RACHEL CONE

SENIOR MANAGING PARTNER, THE SOUTHERN GROUP, TALLAHASSEE

Cone joined The Southern Group in 2017 as a partner and in 2019 was named managing partner of the lobbying firm’s Tallahassee office, where she’s played a key role in building one of Florida’s highest-grossing lobbying firms. She previously served as external affairs director for the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, was chief of staff to Gov. Rick Scott and served as interim secretary for the Florida Department of Transportation.

EDUCATION: Auburn University (BA)

FIRST JOB: I was hired Sept. 7, 2001 as a military reporter at the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. Four days later, the peacetime military that I covered during my summer internship was thrust into war. I spent the next five years on the front row of history, covering the aftermath in New York City and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, dispatching from the decks of aircraft carriers operating in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean.

DREAM ALTERNATE CAREER: A crime scene investigator with one of those cool computer tables where I could sort various puzzle pieces from the crime. ... If not that, then a ghostwriter.

SOMETHING SURPRISING: I am a proud band nerd. My primary instrument was the clarinet. I taught myself to play the snare drum and led the drumline my junior and senior year of high school. I went on to march in the band at Auburn University three years in a row.

INDUSTRY TREND: The lobbying industry has historically been about one guy and his relationships. Then it became about the large team and its connections. Today, it’s about creating turnkey government solutions with multiple offices and disciplines. It’s now about who you know, who and what they know and the value and the power of a large network.