John Newsome

Education: MBA; MA in Modern Thought & Literature; BA in Spanish Literature from Stanford University

Recent projects include: Planned Parenthood Federation of America, The Obama Foundation, PBLWorks, MIT CoLab, The Sherwood and Kiewit Foundations (Omaha equity initiative), Kilometro Cero

Personal interests include: yoga, cycling, wine

John Newsome is the founder of Public Equity Group (2011 to the present), and has been a strategy and management consultant since 2001, including four years (2001-2005) at the Bridgespan Group (consultant and manager/management team member) and affiliations with numerous other firms, including FSG Social Impact Advisors (project senior advisor), LeadWell Partners, and RootCause, among others. 

From 2009-11, John’s consulting work took him in-house at the (renamed) Global Business Coalition on Health, where as Vice President of US Initiatives he led innovative public-private partnerships between multinational companies (e.g., Chevron, L’Oreal, Levi-Strauss, Pfizer, Brinks) and public partners (e.g., the White House, CDC, DC Dept of Health). Likewise, in 2005-06, John’s consulting with the Bridgespan Group led him to the Oakland Public Schools, where he served in the chief of staff role. Prior to consulting, John served on the management team of the Center for Third World Organizing, and as Press Secretary to US Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Oakland).

In 2016, John co-founded Fight for a Better America, a federal super PAC that funds data-driven, grassroots, voter engagement campaigns to flip districts from red to blue. Fight’s 2017-18 investments supported work in 7 US Congressional districts. Progressives and moderates won in each of those races. From 2004 to 2009, John led “…And Castro for All”, an intersectional initiative focused on LGBT equality, and racial & economic justice, best known for winning unprecedented city and state racial bias cases/judgments. Subsequently John co-founded “…And Marriage for All”, which mobilized African-American support for marriage equality in CA (per this interview @ UC Berkeley), during which time he co-developed a planning guide for statewide marriage equality campaigns (with Evan Wolfson).

John holds an MBA, an MA in Modern Thought & Literature (with a focus on colonialism), a Spanish fluency certification and a BA in Spanish Literature (with a focus on colonialism) from Stanford University. John is a 1990 National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow and a 2002 Coro Community Fellow.