Barcelo&Company
.
Bruce Barcelo
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Bruce advises clients on politics, public affairs, and public communication. His clients have included Chambers of Commerce, think tanks, the Republican Party, numerous elected officials, and major Florida and national corporations. He and his colleagues have an astonishing record of electoral success in electing candidates. He has been on the prevailing side of nearly twelve billion dollars in tax referenda, winning over 90% of the dozens of efforts in which he has been an advisor.
A native of Jacksonville, he graduated from Dartmouth College in 1974 with Distinction in Government and Urban Studies and was a Rufus Choate Scholar. He was awarded a National Science Foundation grant to study urban transportation policy-making in Jacksonville and later received a Public Service Fellowship to work with Jacksonville’s City Council.
Active in education reform, he was a member of the original design team for the Florida Chamber Foundation’s WorldClass strategy. Until January 1999, he served as Chairman of American Public Dialogue, Florida’s leading political polling firm. Earlier, he worked with Jacksonville businesswoman Delores Kesler as Executive Vice President of ATS Services (now modis) after having managed nationally recognized software firm.
He has worked extensively in international democracy building efforts, traveling over a dozen times to Ukraine in the former Soviet Union to teach modern polling techniques and political communication in that emerging democracy. His public opinion research has been instrumental in charting the progress of democratic reforms in that important country. And over the past several years his work with leaders of opposition parties in Haiti was important in the planning for a post-Aristide democracy and in preparing for the upcoming round of Presidential and Parliamentary elections. He has just returned from Kabul, Afghanistan where his firm is beginning a two-year national polling project designed to give the Afghan people a voice in the reconstruction and direction of their country.
Bruce has been active in the Florida and Jacksonville Regional Chambers of Commerce, Leadership Florida, the MountainTop Institute, the Florida Children’s Campaign, the United Way, Junior Achievement, the Jacksonville Community Council, Inc., the Republican Party, and St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral. Currently, he is Chair of the Jacksonville Chamber’s Education and Workforce Development Department and Vice-Chairman of the MountainTop Institute and is on the Board of the Chamber of Commerce and of Leadership Florida
He has been honored with the Urban League’s Equal Opportunity Award and the Baha’i Faith’s Unity Award. In 2002 he was named Man of the Year by Folio Weekly and in 2004 was named by Florida Trend as one of Florida’s 174 Most Influential People.
Bruce and his bride live in the historic San Marco area of Jacksonville and have a daughter Paige and the world’s most perfect grandsons, Miles and Collier.
Bruce's community service has included the following:
Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce - Member, Board of Directors
Chair, Education and Workforce Development
Florida Chamber of Commerce - Member, Board of Governors
Leadership Florida - Corporate Secretary;
Member, Board of Governors and Executive Committee
Board of Library Trustees, City of Jacksonville - Trustee
American Library Association
Jacksonville Historic Preservation Task Force - Member
Jacksonville Election Reform Task Force
Jacksonville Community Council, Inc Study on Racism in Jacksonville, Co-Chair
Junior Achievement, Inc. - Board Member
San Marco Preservation Society
Bruce's professional affiliations include:
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