As the President and CEO of Mendez Strategy Group, inc., John’s career spans over twenty years as an entrepreneur and founder of a boutique strategic communications firm specializing in public relations, advocacy and corporate communications. Working inside at Fortune 500 Companies Walmart, AT&T Wireless and KB Homes, he developed innovative winning campaigns focused on elected and appointed officials, government and regulatory agencies, and grassroots and grasstop leaders. He is a strategic thinker, resourceful problem solver, trusted leader, effective communicator and a skillful team player.

John is a business and community leader and participates with San Diego Leadership Forum in its Mission Valley and in South County forums, graduated in the inaugural class of San Diego Public Leadership Institute.

John is active in his community serving on the boards of Urban Corps Charter School,  Boy Scouts of America – San Diego and Imperial Council, Securing Our eCity and HOPE (Hispanas Organized for Political Equality), and formerly involved with LEAD San Diego, and an appointed member of the Otay River Valley Park for Supervisor Greg Cox.

John enjoys maintaining a healthy lifestyle with trail running, mountain biking, and Spartan obstacle course racing. During his 50th birthday year-long celebration, he ran a time trial of five minutes and 50 seconds (5:50) for one mile, completed the annual Archipelago 50-mile mountain bike Ride, and four Spartan obstacle course races, including a 13 mile “Beast” race.  He attends Eastlake Church in Chula Vista with his wife and four children.

Cori Owens Mendez has a passion for the written word. She is the successfully published author of more than half a dozen works of fiction and an enthusiastic social media strategist who teaches classes on the effective use of social media for business.

When life calls for more reality than fiction, Cori switches hats to copywriter and editor and enjoys putting her writing skills to work for our clients. Before Cori began writing, she studied to be an English-Spanish interpreter, because she has always prized the ability to communicate effectively with those around her.

Cori is responsible for the day-to-day operations of Mendez Strategy Group and coordination of the monthly Albondigas South County luncheon. Her hobbies are tending to her two dogs, maintaining planted-fish tanks and reading a good book with a cup of tea.

Tony Young to bring energy, retail and community relations expertise to company Community leader and former San Diego City Council President. Tony Young has entered into a strategic partnership with Mendez Strategy Group. Young’s consulting and public relations firm, Civic Link, will team up with us, leveraging Young’s extensive experience with community and government relations to enhance client service for both companies.

Young served as a San Diego City Councilmember for eight years from 2002 to 2010, the last two as the Council President. In 2014, Young founded Civic Link Strategies, a consulting and public relations firm that works with local governments and civic organizations on community engagement and political outreach. Through this partnership, Young will help advise and guide clients with high-level coalition building and planning services. Civic Link will benefit from Southwest’s expertise in messaging, community engagement and media relations. Both companies will continue to operate separately but will enhance overall client services through the partnership.

“This partnership is very exciting and will allow both Civic Link and Mendez Strategy Group to benefit from the years of experience we share. It will provide us an opportunity to take client service to the next level. I look forward to many successful endeavors,” said Young.
Young is also a co-founder of Rise San Diego, a nonprofit focused on promoting civic engagement and strengthening community organizations. Young was born and raised in southeastern San Diego and founded Rise to help build and mentor neighborhood leaders who can help improve urban life for youth and their families. From 2010 to 2012, Young served as the Chief Executive Officer at the American Red Cross San Diego/Imperial Counties Chapter of the Red Cross. He has also held key roles with the San Diego Regional Airport Authority, San Diego Association of Governments and, most recently, as the Board President of San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s new nonprofit organization, One San Diego.

Young is a graduate of Howard University, the University of San Diego and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Leadership program. A former collegiate athlete, Tony is a member of the Southwestern Baseball Hall of Fame. He and his wife, Jacque, are longtime residents of San Diego community Valencia Park.

Known for his extensive business, educational, and political relationships, Steve Crosby has more than 30 years of experience with a wide variety of high-profile clients, companies, and issues. His expertise spans strategic corporate and crisis communications, issues management, media training, branding and corporate image, sports public relations, land-use, permitting and entitlement, fundraising, government and community relations, and grassroots coalition-building.

Crosby currently serves as senior advisor to public affairs firms Mendez Strategy Group, Inc. and JCI Worldwide. Prior to this role, Crosby was senior vice president of Frontier Communications (NASDAQ: FTR),
the largest rural telecommunications company in the U.S., where he was responsible for legislative and regulatory affairs for half of the country. In addition, he oversaw Frontier’s national corporate communications and public relations functions.

Before Frontier, Crosby served for eight years as vice president of corporate communications at Vulcan Inc., the global investment and management office of philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. At Vulcan, Crosby managed a multi-function team overseeing public and media relations as well as government and community affairs at the local, state and federal level; marketing, advertising, graphic design, event management, and internal/external communications. Vulcan’s business interests include a multi-billion-dollar real estate portfolio, professional sports team ownership (the Seattle Seahawks NFL, Portland Trailblazers NBA, and Seattle Sounders MLS franchises), museum development and management, scientific research,
philanthropy, and technology R&D.

Prior to joining Vulcan, Crosby was vice president at AT&T Wireless (AWS) and its predecessor, Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company (LACTC), in Southern California, overseeing both public relations and government affairs across the region. His work shaped the company’s public policy in technology, wireless communications, and land-use including cellular tower locations in many local communities. While Crosby worked for AWS he was asked by AT&T (parent company of AWS) to help manage, advocate, and secure the individual city cable franchise transfers in California from MediaOne, a cable company, to AT&T Broadband.

Before AWS Crosby was Vice President at Burson-Marsteller, a leading public affairs, marketing and crisis communications firm, where he handled various Fortune 500 clients on a variety of issues. He has served on the national board of directors of the Coro Foundation and ​most recently ​on the board of MoPOP, the Museum of Pop Culture (formerly known as Experience Music Project. In addition, Crosby was a board member of Los Angeles Family Housing, helping homeless families transition into support programs and permanent housing, and served on the national board, and was vice-chair, of the American Humane Association.

He holds his J.D. from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, a B.A. from Santa Clara University​, and earned a graduate certification in public affairs from Southern California’s Coro Foundation.

Joshua graduated from San Diego State University in May of 2018 and majored in International Security and Conflict Resolution. He graduated from Officer Candidate School in November 2018 and is now a 2nd Lieutenant in the United State Marine Corps. He enjoys reading history books on ancient Rome and Grecian civilizations and historical leaders such as Marcus Arelius, Napoléon Bonaparte, General Robert E. Lee, Teddy Roosevelt, and Winston Churchill. He is a budding musicologist and enjoys listening to Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, U2 and Tupac, and is still waiting on bands from his generation to be worthy of his time. He played lacrosse in high school and is a fan of Liverpool soccer.