Team

Ace is a 40-year veteran of state and national politics and has directed winning campaigns from District Attorney to President. With deep experience on the West Coast, he specializes in high-stakes political, governmental and public affairs campaigns.

Over the years, Ace has worked with a roster of clients including Virginia Governor Doug Wilder, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, Texas Governor Ann Richards, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, California Governor Jerry Brown, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, SF Mayor Ed Lee and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.

In recent years, Ace and his partners were instrumental in the historic election of Kamala Harris as California Attorney General and Senator and Gavin Newsom as California Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Ace ran San Francisco Mayor Lee’s victorious campaign and led the historic Proposition 30 effort for Governor Brown. He served as State Director for U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaigns in California, Texas and North Carolina during the 2008 Democratic Presidential Primary.

Ace also has extensive experience winning complex initiative campaigns, including the groundbreaking criminal justice reform of “Three Strikes” (Prop. 36) and sentencing (Prop. 47).

The subject of several newspaper profiles, Ace was called “legendary” by the New York Times and political campaign manager “heavyweight champion of the year” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Ace is author of the book “The Pitcher and the Dictator: Satchel Paige’s Unlikely Season in the Dominican Republic” and is writing books on the history of recorded sound and California politics. Ace earned his B.A. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

A former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor and longtime state and national media consultant, Sean works on a variety of advertising, strategy, messaging, and communications projects for a range of elected officials, ballot measures, nonprofits and brands.

Sean has led award-winning TV, radio, online, print, direct mail, and outdoor advertising campaigns for clients including Vice-President Kamala Harris, Governor Gavin Newsom, former Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis, former Attorney General Xavier Becerra, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, and Congresswoman Katie Porter, among many others.

Over the years, Sean produced media for dozens of successful state and local ballot initiative campaigns. During the 2018 cycle Sean was general consultant to the DCCC in its clean sweep of California congressional races. In 2019, Sean served as senior strategist for Kamala Harris for the People.

From 2005 to 2008, Sean was Senior Advisor and Deputy Mayor for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. As the Mayor’s lead political advisor, Sean played a key role in the design and implementation of the major policy wins of Mayor Villaraigosa’s first term. Prior to that, Sean was a founding partner at SCN Strategies and represented clients on candidate and issue campaigns around the United States, including the successful elections of California Governor Gray Davis, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, and Congressman Richard Gephardt.

Over the years, Sean was a staffer on the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, a campaign press secretary for San Francisco’s mayor and an associate at The Research Group, a San Francisco and Washington-based consulting firm. He earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Juan is a nationally recognized strategist, campaign manager, and policy advisor with a record of winning high-stakes races and ballot measures for California’s most prominent leaders. He has managed or led campaigns for Governor Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Rob Bonta, and U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, to name a few. As a partner at Bearstar Strategies, he is widely regarded as part of a new generation of California political power brokers, described by the Los Angeles Times as an “aspiring political kingmaker” shaping the state’s future.

Juan earned Campaign Manager of the Year honors for Governor Newsom’s Stop the Republican Recall campaign, the first successful defense of a recall by a Democratic governor in the country. Most recently, he served as one of the lead consultants for California’s Proposition 50, the Election Rigging Response Act, and for the successful defense of California’s landmark oil well setbacks law—helping defeat a well-funded oil industry referendum and, despite being massively outspent, forcing proponents to withdraw their measure and clearing the way for implementation of 3,200-foot buffer protections around homes, schools, and hospitals.

Earlier in his career, Juan served as Senior Advisor and Interim Chief of Staff to then–Attorney General Kamala Harris and as Director of State Relations for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. He serves on the board of LA’s BEST and holds a B.A. from UCLA and an M.B.A. from Pepperdine’s Graziadio School of Business.

George’s experience includes leading a broad range of advertising and strategic communications initiatives — having worked extensively with some of the country’s highest profile candidates, ballot measures, private companies, and nonprofits.

As the firm’s creative director, George has overseen hundreds of video production and graphic design projects over the last decade, producing award-winning TV, radio and print campaigns for many of California’s top elected officials candidate and issue campaigns. Recent work includes campaigns for Governor Jerry Brown, Governor Gavin Newsom, Vice President Kamala Harris, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, as well as state ballot propositions addressing education funding, criminal justice reform, the water crisis, and California’s long-term fiscal health, among others.

From 2005 to 2008, George worked with Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, a leading New York crisis management firm. During that time, he crafted critical communications for some of the country’s top companies and built ongoing relationships with national and regional media. George was a member of the team that advised on Motorola’s management change and proxy fight against Carl Icahn and the team that rolled out and defended SIRIUS’s landmark merger with XM.

George has a B.A. in Political Science and Spanish from Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

A seasoned communications specialist, David Beltran has over a decade’s worth of experience developing and executing communications strategies for local, state, and federal elected officials.

Since joining the firm, David has overseen a variety of projects, including working with then-California Secretary of State (now U.S. Senator) Alex Padilla to fight voter suppression and misinformation through the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State. Additionally, he served as general consultant on the historic campaign to elect Holly Mitchell to the first all-women Los Angeles Board of Supervisors.

Previously, David served as Communications Director for Attorney General Kamala D. Harris. In this role, David acted as Harris’ chief spokesperson, led the California Justice Department’s communications strategy and worked across its legal sections, policy team and office of legislative affairs to manage media rollouts of the office’s major announcements and initiatives, including landmark case rulings, major settlements and delegation trips.

Previously, David served as a Press Secretary for President Barack Obama’s reelection campaign in Nevada. He also spent time on Capitol Hill, where he led communications efforts for Congressman Sam Farr. Before that, David was press secretary for Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and served as a communications coordinator for Major League Soccer’s Los Angeles Galaxy, supporting the international announcement of the signing of David Beckham. He is fluent in Spanish and earned a B.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Alaina is an experienced campaign manager and paid media strategist with a strong background in political digital – advertising, fundraising, and organizing.

Alaina has worked on presidential, senatorial, gubernatorial, congressional, and local campaigns across the country. She has served as campaign manager and digital director for Democratic candidates in crucial battleground races, like Terry McAuliffe’s 2021 Virginia Governor’s race and the DCCC in the 2020 cycle. She also helped lead the digital organizing strategy in the early states on now-Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign.

Alaina is focused on innovating the way we run winning campaigns, especially in the ever-changing field of paid media and advertising. On McAuliffe’s campaign, she managed a fully in-house online fundraising and digital advertising program – something otherwise unheard of for statewide campaigns.

Alaina graduated with a B.A. in Public Policy from New York University and lives in Los Angeles with her wife, Lisa.

Emma Khodaverdian is a political communications professional specializing in campaign messaging, media strategy, and public affairs. As an Associate at Bearstar Strategies, she supports the strategic planning and execution of political campaigns, overseeing communications, paid media, budgeting, and client messaging.

Emma previously interned at Jasper Advisors, where she helped execute earned media and messaging strategy for high-profile clients across sports and entertainment, fintech, telecommunications, and government, and drafted speeches for C-Suite executives and public figures, including the 2025 George Washington University commencement address delivered by WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones. Her role later expanded to SKDK’s political team, where she conducted research, monitored media environments, supported candidate proposals, and assisted with campaign ad production.

While in college, Emma served as Talk and News Director at WRGW Radio, leading political coverage and coordinating a live 24-hour election broadcast for the 2024 Presidential race. She previously spent more than three years as National Organizing Director of Generation Ratify, managing a 13,000-member network and leading national advocacy campaigns focused on gender equity and the Equal Rights Amendment. She also served as an Equal Rights Amendment Fellow on Capitol Hill, supporting legislative and communications strategy to advance its publication.

Originally from Los Angeles, Emma graduated cum laude from George Washington University with a B.A. in Political Science.

A recent Cal graduate and experienced organizer, Riley brings experience in non-profit management, state, and local politics.

As an Associate, she supports campaign management, press relations, client communications, and digital and paid media strategy.

Prior to joining Bearstar, Riley worked for the Democratic Party of Virginia to help elect Governor Abigail Spanberger and Democrats down-ballot, focusing on direct voter contact and maximizing volunteer recruitment. In addition to managing a team of volunteers, Riley emphasized rapid-response communications and community partnership development, contributing to historic levels of voter engagement across Virginia.

At Berkeley, Riley oversaw the creation of educational policy content under the Dean of Students and implemented interactive campaigns across the student body. She was an Ambassador and Intern for Washington, D.C. nonprofit Free the Facts, where she gained experience in research, development strategy, and policy communications.

Riley graduated from University of California, Berkeley with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in History. Go Bears!