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Q&A with Rhett Ruggerio Ruggerio Willson & Associates, LLC BY JAMES DECHENE
Rhett Ruggerio was born and raised on Third Street in Wilmington. He was a student at St. Ann’s Parish school and St. Elizabeth’s High School. At the age of sixteen he participated in student government and nurtured his early political passion by volunteering on Wilmington City Councilman Jim Baker’s campaign. He attended Kutztown University and studied history and political science.
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What does Ruggerio Willson & Associates do? We do government relations, advocacy, new media campaigns and public relations.
How did you launch your career after college? It wasn’t easy to get a political job. I moved to New York City and worked for a regional brokerage firm. I volunteered on Democratic campaigns in NYC. The most notable was Ruth Messinger’s campaign against Mayor Rudy Giuliani. By 1998, I decided to return to Delaware and checked in with Jim Baker. He had plans to run for Mayor and I offered to help. I convinced him to let me be his campaign manager. He won and I got hired to work in his administration lobbying on behalf of the City of Wilmington. From
DELAWARE BUSINESS | Ma y / Ju ne 2016
day one I found myself going to Dover, advocating for the city. It was exciting. In 2005 I decided to leave. I knew there was a need for advocacy and government relations in Delaware, but I also noticed there was a big generation gap. Other states were treating it like real advocacy, they had a real industry perspective. I saw an opportunity. I picked up a second client, Lockheed Martin, and it grew from there. Kim Willson soon became part of the team. Prior to its shutdown, she was the in house lobbyist for Valero in Delaware City. Kim knew what she was doing and hit the ground running. She understood the advocacy piece. We brought on more clients as we went. Jordan Seemans joined us three years ago. We have about 30 clients today.
Let’s talk about the impact of your work on Delaware. Ultimately, we do this because we want to see the state succeed. We are looking for policies that push the state forward. We have turned down clients because we did not believe in the mission or it was not a good fit. For example, we represent Chemours. I believe that if Chemours did not stay in Delaware and we lost 1,200 high paying jobs…it would have been a huge blow
Rhett Ruggerio is Founder and President of Ruggerio Willson & Associates, www.ruggeriowillson.com
to the economy. There is a trickledown effect; it obviously benefits the guy who has a chemical engineering degree, all the way down to the person working at the local coffee shop. We worked on that legislation (The Delaware Competes Act) from the time of inception to when the Governor signed the bill. We try to steer the ship the right way and that includes outreach and education to legislators, stakeholders, administration folks. That is an oversimplification, but at the end of the day, that is what it is.
Do you find being from Delaware puts you in a unique position advocating for your clients, especially those from out of state?
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