UGO Strategies+ focuses on advisory services, strategic communications, and public affairs. Our firm’s work includes projects at the intersection of business, governance, and culture.

We work creatively to develop focused winning strategies and provide seasoned advice, as well as valuable insights to our clients.

Jorge is a seasoned communications and public affairs professional with over fifteen years of experience at all levels of government and politics. He has worked in many different capacities with major international and national corporations, medium to small businesses, non-profits, national political candidates, on statewide issue-based campaigns.  

He most recently served as Campaign Manager for SA Ready to Work, a highly successful workforce development sales tax initiative to fund training for ready jobs to help people during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Before that, he served as a Senior Advisor on the Julian Castro for President campaign and as a Political Director for the Beto O’Rourke for U.S. Senate campaign.  Jorge has held leadership roles in the winning campaigns of US Congressman Joaquin Castro, Texas State Representative Philip Cortez, Bexar County Commissioner Tommy Calvert and Bexar County Commissioner Justin Rodriguez, among many others.  Jorge has also worked for former Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief, as well as in the External Affairs Division of Parkland Health and Hospital System in Dallas. 

In the recent past, Jorge served on the Community Health Advisory Board for The Concilio, a non-profit focused on building stronger communities through education and health, and the Board of Friends at Medrano Elementary.  He currently serves on the MaaPaa board, a non-profit that supports single mothers. He was born and raised in Del Rio, Texas as well as in Monterrey, Mexico and received a master’s degree in Public Administration from American University in Washington, D.C., where he served as the president of the School of Public Affairs and was a member of the Pi Alpha Alpha National Honor Society.  While living and pursuing his degree in D.C., he worked at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

 

Robbie Greenblum served as Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Julian Castro.  Prior to that, he worked as the City Attorney to the City of San Antonio, Texas, serving as Chief Legal Advisor to the City Council, City Manager and all City departments.  From 2009 – 2013, he served as Chief of Staff to San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro.  Prior to his service to the City of San Antonio, Robbie successfully developed a family and business immigration practice as a shareholder at Matthews and Branscomb – San Antonio’s oldest law firm at the time.  Before that, he was staff attorney with the Refugee Assistance Council in Laredo, Texas and later the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights in San Antonio which was recognized to have won the top immigration case in the US, a class-action lawsuit on behalf of individuals living in the Bowie High School district of El Paso, Texas.

Robbie is currently a member of the Advisory Board at the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute of Latin-American Studies, as well as the AJC’s national Latino Jewish Leadership Council.  For about two years in the 1990’s, Robbie appeared as a regular guest on the weekly Spanish Language KCOR Radio talk show program, “Conzca Sus Derechos” (Know Your Rights).  He also served as Chair of the San Antonio Jewish Federation’s Community Relations Council where he was a Co-Founder/Co-Chair of the Latino-Jewish Dialogue and the Black-Jewish Dialogue.  Robbie served the San Antonio Hispanic Chamber of Commerce as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee.  He also served the San Antonio Free Trade Alliance as a Board member and as Mexico Group Co-Chair.  Robbie helped to re-constitute the KLRN (PBS) Community Advisory Board, and then served on the KLRN (PBS) Board of Directors.  Born and raised to a Mexican father and Texan mother in the border town of Laredo, Robbie is fluent in Spanish.

 

Gilberto is a native Texan that has spent over thirty years building a trusted political and business network with corporate executives, community leaders, operatives, entrepreneurs and elected officials. He builds coalitions by gathering local intelligence, performing political outreach and crafting communications strategies. He is CEO of Ocañas Group founded in 1992 and is also Senior Advisor for Dentons, https://www.dentons.com/en/gilberto-ocanas, the largest global law firm, where he provides government and business advisory services.

A veteran of four presidential campaigns, Gilberto has managed  two statewide campaigns in Texas and was one of the first Hispanics to do so. He is proud to have served under the late Willie Velasquez as director of Communications for the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project. Gilberto’s civic participation is complemented by experience growing a start-up printing company into a successful security printing and fulfillment company, providing  95% of all the online printed products for the Texas Lottery. His political and business experience provides him with key insights into business growth and governmental contracting.

The success of his business enterprise, coupled with his commitment to the Latino community, garnered him local recognition as the “Hispanic Businessman of the Year” as well as “Volunteer of the Year” by the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Hispanic Magazine Gilberto as a “Rising Entrepreneur.” 

 

Current Boards

Latino Public Broadcasts, http://lpbp.org/board-of-directors/ 

New Deal Leaders,
www.newdealleaders.org
Washington DC. 

Mi Familia Vota, www.mifamiliavota.org
Mi Familia Vota Education Fund (MFVEF) is a national non-profit civic engagement organization,

Texas Advisory Board 
Environmental Defense Fund,
Environmental Defense Fundhttps://www.edf.org/people/texas-advisory-board

Former boards

Gilberto has served on the National Advisory Boards of the Resolution Trust Corporation, the U.S. Small Business Administration, the U.S. Secretary of Energy and the Smithsonian Task Force on Latino Affairs.