Johnell Bell, President of Espousal Strategies & Chief of Staff for the Portland Diamond Project

Johnell Bell is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Espousal Strategies LLC, a boutique consultancy that provides government relations, public and stakeholder engagement services to businesses, private-public partnerships, nonprofits, and government agencies. He’s also the Chief of Staff for the Portland Diamond Project, where he designs and implements a range of campaigns to bring Major League Baseball to Portland, including building local community and government support and participation. He works with an array of stakeholders – citizens, international construction firms, D/M/W/ESB enterprises, and government officials – to design, implement, monitor, and document successful initiatives for D/M/W/ESB utilization, equity and inclusion, community engagement, and business, workforce, and community development. He’s also nationally recognized for best practices advancing equitable access to public contracting opportunities for TriMet, Portland’s regional public transit agency. Under his leadership, TriMet achieved record-breaking utilization of minority and women-owned firms during the construction of the MAX Orange Line, awarding over $175 million to DBE firms, the largest awarded to DBE firms on a public project in the state’s history.