Our team
RALPH HELLMAN
Co-founder and Partner
H&M Strategies LLP
Consistently named one of Washington’s top lobbyists, Ralph Hellmann is one of two founding partners of H&M Strategies. With more than 35 years dedicated to serving the public and private sectors, Ralph is one of Washington, DC’s go-to consultants for the tech and business world when they need to collect valuable insight and meaningful results.
A Florida native, Ralph first attracted the attention of Republican leadership through his work on the House Republican Study Committee, where he drafted the 1994 Contract with America’s planks on welfare reform, tax reform and regulatory reform—all of which went on to be signed into law by President Clinton.
Following his work at the RSC, Ralph served as a policy advisor for House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Majority Whip Tom Delay before being named Speaker Dennis Hastert’s policy director. As the speaker’s Senior Advisor, Ralph was in charge of developing, implementing, ultimately, guiding numerous bills through the always-treacherous political machinery of Capitol Hill.
Hellmann left Congress for the private sector in 2001, serving as the top lobbyist for the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI) from 2001 to 2011. While at ITI, Hellmann managed the often-disparate and competing interests of the nation’s evolving tech sector, accumulating numerous legislative victories on various trade, tax, immigration and legal reform priorities.
In 2012, Hellmann joined David Lugar to launch the Lugar Hellmann Group, putting his legislative and technical know-how to work for many of the nation’s largest corporations and trade groups. In 2020 Hellmann created H&M Strategies with Nicole Mortier, a premier boutique government relations firm recognized as a Top Performing Lobbying Firm by Bloomberg. The team brought on Kristen Bautz to serve as Vice President of Government Affairs and formed a strategic partnership with veteran Democrat consultant Sarah Walter of Farragut Partners to provide additional strategic reach, resources, and policy expertise for their clients.
Hellmann also serves on the Board of Directors for two organizations tied closely to the Congressional Republican Leadership: the Ripon Society and the Congressional Institute. Ralph has a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Florida and lives with his wife, Suzanne, and their three children in Alexandria, VA.
NICOLE MORTIER
Co-founder and Partner
H&M Strategies LLP
Nicole Mortier is an expert in the fields of technology, privacy, and cybersecurity and co-founder of H&M Strategies LLP, recognized as a Top Performing Lobbying Firm by Bloomberg. As a former Legislative Director and Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy at a Fortune 500 company, she brings a collective 16 years of public policy, client consulting, and private sector experience to H&M Strategies.
Nicole launched her political career working as a Policy Analyst for the House Republican Policy Committee. She quickly ascended the ranks to join the office of Rep. Cliff Stearns, a former senior member of the prestigious House Energy & Commerce Committee, where she led subcommittee work on digital trade, consumer protection, privacy, and data security legislation. Her policy expertise quickly garnered the attention of Rep. Pete Olson’s office, where she shaped the Congressman’s policy agenda in the areas of privacy, science and technology, telecommunications, and healthcare as Legislative Director.
In 2011, Nicole transitioned to the private sector, developing the commercial privacy, data breach and security, cybersecurity, government access to data, and online advertising public policy strategy at Yahoo! Inc. Over the course of five years, Nicole served as the DC office’s liaison to the Federal Trade Commission on privacy and data issues, managed a team of federal consultants and tech trade associations, and was selected by Yahoo’s General Counsel for the company’s Global Legal program, meeting with government officials across London, Brussels, and Dublin.
After her time at Yahoo, Nicole was tapped to join the Lugar Hellmann Group, a multi-client consulting firm, before ultimately co-founding H&M Strategies in 2020. A staunch believer that the “work gets done in the middle,” Nicole draws upon decades’ long relationships and unparalleled dedication to each client engagement to develop winning strategies on the Hill. Combining tremendous subject matter expertise and experience serving the trifecta of public policy—in-house, on the Hill, and multi-client consulting—she understands how to move the needle in Washington, DC.
A graduate of the University of Florida, Nicole is an active Washingtonian and has served on several nonprofit boards and charities throughout her 16 years living in DC. She is an executive board member of GlobalWIN (Global Women’s Innovation Network), a forum for female leaders in Washington, DC who work in innovation-driven fields, and works with FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums) to advocate for a more equitable and fair justice system. In her free time, Nicole consults on interior design projects and is training to become a certified yoga teacher. She resides in the Palisades with her husband, Jeff, and their two young sons.
KRISTEN BAUTZ
Vice President, Government Affairs
H&M Strategies LLP
Kristen D. Bautz is the Vice President of Government Affairs at H&M Strategies, where she oversees House Democratic relationships and outreach for clients. With over a decade of experience in stakeholder outreach, messaging, fundraising, and working one-on-one with Democratic members of Congress, Kristen is recognized for her ability to set client priorities, cultivate relationships, and execute a mission-oriented strategy.
Prior to joining H&M Strategies, Kristen served as the Senior Advisor and Special Projects Coordinator to Senior House Democrat and Dean of the Florida Democratic Delegation, Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In this role, she spearheaded outreach to the Democratic Caucus and industry stakeholders and acted as the Congresswoman’s Political Director for nearly five years.
Kristen served as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s (DCCC) Senior Director of Member Outreach. Under Chairman Ben Ray Lujan, Kristen worked directly with Democratic Leadership to advance Democratic priorities, protect (and elect) Democrats across the country, and raise over $34 million from the House Caucus. Kristen also served within 4C Partners, a premier Democratic political strategy and fundraising firm, where she worked for Democrats such as Assistant Speaker Katherine Clark (MA-05), Rep. Lois Frankel (FL-21), and former Rep. Bruce Braley (IA-01).
Kristen got her start in politics by working for now Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York after graduating from the Florida State University. A Florida native, she resides in DC with her rescue dog Teddy.
SARAH WALTER
Partner
Farragut Partners LLP
Sarah Walter has spent the last 20 years working on a variety of issues across the policy spectrum. From 1994 to 2003, Ms. Walter worked in the Washington office of United States Senator John Breaux (D-LA). Ms. Walter handled a broad range of issues, with a focus on health care policy, while serving as the Senator’s Legislative Director and Chief Counsel beginning in 1999.
In her role as Chief Counsel, Ms. Walter advised Senator Breaux in his capacity as Chief Deputy Whip and as a member of three influential Senate committees (Finance; Commerce, Science and Transportation; and Rules). She served as Senator Breaux’s principal advisor in his role as the Chairman of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare and played a key role in the passage of the landmark Medicare Prescription Drug and Modernization Act of 2003.
Ms. Walter was also involved in passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, the Balanced Budget Refinement Act of 1999, and the Medicare, Medicaid and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000. Ms. Walter advised Senator Breaux on several other critical pieces of legislation including the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Act of 2001, the Trade Promotion Authority Act of 2002, and the Homeland Security Act of 2002.
As the key Democratic staffer for the Senate Centrist Coalition, co-chaired by Senator Breaux and Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine, Ms. Walter has built a strong network of associates and policymakers on both sides of the political aisle. In 2007, Ms. Walter was named by National Journal as one of the top Democratic health care lobbyists in Washington, D.C.
Ms. Walter joined Senator Breaux’s office after earning her Masters Degree from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas and working at an Austin-based public affairs firm, Public Strategies, Inc. She worked in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office for a year and a half before becoming projects correspondent in Senator Breaux’s D.C. office in 1994. In 1999, she earned her J.D. with honors from the George Washington University School of Law while working for Senator Breaux. Ms. Walter joined the firm as a Partner in 2016. She received a B.A. in Communications from Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. She lives in McLean, Virginia with her husband and three children.