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Alex Bluestone ‘10 holds an MPA (Master in Public Administration) from the London School of Economics (merit, graduated 2019) and a BS in Political Science with concentrations in Environmental Policy and Rhetoric from Washington University in Saint Louis (magna cum laude, graduated 2014). He also holds several certifications, including being certified as an ESG and Sustainability Practitioner by the Chartered Management Institute and Centre for Sustainability Excellence.
Alex Bluestone is an international affairs, communications and policy professional who provides strategic guidance to businesses, governments, and civil society through data analytics. Alex is currently Vice President of Strategic Relationships at Penta Group. He has worked in public and corporate affairs roles to help his clients solve and manage our world's most pressing and complex social issues for over a decade.
Prior to joining Penta Group, Alex was Vice President, Strategic Partnerships at alva Group and was previously the Programme Director for the Future Sustainability Summit, a CEOs and Heads of State gathering. He has previously worked for high-level public entities including the White House, Westminster, and The Vatican as well as large multinational corporations and leading NGOs globally since his time at Whitfield.
He is a scholar in climate change policy, having received a distinction on his dissertation from the LSE. The work, entitled, The Social Psychology of Voting: Using Conjoint Analysis to Uncover Revealed Preferences on Climate Policy in the United States, sought to better understand the cognitive bias impacting voters on long-term, complex issues like the climate crisis.
How did Whitfield prepare you for college and beyond?
Whitfield prepares its students for real-world academic and professional experiences by providing a foundational approach to education that is rooted in creative thinking. This was the most important contribution Whitfield made to my development: my ability to think. Whitfield also fosters an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving and challenges its students to lead in its everyday activities. Whitfield's use of the Socratic Method is perhaps the single aspect that most prepared me for both of my degrees and my professional work as it helped me find confidence in my original thought.
What are you most thankful for from your Whitfield experience, both in and outside of the classroom?
In addition to giving me confidence in my approach to problem-solving and creative thinking, I am also most thankful for the community. From my first Homecoming in 6th grade to senior graduation, I really felt part of a community. And beyond the community on our campus, Whitfield helped me realize how much I loved helping others in our extended community through volunteer work and social action. The annual Operation Food Search donation drive is just one example of that as well as class-level volunteering and the Big Brothers/Sisters group. The list really goes on and on.
What are some of your favorite Whitfield memories and/or classes?
There are so many ‘favorites’. A non-ranked list would include the following: lunch (generally); seminar discussions; Bonfire; Whitfield's production of The Wizard of Oz; hanging out in Piper Courtyard; going to the variety of after-school activities with friends (theatre performances, sports games, clubs); all of my teachers; morning assembly.
Describe your career.
Currently, I'm the Managing Director of the Industry team at Penta Group, a reputation the world’s first comprehensive stakeholder solutions firm. My company uses proprietary AI to, essentially, take a picture of all publicly available information on the internet every day (including traditional and social media, parliamentary/government records, broadcast, regulatory filings, survey data, etc.) and analyzes this at a sentence-by-sentence level to determine what our clients' key stakeholders think and feel about them: in essence, their reputation, or standing, among the audiences that matter most to their business – and, crucially, the audiences that can make or break their brand.
I really love having the chance to head my team after slogging it out at my first entry-level position around a decade ago. It feels nice to be the manager I'd always hoped for (if I may be so bold as to say that!). That is very fulfilling from a social/team perspective. The thrill of high-stakes sales and client work is also fulfilling for my brain. The challenges we help our clients navigate and the uniqueness of working with our data analytics platform is among the coolest things I've done in my career (think of an online portal that instantly analyzes 25 million unique sources daily, globally, and gives you data to uncover trends). I say that as someone who, in school, hated data and math and anything numbers-based. Now I use this kind of thinking every day!
I'd also say the chance to live and work in London is among my favorite things in my life currently - and my British Whippet (dog), Louis. Louis is obviously named after St. Louis, where I plan to return in the not-to-distant future. I really miss St. Louis and it took me leaving to realize that. (If you’re so inclined, give Louis some love and follow along on his adventures @callhimkinglouie on Instagram and TikTok.)