Infrastructure
Large International Engineering Services Firm
ENGAGEMENT GOAL
Our client, a major U.S.-based engineering and design firm, entered Mexico by successfully bidding for the contract to serve as project manager for Mexico City’s New International Airport – the largest public works project in Mexican history. The client sought political risk analysis and strategic guidance to support it in undertaking this high profile and controversial project, which is the Peña Nieto administration’s flagship infrastructure project.
SERVICES PROVIDED
We act as our client’s trusted advisor in Mexico by providing an insider’s knowledge of the local political and business environment for the company’s first foray into the country. We are guiding its government relations strategy, establishing ties to key interest groups and developing local partnerships. In addition, we are providing key political insights and risk assessment while devising the appropriate strategies to face a very complex and highly scrutinized project. In concert with a third-party firm sourced through us, we also provide public relations and communications support.
OUTCOME
Our advice and counsel has allowed our client to remain focused on the coordination of one of the most ambitious ongoing infrastructure projects being undertaken in the Western hemisphere and to manage a growing role in the project while keeping it on track for completion of its first stage in 2020.
Major San Diego-based Planning Authority
ENGAGEMENT GOAL
Our client, a major San Diego-based planning authority, sought enhanced government relations capabilities in Washington, D.C., and Mexico City in support of its lead role in the design, construction and execution of a state-of-the-art port of entry to be jointly operated by the U.S. and Mexican governments. Specific objectives included ensuring that the two governments continued to support the initiative through executive branch transitions following presidential elections in 2016 and 2018.
SERVICES PROVIDED
We successfully won a public tender to provide a range of services to our client’s government affairs team and the authority’s senior leadership. We have played a key role in ensuring broad-based financial and political support in Mexico City and Washington, D.C., to support the establishment of a model border crossing that will enhance the efficiency of binational trade. We have arranged and conducted high-level meetings with officials of both governments and provided strategic advice and analysis prior to, and following, these meetings. When appropriate, we have also represented our client in public programs designed to promote development of innovative border crossing between the United States and Mexico.
OUTCOME
Both executive branches continue to express support for the project and to take appropriate steps to ensure that the new crossing will be operational on schedule. Attention is now focused on memorializing agreements among all of the relevant parties prior to the change in administration in Mexico in late 2018.