team
Matthew A. Schlapp
Principal
Matt Schlapp has nearly twenty years of government, corporate and political experience which led him to join his wife in founding Cove Strategies, a legislative, communications and political consulting firm.
Schlapp’s executive branch experience started in President George W. Bush’s first administration where he became a deputy assistant to the president, and his political director. During his tenure at the White House, Schlapp advised the President, the Vice President, members of the cabinet, senior White House staff and has extensive contact with Members of Congress and federal agencies.
Schlapp’s Capital Hill experience started in 1994 where he worked for 5 years as a press secretary, chief of staff and campaign manager. He transitioned from the Hill to the presidential election in 2000 in Austin, where he served as a regional political director.
After the 2004 cycle, Schlapp joined Koch Industries, headquartered in his hometown of Wichita, Kansas, as Vice President of Federal Affairs at Koch Companies Public Sector, LLC. In this role he directed the major federal public policy strategies on environmental and energy policies, financial markets, legal reform, and international and domestic tax issues.
Matt grew up in Wichita, Kansas. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s degree in public policy from Wichita State University. Matt’s held a board position for the National Association of Manufacturers and currently serves on the boards for the American Conservative Union, St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Administration at Wichita State University, and the University of Kansas Washington Intern Program and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s political affairs committee. Matt and his wife, Mercy, met while working at the White House, where she served as the Director of Specialty Media. Matt and Mercy have five young daughters.
Mercedes Viana Schlapp
Principal
Mercedes Viana Schlapp is co-founder of Cove Strategies, a governmental and public affairs firm based in Alexandria, Virginia. She works as a consultant for clients from Fortune 500 corporations and nonprofit organizations. Mercedes serves as the interface between the clients and Spanish-language media outlets, develops media strategy including message development and implementation plans and works on Hispanic coalition-building efforts. She identifies the most effective ways to reach targeted audiences nationally and/or locally.
With more than 10 years of experience, Mercedes has developed strong regional, national and international relationships with reporters in the Spanish press. Mercedes served in the White House for President George W. Bush as a spokesperson for Spanish-language media outlets in the United States, Spain and Latin America as well as worked with other specialty media outlets including religious press.
In 2006 Mercedes hosted the Republican National Committee’s cutting-edge web show, In the Know, where she delivered current Republican news and interviewed Republican political leaders and policy makers for both Spanish and English audiences. In addition, Mercedes serves as a media surrogate and political commentator on the radio and recently appeared on Univision and Hannity’s America on FOX News.
Frank F. Sadler
Frank Sadler has worked both in the private and public sectors for almost a decade. Most recently, Frank was engaged as a strategic advisor for a 501(C)4 organization. As a strategic advisor, Frank made decisions on how to best utilize and allocate the organization's national budget to better educate voters through a variety of media including direct mail, and radio and television advertisements. He also created metrics to measure the impact of those efforts and has been in charge of constructing an implementing voter turn-out projects. Frank has also worked as a senior development associate at Koch Industries, both fundraising for and providing strategic guidance at non-profits aligned with free market ideals. Prior to Koch, Frank worked for United States Senator George Allen in a multitude of roles to eventually become his deputy national finance director. Frank is a graduate of Hamilton College in upstate New York and is getting his masters degree in economics from American University.