PRINCIPALS

  • Stephen Leeds is an award-winning filmmaker, political media strategist, and founder of Gen Democracy and Big Blue Umbrella, a creative agency focused on reinventing political communication for the digital era through cinematic storytelling, unconventional tactics, and culture-driven voter engagement. Leeds helped lead the groundbreaking “Big Flip” campaign in Nebraska’s NE-2 during the 2020 presidential election, contributing to the historic flip of a critical electoral vote for Joe Biden in a district previously carried by Donald Trump. The campaign became a nationally recognized case study in modern political persuasion and earned a Pollie Award for “Best New and Unusual Tactic” in political advertising. Through Gen-Democracy, which he co-founded alongside Andrew Karsch, Stephen Kennedy Smith and Frank Smith, Leeds has also focused heavily on Gen Z voter engagement and innovative digital persuasion strategies aimed at expanding Democratic turnout and participation. Before entering political media, Leeds built a career as a filmmaker, writer, and creative director working across film, television, and advertising. He has created over 100 national advertising campaigns and has written, directed, or produced projects for Warner Bros., Disney, Sony, Fox, New Regency, Alcon Entertainment, ImageMovers, and Phoenix Pictures, among others. His work has been honored by the New York Film Festival’s New Directors/New Films series at MoMA. Leeds is currently developing a major limited series about Ernest Hemingway, with Josh Brolin attached to portray Hemingway and legendary producer Mike Medavoy attached to produce. He is also the founder and Chief Creative Officer of Umbrella Street Media, where he continues to merge cinematic storytelling, emerging media, and cultural strategy across entertainment, advocacy, and political communication. He holds degrees from Columbia University and U.C.L.A.

  • Andy served as Co-Director of Senator Edward M. Kennedy's 1976 Massachusetts Senate reelection campaign and again worked with Senator Kennedy as Director of Issues and Media for his 1980 Presidential campaign. In 2008 working with Rock the Vote, he conceived and organized the largest youth voter registration drive to date, optimizing new online platforms to register 2.6 million first time voters principally between the ages of 18 and 35. In 2012 working with The Culture Project, Karsch produced and co-wrote the critically acclaimed Blueprint For Accountability, which was presented at the NYU Skirball Center and broadcast live online around the world by FORA. Directly following the 2016 election, Andy worked to reconfigure the board of Run For America, helping to find people in the private sector to run for office.Andy continues to consult for numerous foundations, organizations and institutions while serving as a Senior Advisor to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial.

    Andy’s film producing credits include Academy Award-nominated The Prince of Tides, The Emperor’s Club, Princess Caraboo, The Rachel Papers, Conviction, and the 2012 Academy Award-nominated Moneyball. Andy was executive producer on the film Moynihan, released in 2018. He attended The American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies, where, as a Conservatory Fellow, he produced the highly acclaimed Nights at O’Rear's, which premiered at The New York Film Festival in 1981. He subsequently founded Longfellow Pictures while working as both a producer and executive with United Artists from 1985 to 1994. He left United Artists to run companies and continue producing under his Longfellow Pictures banner first with William Randolph Hearst III and then Sidney Kimmel. In 2010, Andy founded the company Insurgent Media, which has produced several documentaries including the SXSW award-winning Beware of Mr. Baker; Blank City, about underground film, music and art in 1970s New York; the Emmy nominated American Masters Woody Allen: A Documentary; PBS' Before the Spring, After The Fall; and the Netflix Original Mission Blue. He also executive produced the Berlin Film Festival Cinema Fairbindet prize-winning film Art/Violence.

  • Francis Smith is President of a Cambridge, Massachusetts consulting firm specializing in election and non-profit law, political advocacy and campaigns and policy work. A graduate of Georgetown University and Boston College Law School, he is member of the Massachusetts Bar. A veteran of a number of political campaigns including two Presidential and a US Senate race, he now writes a monthly newsletter on American politics. He serves on a number of non governmental organization boards. His current work includes as the political director of the Democracy Alliance an organization of over 100 Democratic donors and institutions and as co-founder of Committee on States, a state donor network. He also serves as Executive Director of the Streisand Foundation.