Hope Boonshaft joins Carmen Group as executive managing director and will lead the firm's new west coast office in Los Angeles. Carmen Group West will provide business and government consulting services including media and corporate communications, federal, state and local government relations, public and community affairs, and crisis/issues management. Initial Carmen Group West clients include ARRI, Respawn, Technicolor, SoftBank and Lionsgate. Other clients have included Fox Home Entertainment, Sony Pictures Imageworks, California Emerging Technology Fund, Mazda and LinkedIn. The office will also provide support to other California based clients. Carmen Group has been involved in major California projects in infrastructure, healthcare, technology and entertainment for over two decades.

Hope led Hill & Knowlton's Los Angeles and Irvine offices as executive vice president and general manager. She oversaw the firm¹s global entertainment practice as well as consumer marketing, crisis management and government affairs for southern California. Hope spent ten years at Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) as executive vice president of external affairs. Working closely with SPE's operating units, Hope developed a communications and legislative agenda that supported the company¹s motion picture, television, home entertainment and digital studio divisions. Notably, Hope worked with the Chinese government to allow studio to reenter the market after they were expelled following the release of the film "Seven Years in Tibet."

Hope served in the Carter administration White House as director of community relations. She graduated Penn State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree and attended Delaware Law School.

"I'm delighted to have played a role in bringing Hope and David together," said Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer. "I have known them both for decades, and I cannot imagine a better combination of West Coast and Washington expertise to provide insightful counsel to clients facing increasingly complex global issues."

CEO David Carmen is a founding director of award-winning Los Angeles production company Anonymous Content and the producer of the feature film "Wedding Video Project." He comments: "We see the country and the world entering a phase of major change in which many issues surrounding content creation and distribution will be determined. Hope's contributions in the entertainment industry are legendary. She brings the perfect blend of skills to intensify our focus and raise our level of service for our entertainment and technology clients with an integrated consulting offering that bridges from global to local, from traditional communications to the cloud."

Boonshaft comments: "I am thrilled to be joining a Washington, DC based firm that really understands the entertainment and digital technology industries. Our West Coast clients will benefit tremendously from the ability participate strongly in national and global policy and regulation development as well as corporate communications and all forms of public relations."

For more:
Carmen Group West: Entertainment & Techology
Hope Boonshaft Biography