Based in Washington, DC, we help clients achieve their goals in the areas of advocacy, government relations, communications and fundraising.

Vincent focuses on creative and strategic approaches to public policy and communications, including on executive and judicial branch nominations, technology and broadband, health, social justice, and matters of importance to the Asian American community. For over a decade, Vincent has been a leader in the Asian American and civil rights community. He served as the Deputy Director of the Asian American Justice Center, Co-Chair of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights Committee on Language Rights, and on the steering committee of Americans for a Fair Chance.

Before founding The VENG Group, Vincent was at The Raben Group, a leading government affairs firm in Washington, DC, where he led the Asian American practice. He also served as the managing editor of a large government clearinghouse of statistical information, where he directed editorial, production, acquisition, and marketing efforts.

Vincent started his career at the U.S. Department of Justice. He currently teaches at Columbia Law School and at Howard Law School. Vincent has written and edited over ten books on various legal and political matters—including a law school casebook on sentencing, sanctions, and corrections—and he has served as the editor-in-chief of the Almanac of the Executive Branch.

Ben has more than fifteen years of combined industry and consulting experience leveraging information technology to create integrated business solutions. He provides our clients a range of strategic communications, brand development, project management, and innovative technology strategy and selection for advocacy and campaigns. A former engagement manager at PRTM (now PwC), Ben has worked across all organizational levels—from executive management to engineers to design and implementing advanced R&D and operational processes for clients in a variety of different industry segments. He is a subject matter expert in technology strategy, IT system selection and implementations, automating business processes, economic modeling, business analytics, and project portfolio management (PPM). Ben has advised many Fortune 1000 clients in North America, and has serviced clients in China, Egypt, Finland, India, Japan, Switzerland, and the UK.

Most recently, Ben led business operations and budget oversight to a $90M technology development portfolio at Fannie Mae. Earlier in his career he worked at a large government clearinghouse of statistical information. There he led the development and printing operations of licensed publications. He was also responsible for the design and execution of different online and channel strategies.

George has over 10 years’ experience in non-profit management, organizational development, and coalition building and social justice advocacy. Previously based in Washington, DC, George was most recently the executive director of OCA and chairperson of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans. George also taught at the University of Maryland, College Park and served on the Board of Directors of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund, the Asian Pacific American Bar Association Educational Fund, Equal Justice Works, and the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center.

Prior to joining OCA, George was a staff attorney in the Immigration and Immigrant Rights Program of the Asian American Justice Center and the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association Partners and In-house Counsel Community Law Fellow. After earning his Bachelor of Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University, George began his career at the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center. George is also a graduate of the George Washington University Law School, where he received the Justice Thurgood Marshall Civil Liberties Award for outstanding performance in the field of civil rights and civil liberties. George is licensed to practice law in the state of Maryland. Born in Taiwan, George speaks conversational Mandarin Chinese and basic Taiwanese.

Nicole brings more than a decade of Washington journalism experience to the VENG Group. A veteran of Capitol Hill, Nicole most recently was executive editor of National Journal Daily and managing editor, Congress for National Journal. Prior to that, Nicole was a reporter for several Capitol Hill newspapers and Washington bureaus, including The Deal, Roll Call and Congressional Quarterly.

In addition to her journalism career, Duran spent three years as an independent communications specialist, writer and editor. She used her financial services expertise, honed while working for the American Banker, to serve as the editor of the quarterly reports to Congress from the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

She also helped the Asian American Justice Center elevate its profile by launching media campaigns around the group’s efforts on behalf of immigration reform and a full-count census. She penned numerous op-eds and letters to the editor published around the country on the issues of immigration, judicial nominees and health care.

Duran began her career at the Muskegon Chronicle in her hometown of Muskegon, Mich. after graduating with a journalism degree from Marquette University. Before coming to Washington, she covered local, state and national politics for the News-Dispatch in Michigan City, Ind., and the South Bend Tribune in South Bend, Ind.

Charu specializes in grassroots and mass media and communications for non-profits, bringing her nearly 10 years of experience as a journalist in local communities to bear on projects. Previously, Charu was at The Raben Group, a government and public affairs firm, where she did messaging and branding and developed media and advocacy campaigns. Charu also served as the Director of Communications for Ohio’s largest foreclosure prevention and community organizing non-profit, Empowering & Strengthening Ohio’s People. She created and managed communications strategies, including social media and multi-media ventures. Her writing for clients, including Op-Eds, has appeared in major daily newspapers, and she has drafted legislative testimony at the state and federal level.

Charu has worked as a journalist in New York, Alabama, Pennsylvania and, most recently, Cleveland, Ohio. Her reporting on Cleveland's entrenched and growing predatory lending and foreclosure problems predated most local and national coverage of the subprime issue. Her work provided the basis for reports by international news outlets, including Australia's investigative TV show "Four Corners," and the Danish Broadcasting Corp., Denmark's largest broadcast news outlet. Charu has won numerous awards for her journalism. In 2009 alone, three pieces of investigative reporting by Charu (on the foreclosure crisis, county criminal justice system and economic development) were awarded first place by the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists.

Charu has a Master’s degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago. You can read some of Charu's award-winning writing at www.charugupta.org.

Rachanee Srisavasdi brings to VENG Group more than 15 years of communications and journalism experience. As the past communications director for the Los Angeles-based Asian Pacific American Legal Center (APALC), the nation’s largest Asian American civil rights and legal organization, Rachanee more than doubled the nonprofit organization’s national and ethnic media coverage and oversaw new media strategies that attracted thousands more visitors to the nonprofit’s web and social media sites. Before APALC, Rachanee worked as the legal affairs reporter for The Orange County Register in California, focusing on federal cases and writing criminal justice investigations that led to grand jury investigations and reforms on a state level.

Rachanee is pursuing an executive MBA at Chapman University and holds a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles. She is a past national and local board member of the Asian American Journalists Association.

Leonie is a leader in nonprofit communications. With nearly two decades of experience in strategic communications, branding, social media marketing, crisis management, media relations and media diversity, Leonie brings a wealth of expertise to The VENG Group, where she focuses on strategic communications and issues of importance to minority communities.

Prior to joining The VENG Group, Leonie served as the director of communications at the Asian American Justice Center. In that role, Leonie oversaw all aspects of AAJC’s communications efforts, including strategic planning and the development and management of the organization’s website. She also led AAJC’s media diversity program. Leonie also served as a public affairs specialist at District of Columbia public school system, where she was responsible for coordinating communications strategy, serving as spokesperson, and overseeing the day-to-day communications operation. Leonie holds a master’s degree in mass communication from Towson University, along with a bachelor's in public relations from Delaware State University.

Kimberly is an experienced and trusted Washington, DC insider with numerous years of experience in the government and political affairs sectors. She represents both private and non-profit clients in the areas of policy, advocacy, direct lobbying, coalition building, strategic planning, communications and research. With experience on both the federal and state level, Kimberly’s work at The VENG Group focuses on financial services, immigration, criminal justice, and issues of importance to the Asian American community.

Prior to joining The VENG Group, Kimberly served as a senior associate at The Raben Group, a leading public affairs firm in Washington, DC, where she helped clients advance targeted public policy goals across a broad spectrum of issue areas. In this position, Kimberly led strategic efforts for a number of clients, including a national campaign aimed at reforming pension and retirement policy at the federal level. Serving as one of the lead lobbyists and consultants in the campaign, Kimberly played an integral role in developing key relationships and coordinating the release of a comprehensive study on savings and investment disparities among racial and ethnic minorities.

With a background in law and experience in public policy, Amina provides her clients with substantive policy analysis, grassroots and grasstops coalition outreach, and direct lobbying. Amina was a Georgetown Women’s Law and Public Policy/Law Students for Reproductive Justice Fellow at the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum (APIAHF). While at APIAHF, she worked on a variety of health policy issues, including implementation of the Affordable Care Act, HIV/AIDS, gender-based violence and legislative advocacy around protecting public programs such as Medicaid.

At UNC Law, Amina served as Co-Coordinator of her Law Students for Reproductive Justice chapter and President of the UNC Domestic Violence Action Project. In addition, Amina completed over 100 hours of pro bono work working with the North Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the American Civil Liberties Union Capital Punishment Project and AEquitas: The Prosecutor’s Resource on Violence Against Women.

Kimberly Tignor has spent her career immersed in the most pressing of legal issues surrounding underprivileged persons and advancing the causes of equality and social justice. She is particularly well-versed in working across multicultural issues and topics of key interest to people of color. Kimberly's impressive legal experience spans from directing policy at the National Bar Association where she acted as chief liaison to Capitol Hill and the White House, shaping the policy agenda and creating policy primers, to serving as the Judicial Clerk to Chief Judge Lee Satterfield at the DC Superior Court.

During her time at the National Bar Association, Kimberly worked on a number of issues including judicial nominations, voter protection, juvenile justice and the School to Prison Pipeline. Kimberly has also served as the legal architect across several election campaigns including those of DC Councilmember Mary Cheh and Mayor Vince Gray.

A nonprofit leader with nearly 20 years of experience in executive management, infrastructure, and resource development for 501 (c)(3) organizations, Linda offers clients an expert understanding of fundraising best practice – from strategic planning to major gift programs, capital campaign planning and management, annual and planned giving, workplace giving, data profiling and benchmarking, prospect research, and grant proposal writing.

Linda has extensive experience in nonprofit messaging and constituent communications, special events and direct marketing. She is a recognized leader in building customized stakeholder relations programs to fully engage constituents in an organization’s mission and work.