Our Team
- Margie Newman Tsay – Founding Partner
- Maddy M. Kilkenny – Partner
- Nancy Ives Schroeder – Senior Director, Public Relations
- Kenneth Moore – Director, Government Relations
- Greg Murphy – Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships
- Chelsey Kamen – Senior Account Manager
- Summer Bales – Account Manager
Margie Newman Tsay
Founding Partner, Managing Director
Margie Newman Tsay is an award-winning public relations strategist and founder of Intesa Communications Group. Sought out by top organizations in San Diego and beyond, Margie’s comprehensive communications industry experience and unmatched energy drive success for Intesa’s clients again and again.
Before founding Intesa in 2012, Margie served as a media relations and social media manager for The Pew Center on the States, a division of The Pew Charitable Trusts, in Washington, D.C. Her career has spanned public, private, government, and nonprofit entities, including time with Tennessee-based public affairs firm, Hall Strategies and serving as a press aide to former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen.
A graduate of Auburn University – war eagle! – Margie proudly serves on the board of directors for LEAD San Diego (IMPACT ’15 & INFLUENCE ’17), the Downtown San Diego Partnership, La Jolla Country Day School, and is the chair-elect of the YMCA of San Diego County Corporate Board of Directors.
Margie was recognized as one of San Diego’s “40 under 40” by SDMETRO Magazine in 2016, named among the San Diego Business Journal’s 2017 Business Women of the Year, and was named the International Association of Business Communicators San Diego 2018 Communicator of the Year. Still, her greatest accomplishments are her two children, Suzie and CJ.
Expertise
- Communications strategy
- Crisis communications
- Non-profit communications
- Executive media training and coaching
- Media relations
- Reputation management
- Karaoke
Twitter | LinkedIn | Email Margie
Maddy M. Kilkenny
Partner
Maddy Kilkenny manages day-to-day client activities and is responsible for working closely with clients and project teams to develop and implement government and community relations strategies. Maddy has extensive experience working with local government at all levels in San Diego. She spent six years as Vice President of Government Relations at the Clay Company where she worked with clients including Microsoft, Motorola, Kaiser Permanente, and many others in a variety of areas including land use, healthcare, and public safety.
Prior to her work at the Clay Company, Maddy spent 11 years at the County of San Diego, where she was a Senior Policy Advisor to Supervisor Greg Cox, focusing on health and public safety policy issues, community outreach and special events.
During her time in Supervisor Cox’s office, Maddy crafted policy to improve the lives of our region’s foster children, maintain critical Juvenile Justice funding and programs, and she helped the struggling InfoLine transition to what is known today as 2-1-1 San Diego.
Maddy serves on the board of directors for the USS Midway Museum, and the board of the San Diego Young Leaders (an initiative of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce). In 2016, Maddy was appointed by San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer to the Civic San Diego board of directors. A native San Diegan, Maddy and her husband Sean are proud parents to young sons, Logan and Owen.
Expertise
Nancy Ives Schroeder
Senior Director, Public Relations
Nancy brings extensive public affairs, communications, and healthcare experience to Intesa through her various roles in Washington, D.C. and San Diego.
Before moving to California, Nancy worked more than 15 years in the nation’s capital serving as Press Secretary and Communications Director for U.S. Senator John McCain, including stints on both of his presidential campaigns, followed by her role as Vice President of Communications at The Vaccine Fund (now the GAVI Alliance), an international grantee of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Nancy later founded NIS Strategies in 2008, where she led corporate strategies for a variety of clients, including Fortune 500 companies and nonprofit organizations. Most recently, Nancy was Senior Director of Communications at West Health, a family of nonprofit organizations dedicated to lowering the cost of healthcare and enabling successful aging through philanthropy, medical research and public policy.
A native of Florida’s west coast, Nancy is a graduate of the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia. She lives in the Sunset Cliffs neighborhood of San Diego with her husband, son and daughter, along with Cinco, a rescue pup from Mexico.
Expertise
Kenneth Moore
Director, Government Relations
Kenneth Moore manages Intesa’s City of San Diego-focused government relations and community outreach programs. In this role, Kenneth develops and oversees multi-faceted campaigns for land use, renewable energy, housing, mobility and cannabis issues in the San Diego Region.
Over his nearly decade-long career at various Southern California public affairs agencies, Kenneth has created broad-based coalitions, developed inclusive outreach and education programs and helped secure decisive victories from city councils and at the ballot box. Kenneth has achieved award-winning outcomes on behalf of the Friends of SDSU (SDSU West), Alexandria Real Estate, San Diego Padres, IBEW Local #11, Los Angeles Chapter of NECA, Brookfield Properties, Colliers, San Diego County Water Authority and the Holiday Bowl, among many others.
Kenneth serves as Vice Chair of the Downtown Community Planning Council – San Diego and on the Board of Directors of I Love a Clean San Diego. Kenneth’s work has been recognized locally and nationally including the 2019 Ballot Measure of the Year from the American Association of Political Consultants, 2012 Silver Anvil of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America and more than five Bronze and Silver Bernays Mark of Excellence Awards from the San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America.
Moore holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in managerial organizational communications and a minor in public relations from Point Loma Nazarene University. A native San Diegan and resident of Little Italy, Kenneth loves exploring San Diego’s best restaurants, snow skiing, sailing or playing a set of tennis. You can also find Kenneth with his lab/hound mix rescue dog named Archie enjoying Coronado Dog Beach, walking along the San Diego Harbor or playing at the Little Italy Dog Park.
Expertise
- Government relations
- Public affairs strategy
- Coalition building
- Crisis communications
- Media relations
- Dog parks
- Nordstrom
Greg Murphy
Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships
In his role as Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships, Greg focuses on expanding Intesa’s government affairs services to include Coastal Commission advocacy, the burgeoning blue economy, and increases the firm’s local and statewide relationships for existing clients.
Prior to joining Intesa, Greg founded and managed Blue Economy Strategies, and served as Director of Corporate Development and Strategic Partnerships at BlueNalu, a venture backed cell-cultured seafood startup. Before that, he was Executive Director of TMA BlueTech, a leading trade association for ocean and water technology companies. Greg also has extensive experience with the County of San Diego, where he was Policy Advisor for Supervisor Greg Cox from 2010-2015 during the time Supervisor Cox served on the California Coastal Commission and the National Ocean Council.
Throughout his career, Greg has been recognized for his thought leadership and has made numerous speaking and media appearances, including CNBC’s Streets of Dreams with Marcus Lemonis (January 2021), BlueTech Week (San Diego, 2015-2018), the OECD (Paris, November 2017), United Nations Ocean Conference (New York, June 2017), Our Ocean Wealth Summit (Galway, July 2017), and dozens more.
He serves on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for the Maritime Museum of San Diego. A graduate of UC San Diego, when Greg isn’t working you can catch him and his wife, Meghan, with their dog, Benny, at Coronado beach, or cheering on the San Diego Padres — he is one of 1,429 people followed by the Padres on Twitter, after all!
Expertise
- Association management
- Blue economy & maritime
- Coastal development
- Government Affairs
- Foodies & alt. protein
- Padres baseball
Chelsey Kamen
Senior Account Manager
Chelsey leads communications, media and marketing strategies for Intesa’s clients as a Senior Account Manager.
Chelsey brings a unique skill set to the team, blending creativity and business strategy with a background in the Arts and an MBA in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from Point Loma Nazarene University. Prior to joining Intesa, Chelsey was the Marketing Manager at the world-renowned Salvador Dalí Museum in Florida. In her role at the Museum, Chelsey led key marketing, brand and communication strategies, and developed full-funnel advertising campaigns for the Museum’s frequent special exhibitions curated from top worldwide collections. Additional expertise spans creative development, tourism marketing, special events, fundraising, and market research.
Fun fact about Chelsey: in addition to her business acumen, she is also an artist and has painted since she was two years old when she created her first watercolor “masterpiece” for her Dad’s Navy ship’s stateroom. Chelsey has painted ever since and uses art to tell stories, capture moments in nature and moods on canvas with vibrant color. Founder of Chelsey Kamen Art, she currently works from a studio in the Mission Hills neighborhood of San Diego. Her artwork has been featured in galleries, Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, and other retailers and designer showcases.
Born in Hawaii, Chelsey has lived in many places throughout the US and extensively traveled internationally as part of a Navy family. Chelsey now calls Point Loma home with her Iron Man, Navy husband. When she is not working or painting, she loves to cook, run, hike, ski, travel and find new adventures. Ask her about the time she went shark-cage diving.
Expertise
- Communications Strategy
- Marketing Strategy
- Brand Management
- Nonprofit Communications
- Creative Development
- Champagne
Summer Bales
Account Manager
Summer provides strategic counsel and lobbying services to businesses, nonprofits, and corporations in San Diego’s North County Region.
Prior to joining Intesa, Summer was a Policy Coordinator at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, where she worked on veterans and military family policy issues, cannabis policy and small business issues. In her role at the Chamber, Summer led coalition efforts to support veterans’ retention in California, advocated for the sustainable growth of the local cannabis industry and coordinated educational efforts for small business capital opportunities.
Summer completed her master’s degree in public policy at UC San Diego’s (UCSD) School of Global Policy and Strategy. She is also a Fellow at the San Diego Leadership Alliance, which helps emerging progressive leaders cultivate the skills and relationships they need to make change for the San Diego region.
Summer was born and raised in Southern California and grew up playing soccer. She competed collegiately at UCSD, played semi-pro here in San Diego, and now serves as a coach for the girl’s youth team, La Jolla Impact.
When Summer isn’t working, playing, or coaching soccer, you can catch her at Local Tap House in Oceanside.