About the Team
Meet Our Senior Management
Tom Herrity
Partner
A respected grassroots innovator and NextWave co-founder, Tom Herrity brings his passion for constituent engagement to his leadership role with the company. NextWave also draws on the expertise Tom has honed as CEO of Global Telesourcing, a leading provider of sales and customer support services to Fortune 100 companies.
In this ongoing role, he’s brought teleservices to the cutting edge with a near-shore solution unique to the industry. Recently named “Call Center of the Year” by a well-known Fortune 50 company, Global Telesourcing has set a new benchmark for quality and results.
Formerly CEO of Democracy Data & Communications (now DDC Advocacy), Tom oversaw the most rapid growth in the company’s history, earning recognition as a Deloitte & Touche “Fast 50” and Inc. 500 company. Tom engineered DDC’s profitable transformation from a political technology focus into a full-service grassroots firm serving 41 of the Fortune 50.
Tom is perhaps best known for his early adaptation of political campaign tactics to issues management. This development made Direct Impact, the company he co-founded in 1988, the largest grassroots lobbying firm of its time. Another Inc. 500 performer, Direct Impact was later acquired by Young & Rubicam.
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Bill Colton
Partner
From legislative work for the U.S. Senate to co-founding a teleservices company, the theme that ties together Bill Colton’s career is broad-based outreach. In addition to his role as Partner with NextWave, Bill currently serves as President of Global Telesourcing, a company he co-founded with Tom Herrity.
There, Bill has built an impressive client list of Fortune 100 companies and guaranteed an award-winning level of service. Bill’s innovative cross-border business model has enabled Global Telesourcing to carve its own niche in this competitive space by pairing cost and quality advantages.
Prior to co-founding Global Telesourcing, Colton was firmly entrenched in public affairs as the Vice President of Communications for Democracy Data & Communications (now DDC Advocacy). During his tenure, DDC served 8 of the Fortune 10. Bill was responsible for running major public affairs programs at the local, state, and federal level for many of the largest companies in the country.
Previously, Bill founded, launched, and served as Managing Director for the Latin American division of Optima Direct, then the world’s largest direct marketing agency focused on call center services. After the acquisition of Optima Direct by Omnicom Group, Colton helped affiliated agencies in 12 countries establish call center operations from his base in San Jose, Costa Rica.
Over the course of his career, Bill has started, directed, and managed call center operations for major companies, arts organizations, political candidates, and advocacy groups. His work has spanned defense, pharmaceutical, health care, and consumer products issues, comprising millions of patch-through calls for the Fortune 100 and Power 50.
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Todd Benjamin
Managing Partner
With more than a decade of experience and over 200 grassroots and grasstops campaigns to his credit, Todd Benjamin has been a key driver in the inception of NextWave. He now serves as the company’s Managing Partner. In this capacity, he spearheads new business, strategy, and day-to-day program implementation.
While a partner with DDC Advocacy (formerly Democracy Data & Communications), Todd served as Vice President, Field Operations. Over his five-year tenure, Todd directed initiatives in such diverse areas as defense, transportation, health care, immigration reform, social security reform, cap and trade, international trade, and tax policy—with effects reaching every state in the nation.
Todd’s expertise in field operations was fostered at Direct Impact, where he also headed the company’s telephone outreach center. His key influential and constituent mobilizations touched health care, defense, siting issues, international trade, telecommunications reform, and legal reform.
Early career highlights include the Forbes 2000 campaign, for which he served as Regional Director and candidate aide, and field initiative coordination for Representative Rodney Frelinghuysen. Todd possesses a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Drew University.
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Jen Shedrick
Recruitment Manager
Jen Shedrick is a rare commodity in the public affairs industry—a recruiter who understands the staffing demands of grassroots outreach. Most recently, she provided recruitment services to DDC Advocacy (formerly Democracy Data & Communications) during the start-up phases of its grassroots mobilization capabilities.
Her initial forays in this area were with Direct Impact, where she managed all human resources needs. She is credited for upgrading the recruitment and retention practices for the company’s Communications Center, a 50-agent, in-house telephone recruitment facility.
Earlier in her career, Shedrick served as the Human Resources Manager for a 100-employee Barnes and Noble store, as well as a Personnel Coordinator for Ardelle Associates/AA Temps. These experiences helped shape her abilities to identify high-quality talent to fill a variety of full-time and hourly roles. Jen has also been a retail business owner and patient disability specialist.
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