn has also served in paid or volunteer staff positions in more than 25 campaigns for federal, state and local office.

Dunn joins Conlon Public Strategies as a Vice President following a 13-month stint as Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan’s Campaign Manager.  During the prior 10 years, Dunn served as a government relations and public affairs executive for AT&T Wireless and the cable television division of AT&T.  Dunn had a wide range of external responsibilities in these positions, including leadership of AT&T Wireless’ state government relations teams in Illinois and eight other states in the Midwest and resolution of the numerous community, media and government relations issues arising out of AT&T Wireless’ build out of its first 340 cell sites in the Chicago area.  Dunn also served as the companies’ chief spokesperson on numerous issues before legislative and regulatory bodies and with state and local government officials.

During the first three years of the Clinton Administration, Dunn served as NASA’s White House Liaison and Executive Assistant to NASA Administrator Dan Goldin, a Search Manager in the White House Office of Presidential Personnel and as GSA’s White House Liaison and Special Assistant to GSA Administrator Roger Johnson.  Dunn’s duties in all of these jobs related to sensitive personnel and external policy matters.  While at NASA, Dunn proposed and led an award-winning “war room” lobbying operation credited by the Washington Post, Space News and the Chicago Sun-Times with playing a critical role in preventing congressional termination of the $13 billion International Space Station program.

From the mid-80s to the early 90s, Dunn worked on Capitol Hill and in Chicago’s City Hall.  In Chicago, he worked in the Law Department as the City’s Director of State Regulatory Affairs.  This position required Dunn to design and implement a system for managing the City of Chicago’s participation in state regulatory proceedings among 38 municipal departments and agencies.  In Washington, Dunn served as General Counsel to the late U.S. Senator Paul Simon and as one of Senator Simon’s Counsel on the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee focusing on antitrust and business-related issues.  During the five years prior to joining Senator Simon’s staff, Dunn worked as an attorney and law clerk at an international corporate law firm in Chicago.   

Dunn’s other campaign experience includes leadership positions with the Kerry/Edwards, Gore 2000, Mayor Richard M. Daley, and Clinton/Gore campaigns and Senator Simon’s final three campaigns, among others.

Dunn holds a B.A. in Political Science and History from the University of Illinois at Chicago, an M.A. in Modern European History from the University of Chicago and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.  Dunn lives in Wilmette with his wife Beth and their three children, Jack, Patrick and Katie.