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Principal

Andrew S. Ricci

Andrew S. Ricci brings more than a decade of communications experience honed on Capitol Hill, political campaigns, and at one of Washington, DC's premier crisis, public relations, and public affairs firms. He is an expert at building and managing client reputations and helping them respond to developing media and political situations.

Over the course of his career, Andrew has been featured as a spokesman or communications expert in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, the Associated Press, ABC News, MarketWatch, CNBC, CNN, Bloomberg, Politico, Roll Call, The Hill, and countless state, regional, and local publications. His ghost writing has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, The Hill, US News and World Report, and a wide variety of other publications.

Before founding Riccon Strategic Communications, Andrew served as a Vice President at a major international strategic communications agency. He also served as a senior communications aide to U.S. Congressman Zack Space (D-Ohio), where he developed a 16-county communications strategy around a robust legislative portfolio and served as the Congressman’s spokesman.

Andrew has a B.A. in English from the University of Mount Union (formerly Mount Union College) in Alliance, Ohio and is a native of Beaver Falls, Pa.


 

Selected Case Studies

  • Served as media liaison/spokesperson for a family at the center of a high-profile international crisis involving the White House and multiple U.S. departments/agencies, foreign governments, and an international terrorist organization.

  • Represented a company at the center of one of the largest, international headline-driving data breaches of the past decade. Provided strategic counsel, developed rapid response messaging, prepared statements, managed journalist inquiries, and served as lead for a 24/7 incident response team.

  • Developed and implemented communications campaign for an advocacy group designed to influence targeted members of Congress, Cabinet-level departments, and federal agencies. Engineered events to garner publicity and cultivated relationships with local media in each Representative's district. Secured earned media coverage across print, broadcast and online platforms along with opinion placements that drove public awareness and action in support of campaign goals.

 

 

Why Riccon?

When I was growing up in Western Pennsylvania, my dad had a home building business named Riccon Development.

As a child, I would go to work with him when a job was almost done, and he would pay me to sweep up sawdust, pick up trash, and do other age-appropriate odd jobs. I insisted on getting paid with a check because I loved looking forward to payday, going to the bank, and walking out with cash that I knew I had earned — even though it was only a few dollars.

When I decided to start my own company, I decided to name it Riccon Strategic Communications as an homage to my father’s business and as a tribute to everything I learned as a child cleaning up on construction sites: work hard, build trust, and treat people fairly.

Client Philosophy

I fully believe that the key to this business is personal relationships. I don't want to be just another vendor who provides a service — one of many interchangeable characters in an ever-changing cast of consultants — but rather as a true partner who fully understands your objectives, who provides wise counsel and creative strategies to achieve them, and who is a reliable ally in whatever cause we are pursuing together. 

I am invested in my clients' success. Trust is difficult to gain but easy to lose, and my modus operandi has always been to earn that trust through hard work, responsiveness, honesty, candor, loyalty, reliability, humor, and putting forth my best effort 100 percent of the time. This goes for my professional relationships as well as my personal friendships.

When it comes to providing client service, I believe in being up front about my skills and capabilities — highlighting my strengths and being real about my weaknesses. If something is outside of my particular wheelhouse, I work regularly with a team of high quality professionals with complementary skillsets, and we can compete with anyone.

While I'm always happy to consider or work on a one-off project, I treat every client like we're in it for the long haul. If I do my job right, we will be.

Get in touch

How can we help? If you have a communications issue or are interested in working with me, please get in touch. I'm happy to talk through it with you and present some ideas for how I can be part of your solution.

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