Chris Allieri on Telling Stories People Will Care About

Mixing Board Studio Session

Chris Allieri is the founder, principal and lead client strategist at Mulberry and Astor, and has over 25 years of specialized public relations, communications & public affairs experience across multiple sectors, and ventured out to launch the agency he always wanted to work for. In particular, Chris has deep industry expertise in energy, sustainability and climate tech. Chris is also the executive director and founder of the NYC Plover Project, an organization he founded in March 2021, to protect endangered Piping Plovers that nest along the busy beaches of the Rockaway Peninsula in Queens. If you have flown into JFK Airport, you have seen those beaches.

In this Studio Session, Chris and Mixing Board Founder Sean Garrett talk about why it’s so important to believe in the work you do and how it shows up in the stories you tell, why we should still be telling the founder story and why getting personal is a good thing, why we should remain hopeful about climate work, and how to network without feeling transactional.

SG: What are you up to today? What is happening in your world?

CA: This is quite the moment – with the he nature of the work that I do as a communicator, as an agency leader with Mulberry & Astor, but also the work that I do as a non profit founder and executive director for an endangered species. It's one heck of a time to be in these two areas. It's mid-season for the work in the non profit, but it's also a really busy time for our clients. There's a lot going on, on all fronts. I like to say I have two full-time jobs but I wouldn't trade it. I love the work that I've been doing.

SG: Tell me about Mulberry & Astor, and what inspired you to build it and start with your climate work?

CA: Everything I've done in my career has led to Mulberry & Astor. Sometimes I think, “I should have started this sooner," but I wasn't ready. I had to have these other roles, I had to work with and for other great people, and work with and for some people that weren't so great. I had to work with some folks that were really challenging and probably not the best fit for me. To get to this place, to be able to offer the level of expertise and the skills that we can, and to build a team, manage that team, to have worked with more than 100 different tech startups and several dozen venture investors – I couldn't have done this earlier.

The nature of working in-house and agency, but also across multiple sectors, got me to this spot. That spot began in 2016, going back to a time in my life that was incredibly difficult. My father was in the final stages of Alzheimer's and I was working for a large agency at the time. It was not the best fit for me and I did not feel aligned with that firm. I was focused on dealing with the challenges of my father, who came from an immigrant family. He was born in this country, but his parents were both from Italy, and they lived at the corner of Mulberry Street & Astor Street in Newark, New Jersey. It was this important pivotal place in my childhood. We spent so many holidays there, with tons of colorful relatives. It had a profound impact on me.

One thing my father also taught me was, "You're probably not a great employee, just like me. You’ve got to go out and start your own thing." That was always in the back of my mind. After something like ten different bosses, it finally did sink in. To start this at the time that I did, as I was losing him, it really was a big moment in my life. But falling into climate work was not by chance. It was definitely something that's been with me and I’ve been working on environmental work since high school really. I started my environmental club in high school!

SG: Working with climate companies, what have you seen over the last nine years evolve in that space? How is the sector approaching communications differently than they were in 2016?

CA: In many ways it's cyclical because when we started in 2016, there were a lot of companies that had to prove their value, their worth, and the importance of what t they were setting out to do. Definitely to investors, but also to media. There was a relatively small number of media that were covering early-stage climate companies.

This idea of climate tech was just emerging, “clean tech” and some other terms were more in use. But climate tech really took off from 2016 to 2019, and was growing by leaps and bounds. There's decent money available for these companies, but a lot of the companies we worked with were first of their kind, first working in a sector. They didn't have to differentiate that specifically because it was all new. There was tremendous upside.

As we headed into 2020 and the Biden years, it was like everyone was on board. You say climate tech, and everyone knew what it was. But in reality, I don't know that everyone did. Getting to where we are now, we're almost at that spot that we were in about 10 years ago when we had to convince folks again. Nowadays, I'm all for silver linings and finding hope in times that are challenging. One of those things is finding the connecting points of an industry, or of a pitch, or of how you talk about your company – are really important. There are lots of opportunities now to define a path forward that brings folks together.

Now more than ever, it’s important that we tell these stories about climate tech, energy, and innovation, American resilience, all of those things. But doing so in a way that is innovative and unique, we're not just relying on this general acceptance of a topic or a term. As communicators we have to better define things. What do we specifically mean? What are we actually talking about?

SG: And what are we actually talking about?

CS: In climate tech right now, people have a hard time because these companies that are doing things to speed up the energy transition, decarbonize the economy, take carbon out of the air, make industries more efficient, or utilize materials in more efficient ways – those things that I just said are probably universally accepted by a lot of people. But when I say climate tech, people don't know entirely what that is.

For a lot of the early-stage startups, they're defined in a lot of ways by the investors that fund them. Sometimes a terminology that works for an investor in Silicon Valley doesn't necessarily work for Main Street or even Wall Street. These are really early, smaller companies. I've worked with Accenture, and I've had clients like Toyota,Coca-Cola and Capital One. These are much different types of organizations than the companies that we work with now. When we're saying climate tech, we mean innovative, early-stage, interesting companies with solutions to big problems. This is American entrepreneurialism, this is as American as apple pie.

Some of the best companies we're working with right now, one is a fusion startup that's creating small fusion reactors out of Seattle footsteps from the Boeing barn where commercial aviation took off. We're working with a AI-powered aluminum recycling plant, which is this massive facility outside of Fort Wayne, Indiana. These are great companies at any stage, any age, they don't necessarily need a certain administration in Washington or Congress. There are universals about some of these stories.

SG: One of the things that I found in working with climate companies and climate-focused companies, and what I've also found with some investors who are frustrated with their founders is that they have a lot of trouble telling stories and painting a picture because they're so literal in what they do. It's a very classic Silicon Valley engineering culture – why do I need to explain this? Yet in climate, there is an imperative to bridge the future opportunity, but do it in a way that's real and tangible and not just BS. Regardless of the type of sector you're in, but when you're working with a fusion company where the actual benefits may not be seen until 2032, how are you helping them connect those dots to that future? When everyone is so focused on the here and now?

CA: We're still in a communications sphere with early stage companies that raising funds is a story. Earlier this year, we helped a company, Northwind Climate, announce a pre-seed of a million dollars. A million dollars is a million dollars, that's not nothing, but it's definitely not what we're generally reading about or reading about well north of that.

Northwind’s Founder and CEO, Doug Rubin, has this background in political communications – he knows how to craft stories and how to do storytelling. The work they're doing is helping corporations and companies and brands unearth the trends and the thoughts of consumers and how the folks you wouldn't expect most are buying certain products – how Republicans are supporting this, and Democrats might be supporting that. Immediately they're able to get into what they're solving, how they're doing it, how this research is really timely and really new.

So it isn't just that you raise X, Y, Z from Congruent, G2 Venture Partners and Prelude, but that you've raised this funds to do X or to do Y, or your background is Z, that sort of thing. Oftentimes we work with founders that are reluctant to share their founder stories, they don't want to share the personal side. But sometimes it's the best part of the pitch. It's about where you come from, who were you working for before, how did you come upon this issue, how did you start this company, where did the name come from? These things unite and connect us.

And frankly, right now in 2025, raising money is a big deal. The fact that you're able to do it sets you into a category in and of itself. There are many companies that can't do it. The fact that you are raising venture-backed funds is a big deal. You have to share those milestones.

It's also commercialization success. That sounds very businessy and very corporate, it’s telling the story of a big new customer you just landed. We have a company, Hippo Harvest, they do controlled environment, agriculture, indoor greenhouses and they just started working with Amazon. Massive milestone, massive story. We're able to talk about how they’re using less water, using less land, no pesticides. They're all great proof points, but they're just facts. This is all great fodder for that storytelling.

SG: You’ve worked with Accenture, Univision, and a big agency, then you rolled up your sleeves and dove in with Mulberry & Astor. We talk a lot at Mixing Board how communications is evolving and the different changes and different techniques and approaches. Is there anything that you've learned along the way? What's the 2016 version of you surprised by the 2025 version of how you approach your work?

CA: What I learned in my early 20s and the early clients, like Bill Ihle, who was leading public relations for the storied American brand, Harry & David. I cut my teeth on consumer PR, and I led consumer storytelling and communications for big brands. Really believing in the work that you do and believing in the people that you're doing it with is so important. In all aspects of your life, you gravitate towards the people that are like you, or you want what they have. They're putting out a positivity or an energy in the world that you're really drawn to.

I also learned integrity, following through at what you say you're going to do. There's so many opportunities early in a PR/Communications career for you to fib a little. If your client is like, "Where are we with blank?" It's so easy to be like, "Well, we're following up on that." Sometimes that's okay to say, but a lot of times you haven't gotten to it yet. And you might not want to admit that so readily. But if you admit that readily, that the discomfort of admitting that and then having to have that conversation with your client, you're going to be more on top of things in the future. So you're probably not going to have to admit that too much.

That Harry & David client, he was so passionate, so generous. He knew his product backwards and forwards. What is Harry & David known for? It's known for fruit. They came up with the Fruit of the Month club, which may not be so innovative now – most people are like, "What do you mean Fruit of the Month Club? I can just go to Whole Foods or Safeway, and I can just buy fresh fruit and I don't have to worry about it."

But there was a time when you couldn't find a lot of fresh fruits off season. But they grew these pears, and we had this story about how they were the only place in the country where you could get these Comice pears, which they rebranded as the Royal Riviera Pear. We got CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Today Show, and many more.

These lessons from mentors early on, you don't realize at the time that you're getting them. Sometimes they come in the form of a teachable moment or, "Let me just help you out here." They can sometimes be a little patronizing. And I was a young sort of know-it-all. But I thankfully knew when to keep my mouth shut too, because it was those moments where I would actually listen and get that feedback from somebody who did know more than me.

SG: Tell me about how you found your nonprofit work with the piping plovers and how that fits into your life as your second full-time job.

CA: It's been this tremendous thing and another thing I credit to my dad. My dad was really into birding and experiencing the outdoors and nature. I never was a birder. I've lived in New York City my entire adult life but it wasn't until the pandemic – that forced a lot of us inwards and outwards – that I started going outside more. I spent more time in city parks than I had ever done before. I picked up binoculars for the first time, and started to discover all sorts of species of birds. I saw 100 species of birds in 100 days. I started taking pictures too, and I posted them all to Instagram.

I was out at the beach in April of 2020 and saw one for the first time, and then I saw dogs off leash and people up on the dunes and no signs and no fences. I shook my fist at the world that first year, I took photos, and I submitted FOIA requests and I was like, "Is anyone doing anything about this?" Somehow this bird got to me and got under my skin in many ways. A year later I saw the same thing again. It was like, "Well, what are you going to do about it?"

I went home that day. I started an Instagram account. I was like – I'm going to call this a project because then it won't completely take over my life. The famous last laugh there, because it’s completely taken over my life. I started this non profit and we now have a staff of five. I'm an unpaid executive director, but I've been fundraising for this. We've had more than 300 volunteers do something like 15,000 hours of service. We were named Volunteer Group of the Year for the entire National Park Service, which was tremendous and surprising. We have partnerships with the National Park Service and New York City Parks & Recreation.

I was able to get this organization on the map because of the communications work that I've been doing over the course of my life and the visual storytelling power of Instagram. I don't think NYC Plover Project would be quite on the map, as much as it is today, with nearly 22,000 followers on Instagram if it weren't for beautiful images of this bird. I'm really grateful to other photographers in our midst and some people on our team. We've been able to tell these stories with video about this tiny little bird that most people can't see. Most people think it's another bird like the Sanderling that runs back and forth with the tides.

In terms of endangered species, there's relatively few in New York. It gave us an opportunity to tell this story of an underdog. New Yorkers, and people in general, love a story of an underdog and this idea of they're New Yorkers too.

Sometimes I wish I could do everything really well. There are many days where I feel like I'm a mile wide and an inch thick. But I love being busy. I love doing this work. The passion that I've been able to bring to endangered species protection has really helped me with my clients. This work around climate, this work around climate change, this work around environment, it's all very human centric. It's all very focused on what will or will not happen in the future for humans, for generations of us. But if you look at climate and climate action now and the impact on the environment, it's really on other species. The time is now for them. It’s not a hypothetical

Biodiversity protection is where it's at. And it does bring people together. Endangered species work, nine out of 10 Americans support the Endangered Species Act. Most people support wildlife and wildlife protection. When people see a story of an injured ‘fill in the blank’, whatever species – they really get behind that and they share those stories. Those are the viral stories that bring people together.

But the Endangered Species Act is facing its most significant threats in its 50+ year history.

I am hopeful. It's a tough time in the regulatory world and in terms of what's going on in Washington, but it's also a great time for sort of citizen-led, individuals, people in the public really driving conservation and climate work.

SG: What's your advice for someone who's starting fresh in climate communications and reaches out to you?

CA: We need our best brains and our best thinking on this. We're so focused on the transaction. Get the job, get the client, keep the client, keep the job, just get more money, get the raise, get the promotion. But well ahead of that, we have to be subject matter experts. So, stay in school. That's probably not what anyone wants to hear. Maybe that is counterintuitive, but you want to get that expertise. Having a science background, being a scientist or a biologist and in climate communications, having some sense of understanding of this. We're not just selling software. Really being a student of this industry is so important.

There's so much out there now, there's great publications like Canary, IEEE, and Politico. Follow them and obviously follow what's going on in Washington, but also follow the research. Follow what is coming out of places like MIT’sThe Engine, out of Berkeley, and the many different state universities that are doing really tremendous work. These hot spots around entrepreneurialism and startups in other cities around the country, like Boulder, Boise, Denver, Austin, and Miami and really tapping into the entrepreneur ecosystem.

The last thing, and I'm learning this at 51 years old, is reach out to folks just to say hello. Just to learn. Especially as an agency owner, it can get a little bleak and scary. I'll tell you, since January, it's been a tough moment for climate tech.

Remember - how are you doing is not a statement, it’s a question.

It's important that in this time we really pause to let people speak. It's going to go so much further. My mom always said, "Get people to talk about themselves." People love the opportunity to share about what they're thinking about, what they care about, what makes them tick, what they are excited about.

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