Bernie’s career began in political operations where he gained the foresight of constituency involvement and issue advocacy to affect public change.

He started in 1980 as staff assistant to the U.S. Senate Republican Conference, then quickly moved on to assist and direct several political campaigns and committees, eventually landing on Jack Kemp’s 1988 Presidential campaign.  As the northeast regional political director, Bernie oversaw political operations in 11 states as well as advance work and touring in all 50 states.

Following the Kemp campaign, Bernie served in the Office of the Secretary for the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a key advisor and coordinator of all 10 regional offices and 81 field operations.

In the mid-1990s, he teamed up with Jim Weber to found Weber Merritt and grew their grassroots consultancy business into one of the largest and most effective political operative networks in the country.  Bernie was also a founding partner at Qorvis Communications, a local communications firm.

For more than a decade, Bernie has managed dozens of public policy campaigns, drawing on his political experience to bring an integrated approach to devise effective strategies for clients at Weber Merritt.  Today, operating independently again, Weber Merritt has added strategic communications, media and public relations counsel to its core competency.  The firm counts Fortune 500 companies, associations, nonprofit organizations and individual executives among its client roster.