Isaac Jeffrey
Hi, I’m Isaac Jeffrey, Managing Director of AptStart.
I’ve worked for the public service, federal cabinet ministers and in private sector advocacy for almost two decades, and I’m an award winning writer with six published novels and three screenplays. I started AptStart to bring together my skills and experience under one umbrella to offer products and services to those looking for advocacy, communications and/or creative writing services.
I have a Bachelor of Business (Honours) from the University of Newcastle and Master of Politics and Public Policy from Deakin University. I’m graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and the Australian Film, Television and Radio School.
I started my career as a graduate with the Department of Defence, before finding my passion for communications over several years at Defence Force Recruiting. While I returned to Defence to run a large scale change management project for a year, I spent most of the remaining decade in politics. I held roles, including Advancer, Adviser and Media Adviser, before working my way up to Chief of Staff to federal ministers and Principal Private Secretary to the Deputy Prime Minister - managing his politics, communications, parliament and cabinet teams. I provided advice to the DPM on matters across all portfolios, while across my various roles I worked in the treasury, finance, small business, consumer affairs, infrastructure, transport, regional development, employment, defence and veterans’ affairs portfolios. I also managed communications for the 2013 and 2016 federal election campaigns for The Nationals and Coalition Campaign Headquarters.
Following my time in politics, I started this company, and began providing public and government relations consulting services. I’ve delivered campaigns, government relations and communications strategies for clients, including Ola Australia and New Zealand, World Vision Australia, Eagle Australasia and the Clean Energy Council. I have also held national advocacy and spokesperson roles, including National Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Republic Movement, and Chief Executive Officer of the National Irrigators’ Council. At ARM and NIC, I delivered and implemented new strategic, GR and PR, campaign and operational plans.
Throughout my career, I have designed and managed multibillion dollar public policies, projects and programs. I have created and executed multimillion dollar national advertising and awareness campaigns. I’ve written countless reports, policies, submissions, media releases, speeches, articles and social posts. I’ve attended and coached senior leaders for parliamentary inquiries and media appearances. And, I’ve negotiated changes to legislation and regulation with Members of Parliament and elected representatives at all three levels of government in Australia and two levels in New Zealand.
My passion is for creative writing. I’ve written and published six novels, under the pseudonym Xavier Wallace, and have written three screenplays, including the award winning script The Meditation Room. I have a number of other creative projects in the works and am thrilled to be helping other creatives find their voices and audiences.
You can find out more about my career on LinkedIn.