Meghan & Harry Just Hired Hillary Clinton's Former Campaign Advisor
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will establish their own royal household this spring, separate of Kensington Palace with Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Queen announced today. The split entails creating a new staff and offices for the couple, which will be based in Buckingham Palace and reporting to its communications team.
The Sussexes' full staff has not been announced yet, but so far we do know that they've hired Sara Latham as head of communications, according to royal correspondent Omid Scobie. Latham, who will report to the Queen's communications secretary, already has quite an impressive resume. Here's what you need to know about the integral member of Meghan and Harry's new household.
She was Hillary Clinton's senior campaign advisor.
Latham worked with the Democratic nominee during her 2016 presidential campaign. She also served as chief of staff to John Podesta, the chairman of Clinton's campaign.
She had an integral role in vetting candidates for Clinton's running mate, Tim Kaine, USA Today reported.
She also worked for Bill Clinton in the White House in the late '90s. According to her LinkedIn, she was special assistant to the chief of staff and deputy assistant to the president and deputy director of scheduling from 1996 to 2000.
USA Today called Latham a "longtime Democratic fixer." In 1996, she was recruited to assist with Bill Clinton's re-election campaign, and 2008, she helped Podesta arrange secret interviews for President Obama's prospective cabinet members. The Telegraph reported that she was part of the POTUS's "transition team" when he was first elected to office.
She has experience in the U.K.
After working with Clinton in the White House, Latham moved on to become a government affairs advisor at Microsoft Europe in the U.K., according to PR Week. From 2005 to 2006, she was a special advisor to Tessa Jowell, Britain's Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport during Tony Blair's tenure as Prime Minister.
She's a dual citizen.
Latham is American like Meghan and has a dual citizenship to the U.S. and the U.K., according to her LinkedIn page. Considering her decades-long experience advising politicians, she's "one of a few Americans to have served as a political appointee in both the US and UK governments," according to her bio in the Milken Institute.
She made some "radical" changes at her last job.
Latham was recently named a managing partner for Freuds, a communications and PR firm; her appointment was just announced in August 2018.
Under the role, she was to lead the company's "change agenda" and leading the agency's Future Freuds program, which focuses on "'radical’ simplification of structure," PR Week reported last summer. She was also in charge of some of the company's biggest clients, like Bank of America, The Rise Fund and Danone. She previously worked for the firm as a public affairs director from 2003 to 2005, according to her LinkedIn.
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