About

Zach Friend is an author, public policy and communications expert who has worked for Barack Obama and John Kerry’s presidential campaigns, the White House Council of Economic Advisers, U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives and the Democratic National Committee (DNC). For nearly a decade, Zach was the Press Information Officer and a Crime Analyst for the Santa Cruz, California Police Department, acting as the department's spokesman and analyzing crime statistics to help design more effective prevention and enforcement strategies.

With Obama for America ’08, Zach was a battleground state press secretary and spokesman handling planning, writing and media relations. For appearances and interviews, he staffed and briefed Barack Obama, Joe Biden and other campaign principals and surrogates.

He has written for the Huffington Post and Business Insider and been quoted by CNN, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, the LA Times, the New York Times, Politico and others.

Turner Publishing released his book On Message: How a Compelling Narrative Will Make Your Organization Succeed in late 2013. On Message became an Amazon.com best seller in the Marketing category and won a prestigious Axiom Business Book Award in the Networking/Communication Skills category. He has lead numerous trainings and conferences on based on principals from the book.

Zach was elected to the Santa Cruz County (California) Board of Supervisors, representing the Second District, in 2012 and reelected in 2016. The beautiful and diverse Second District, which is bordered by the Monterey Bay, the Pajaro River and the Santa Cruz Mountains, includes coastal communities and some of the most productive agricultural land in the country. In 2017, Zach was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Film Commission and currently serves on that commission.

Zach has a Masters degree in Public Policy from Georgetown University and a BA with Honors in History from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Zach lives in Santa Cruz County with his wife and son.