Ronnie Cho
For over 20 years, Ronnie Cho has been at the intersection of politics, culture and activism. His experience includes roles as President Barack Obama’s director of youth outreach at the White House, and as vice president and head of public affairs at MTV and Emmy-winning producer.
Before his White House tenure, Cho was an editor at the Newsweek Daily Beast Company, focusing on social justice, innovation, and social entrepreneurship. He has been deeply involved in various political and issue campaigns from Janet Napolitano for Governor to Obama for America.
In addition to his time in the Obama White House, Cho served as assistant director of legislative affairs at the US Department of Homeland Security where his portfolio included cyber security and human capital. Cho also worked at the Federal Communications Commission as part of the team that wrote the National Broadband Plan and contributed to the public safety and homeland security recommendations.
Cho has been a featured speaker at venues such as SXSW, Harvard Law School, the Public Theater, Arizona State University and the Grammy Museum. He was profiled by Time Magazine, NBC News, and featured in HBO's documentary "By the People: The Election of Barack Obama." Additionally, he served on the board of the Alliance for Youth Organizing.
The Phoenix, Arizona native operates a boutique social impact and political consulting firm, specializing in advising underrepresented groups including women, young people, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people of color running for office. Notably, he managed Congresswoman Lauren Underwood's historic campaign in 2018, guiding her to become the youngest Black woman ever elected to Congress. Cho also led the independent expenditure for former NYC mayoral candidate Kathryn Garcia in 2021.
During the 2022 midterm election he was senior political advisor for SquareOne Politics. He is also part of an ambitious project to engage and redefine masculinity for young men who are lurching rightward politically and part of several civic engagement initiatives for the 2024 election in Arizona and Nevada. He was recently seen in his first major motion picture role, playing the mayor of Boston in the hit summer 2024 movie, The Instigators, starting Oscar winners Matt Damon and Casey Affleck.