About Wolfpack Strategies
Wolfpack Strategies is a strategic communications firm delivering cutting-edge communications expertise to political, private sector, and nonprofit clients. Drawing from years of experience at the highest levels of government and the frontlines of winning presidential campaigns, Wolfpack Strategies specializes in crisis communications, press relations, strategic messaging, simplifying complex subjects, helping private sector clients avoid and defuse political issues, and reputation management.
Wolfpack Strategies helps clients:
- Tell their story compellingly and on their terms – with authenticity, precision, and tirelessness
- Make their message resonate and break through in a hyper competitive and fast-evolving media environment, including with key audiences
- Overcome crisis and emerge nimbler and more resilient
- Take the initiative to win arguments
- Manage press coverage proactively
- Communicate succinctly and accessibly about complex subjects and policies
- Strengthen their brand and cultivate their image
Founding Principal
Andrew Bates
Andrew Bates is a seasoned communications strategist and spokesperson who has represented President Biden and the White House, multiple presidential campaigns, cabinet members, and Supreme Court nominees in high stakes moments.
With a reputation for tenacity and an ability to navigate complex challenges with precision, Bates has earned the respect of colleagues, adversaries, and journalists alike. In fact, after the 2020 election, Fox News described Bates as “a quick-witted fighter and a key campaign official who helped to send Joe Biden to the White House.”
He brings expertise to the table from over 15 years on the frontlines of national politics – including briefing reporters on Air Force One and in the White House Briefing Room, being the lead spokesperson for historic legislation, navigating through crises, and successful Senate confirmations.
Bates most recently served as Senior White House Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President in the Biden-Harris Administration.
Bates led the White House Press Office’s approach to crisis communications and to big-picture, complex, and adversarial stories and narratives. He also took point on media relations for what would become the administration’s chief legislative accomplishments – including the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
And Bates was the lead press official for President Biden’s judicial nominations, including the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Previously, he joined the Biden campaign during its earliest days as its principal spokesperson for responding to attacks on then-Vice President Biden, his policy agenda, and record.
The Washington Post wrote that “Bates earned a reputation as a forceful and competent spokesman who handled questions about some of the most sensitive issues.”
He was also a national spokesperson for the Biden-Harris Transition, helping lead confirmation of cabinet nominees.
During the 2018 midterms, he led the Democratic super PAC American Bridge’s House campaigns arm.
In the Obama-Biden Administration, Bates was the press secretary for U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and a White House communications aide.
He is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina and an alumnus of North Carolina State University. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife Megan Apper, a former journalist and Treasury Department senior spokesperson.
