CHICAGO (February 24, 2025) – Mercury, a leading global, bipartisan public strategy firm, expanded its spheres of influence in both Illinois and Washington, D.C., by hiring Jon Pyatt, a proven leader in state and national institutions.
“Jon Pyatt knows how government works, how to build and nurture relationships, and how to identify elegant solutions to complex problems,” said former Illinois Congresswoman, Mercury Partner and Co-Chair Cheri Bustos, who runs Mercury’s Illinois and Midwestern operations. “He knows how to win.”
Pyatt will join Mercury with decades of experience in government relations, public service, politics, communications, and law. Before joining Mercury, Pyatt served as Executive Vice President at Venn Strategies, where he lobbied Congress for an array of healthcare clients, including patient-led coalitions for essential medicines, medical schools and teaching colleges, and pharmaceutical companies. While at Venn, Pyatt also directed tax advocacy for an association of employee-owned S Corporations (ESCA) and ran the firm’s day-to-day business operations.
Prior to Venn, Pyatt was a longtime chief of staff to Bustos when she served in the U.S. House of Representatives. Pyatt served as her top governmental and political advisor when she was the only member of the senior elected House Democratic leadership team who represented the Midwest. In addition to guiding her offices in Washington, the Quad-Cities, Rockford, and Peoria, Pyatt helped Bustos win and outperform the top of the ticket over three election cycles in her battleground congressional district.
Pyatt was the architect behind Bustos’ two winning House leadership races. When Bustos co-chaired the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee, Pyatt helped shape House Democrats’ 2018 For the People midterm message, widely credited with helping Democrats reclaim the majority. Later, Pyatt ran Bustos’ successful effort to helm the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC). As her Senior Advisor at the DCCC, Pyatt strengthened Bustos’ relationships across the Democratic Caucus and mentored chiefs of staff for vulnerable House Democrats.
Before his time with Bustos, Pyatt planted the federal flag for the University of Illinois System, opening its first-ever Washington, D.C., office in 2011. On behalf of its campuses in Urbana-Champaign, Chicago, and Springfield, and its teaching hospital in Chicago, Pyatt forged alliances within the Illinois congressional delegation and the Obama White House. He also led the winning bipartisan federal government relations strategy for a competitively awarded $320 million applied research hub for digital manufacturing in Chicago. While directing his alma mater’s federal relations efforts, Pyatt also led the Science Coalition, a group of leading public and private research universities committed to sustaining federal funding for scientific research, as its President and Board Chair.
An attorney, Pyatt first cut his teeth as a leadership aide and deputy chief of staff to Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Leveraging his experience as a domestic violence and child abuse prosecutor, Pyatt served as her Judiciary Committee counsel and helped pass the PROTECT Our Children Act, legislation to combat online child exploitation. Later, Pyatt helped Wasserman Schultz, a chief deputy whip, count votes in the majority whip operation.
Raised and educated in Illinois — and hailing from a long line of business leaders and entrepreneurs in Southern Illinois — Pyatt understands Midwestern values and politics.
A novelist, Pyatt is a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Pepperdine University School of Law, and Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
About Mercury
Mercury is a high-stakes, bipartisan public strategy firm. The firm provides a comprehensive suite of services that includes federal government relations, international affairs, digital influence, public opinion research, media strategy and a bipartisan grassroots mobilization network in all 50 states. The firm has 14 offices throughout the nation. Mercury is a part of the Omnicom Public Relations Group. Learn more at mercuryllc.com.
About Omnicom PR Group
(OPRG)Omnicom PR Group (OPRG) is the largest global network of communications and consulting agencies in the world. It is home to three of the top global PR agencies FleishmanHillard, Ketchum, Porter Novelli and more than a dozen specialist agencies in corporate and public affairs, political consulting and advertising, language strategy, global health strategy and organizational transformation. OPRG is part of Omnicom (NYSE: OMC). www.TeamOPRG.com
