MKL Strategic Communications

Strategy.
Advocacy.
Impact.

Partnering with leading international development organizations, global philanthropies, and African-led institutions to shape the ideas and conversations that drive real change.

What We Do

Strategy meets
storytelling.

We work at the intersection of strategy and storytelling — helping organizations clarify their voice, build their influence, and communicate with the audiences that matter most. That includes turning complex evidence and technical ideas into clear, compelling messages that change the way decisionmakers decide and people think and act.

MKL is a boutique advisory firm working with organizations and individuals who are trying to make a positive difference in the world. That means every engagement is led by a senior principal with more than twenty years of experience advising presidents, CEOs, ministers, and boards at the world's leading multilateral institutions and global foundations.

"We don't just help you communicate. We help you figure out what to say, who needs to hear it, and how to make it land."

Who We Work With

Big ambitions.
Complex environments.
Genuine senior counsel.

Our clients include global philanthropies, multilateral institutions, African governments and ministries, and the think tanks and policy institutes working to shift the ideas that shape policy. What they have in common: big ambitions, complex stakeholder environments, and a need for communications counsel that is genuinely senior.

Global Philanthropies Multilateral Institutions African Governments Policy Institutes Think Tanks International NGOs
Why MKL

The difference is depth.

01

Deep expertise, not generalism.

MKL was built around a specific area of knowledge: international development, substance-based advocacy, Africa's place in the global economy, and the institutions that shape all three. We don't learn your sector on your time.

02

Executive-level access, always.

When you engage MKL, you work directly with Maura K. Leary — on every call, every deliverable, every decision. No handoffs. No account managers. Senior judgment at every stage.

03

A record of results.

From a World Bank CEO's global communications strategy to African-led advocacy campaigns that reached presidents and policymakers, MKL brings a track record that most firms can't match.

About MKL

Twenty years
at the highest
levels.

Maura K. Leary is a strategic communications professional with more than twenty years of experience working at the highest levels of international development. MKL Strategic Communications is her translation of that experience into something sharper and more focused: a boutique firm that brings genuine senior counsel to a select group of high-impact clients.

Maura K. Leary
Maura K. Leary
Founder & Principal

Senior Fellow, African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET)

MA, International Affairs
Elliott School, George Washington University

BA, French
Connecticut College

Exchange Scholar
École Normale Supérieure, Paris

Bilingual: English & French
Working Spanish

Before founding MKL, Maura served as Director of Communications and Advocacy at the African Center for Economic Transformation (ACET) — and continues to serve as a Senior Fellow there. She built and led the organization's communications and advocacy function, served on the Executive Leadership Team, and drove global engagement around Africa's economic priorities: from climate finance, economic transformation, and debt relief to green industrialization, gender equality, and financial architecture reform.

Prior to ACET, Maura spent a decade at the World Bank Group in progressively senior roles. As Communications Advisor to the CEO, she managed executive positioning, thought leadership, and institutional risk communications at the highest level of the institution. As Acting Manager for the Africa Region, she led a team of more than fifty communications professionals across Washington and Sub-Saharan Africa, shaping how the Bank engaged with African governments, civil society, and the public.

Earlier roles spanned poverty and equity, gender and development, and multilateral partnerships — giving her a command of the Bank's full development agenda that few communications professionals can match.

"I started MKL because the organizations doing the most important work in the world often struggle to communicate it with the clarity and confidence it deserves. I want to help fix that."
— Maura K. Leary, Founder
Values

What we believe.

Substance over spin.

We believe the best communications strategy starts with something genuinely worth saying. We help clients find and articulate that — we don't manufacture it.

Relationships built on trust.

Senior advisory work only works when there is real trust between advisor and client. We invest in those relationships and take the responsibility that comes with them seriously.

Africa-centered by design.

A significant part of our work is rooted in Africa — its institutions, its leaders, its policy ambitions. We approach that work with the depth of knowledge and respect it requires.

What We Do

Four areas.
One purpose.

MKL works across four interconnected areas. In practice, most client engagements draw on all of them.

01
Strategy

Strategic Communications & Positioning

We help organizations get clear on what they want to say, who they need to say it to, and how to say it in ways that actually land. That means messaging architecture, communications strategy, audience mapping, and narrative development for flagship initiatives — built around your goals, not a generic framework.

02
Executive

Executive Advisory & Speechwriting

Senior leaders carry a disproportionate share of an organization's communications burden — and they need support that matches their level. We advise principals directly and produce the full range of executive communications: keynote speeches, op-eds, briefing notes, talking points, and materials for high-stakes moments.

03
Advocacy

Advocacy & Coalition Strategy

The most effective advocacy doesn't happen through a single voice — it happens when the right voices speak together. We design and implement multi-stakeholder advocacy strategies and build coalitions across governments, civil society, multilaterals, and philanthropies that move the conversations that matter.

04
Thought Leadership

Thought Leadership & Media Strategy

Ideas need audiences — and the most important ideas need the right ones. We help clients develop and place thought leadership that translates rigorous evidence and complex policy into clear, compelling content that shifts how decisionmakers think and act. We place work in tier-one global and African outlets — including the Financial Times, The Economist, Foreign Affairs, BBC, Semafor, African Business, The Africa Report, and New African — through relationships built over two decades, not cold outreach.

How We Engage

A small number of engagements. A high standard of work.

MKL takes on a small number of engagements at any one time. We work on a retainer basis with anchor clients who need ongoing senior advisory support, and we take on a limited number of project engagements around specific moments: report launches, major convenings, advocacy campaigns, and leadership transitions.

If you are interested in working with MKL, we would love to hear from you.

Contact

Let's Talk.

We take on a limited number of engagements each year and we are selective about fit. If you think MKL might be the right partner for your organization, we'd love to have a conversation.

Maura K. Leary
Founder & Principal
Email
[email protected]
Phone
+1 (202) 379-5257
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/mauraleary
Location
Washington, DC
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