Marcus Sebastian Mason
Partner
Marcus Sebastian Mason is Partner at The Madison Group. He is responsible for managing the firm’s transportation, tax, and homeland security portfolio. In addition, he focuses on crisis management, complex integrated campaigns and coalition building. Mr. Mason comes to the firm with more than fifteen years of political and transportation policy experience from the National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak), where he was Senior Director of Government Affairs.
At Amtrak, Mr. Mason was responsible for managing and advancing the company’s legislative agenda in the U.S. House of Representatives, securing successive funding increases. Prior to that, he was Amtrak's Director of High Speed Rail Corridors, responsible for advancing the goals of Amtrak's Strategic Business Plan as it related to high-speed rail corridor development in more than two dozen states. His work forged a strong coalition consisting of public and private entities, as well as leaders in the rail, travel and financial industry in support of the Company’s strategic business goals that resulted in versions of the High Speed Rail Investment Act (HSRIA), a tax credit bond measure, passing both chambers of Congress. During his tenure, Amtrak launched the Acela Express in the Northeast, the Pacific Surfliner in California and the Cascades in partnership with the States of Washington and Oregon.
Before coming to the Amtrak, Mr. Mason spent close to a decade on Capitol Hill as Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for two California Members of Congress. As Chief of Staff for Congressman Walter R. Tucker, III (CA-37) Mason coordinated efforts between the Cities of Los Angeles, Long Beach, Compton and Carson as well as the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to secure tax exempt bonding to fund the implementation of the Alameda Corridor Project, the largest rail-public works project of its kind at the time. As Legislative Director and later Chief of Staff for Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, he worked closely with those same cities to build a coalition that was successful in securing $400 million in Federal Loan Guarantees for the Alameda Corridor. Mason also worked on other rail transportation initiatives, including the Amtrak Reform and Accountability Act.
As the principal staff member for the California Transportation Task Force in the United States House of Representatives, Marcus was responsible for leading Task Force’s efforts on fact finding missions and conducting field hearings throughout the State of California to assess the aviation, rail and ground transportation infrastructure needs of large, medium and small cities in preparation for the reauthorizations of the Transportation Equity Act (TEA-21) and Aviation Investment and Reform Act for the 21st Century (AIR-21).
In addition to his accomplishments in the Nation's Capitol, Mr. Mason has successfully managed political campaigns at the Federal and local level, winning his first congressional campaign at the age of 21 before becoming a Chief of Staff to a Member of Congress at age 22.
Mr. Mason is also a member of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation's Corporate Advisory Council (CAC), a member of the Corporate Advisory Board for the Creative Coalition, Hollywood's New York-based advocacy organization. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington Government Relations Group (WGRG), a non-partisan independent, volunteer association founded to enrich the careers and leadership abilities of African-American government relations professionals.
Mason is also a published author who writes spy thrillers under the pen name Sebastian Cheney.