Costello Strategy Group is a Tallahassee government affairs, procurement strategy, and SLED sales advisory firm founded by Jon Costello, former Legislative Affairs Director to Governor Rick Scott. Strategy and execution built on two decades of operator experience in Florida's legislative, executive, and procurement environment, delivered by experts, not by staff.
Most government affairs work in Tallahassee is pitched with the relationships and experience of the principals to get clients in the door, and executed by staff that doesn't possess either. CSG is built differently. It is a principal-led advisory firm, which means the people reading the politics, reading the procurement, and reading your market position are the same people you thought you were hiring. We have the relationships and experience, but we lead with unmatched government, budget, and market intelligence that we uniquely possess through our proprietary state, local, and education (SLED) intelligence tools. Clients hire CSG because we not only know the players and the process, we know everything else that is needed to achieve our clients' objectives.
The firm was founded in 2020 and rebranded from Capitol Strategy Group to Costello Strategy Group to reflect that approach. The experience behind it runs back two decades, through federal acquisition program management at the U.S. Department of Defense, the Governor's office under Rick Scott, and years of private practice representing technology firms, national brands, healthcare companies, associations, and local governments before the Florida Legislature and state agencies.
CSG covers Florida. It works alongside two sister practices that carry the same operator's perspective into adjacent lanes. GovMastery is a national SLED advisory and training firm for companies serious about winning government business. The Costello Brief is the weekly intelligence read on Florida technology policy, procurement, and politics. CSG handles the Florida engagements, GovMastery handles the national SLED market, and the Brief is where anyone serious about navigating the Florida GovTech market gets their weekly intelligence download.
Intelligence first. Advocacy second.
Jon Costello has spent his career in the rooms where Florida government decisions get made. He served as Legislative Affairs Director and Senior Policy Advisor to Governor Rick Scott, one of the most consequential staff roles in Florida state government, advising the Governor's office on policy, the legislative session, and the agency execution that followed. He came to that role from Scott's 2010 campaign and the transition team that staffed the administration.
He began his career as an acquisition program manager with the U.S. Department of Defense, on the buyer side of large government technology purchases. He went on to spend the better part of two decades as a registered Florida lobbyist, representing technology companies, national brands, healthcare organizations, telecommunications providers, trade and business associations, and local governments before the Florida Legislature and state agencies. His local government clients have ranged from Miami-Dade County, the largest in the state, to the Town of Melbourne Village, one of the smallest.
Costello is co-founder of GovMastery, national SLED advisory and training for companies serious about winning government business. He is the publisher of The Costello Brief. He taught political communication as an adjunct professor at Florida State University for over a decade, in the Master's in Applied American Politics and Policy program, and was twice appointed by Governor Scott to the governing board of the Northwest Florida Water Management District.
He holds bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from Florida State University and lives in downtown Tallahassee.
Four decades closing government business.
Mark Powell has spent nearly four decades on the commercial front line of Florida's public sector, selling and delivering technology to state agencies, local governments, universities, and public safety organizations. Over that career he has closed more than $1 billion in sales, and learned, deal by deal, how the state, local, and education (SLED) market actually buys.
He spent two decades at CenturyLink as Field Sales Director for Florida government, running sales and support for the company's largest public-sector accounts, including the State of Florida, Florida State University, and public safety agencies across the state. Earlier, he carried the government territory for Sprint and for NCR, selling IT hardware, software, and network infrastructure to buyers across North Florida and South Georgia.
Since 2019 he has run Capitol Advisory Group, advising technology companies on how to navigate the political and organizational hurdles between a strong product and a signed government contract. At CSG he brings the vendor's side of the table to complement Jon's years inside government and procurement: the person who has actually carried the bag, run the pursuit, and closed the deal.
He holds a degree from Florida State University's Herbert Wertheim College of Business and is based in Tallahassee.
Every engagement is different. The principles are not.
Decision-ready guidance for executives who do not have time for slide decks. What we see, what we recommend, and what we would do in your seat, in that order.
We have sat on every side of the deal: government staff, vendor counsel, association advocate, campaign strategist. We do not read about Florida procurement in a report. We have lived it.
Named people, dated events, real positions. If we cannot tell you exactly who and exactly when, we have not finished the work. Generic frameworks waste your money.
We take the engagements we are the right firm for and say so when we are not. Florida is a small market, and the wrong fit costs both sides reputation. Conflicts are cleared before the work starts. Here is how we handle competing clients.
Where the firm and its principals have shown up in Florida coverage of the issues we work on.
Thirty minutes, no pitch. Tell us what your objectives are. If we can help, we will. If we are not the right firm, we will tell you that too.
