Convention Director
Nugen picks his horses early. In February 2003, he joined the presidential campaign of Sen. Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., as director of delegate operations. When that campaign didn't pan out, Nugen ended up on Howard Dean's staff at the DNC, where he served as director of the chairman's office. Nugen returned to the DNC after an earlier stint from 1998 to 2000. In February 2007, he picked his next horse, joining Obama's fledgling presidential campaign. As political director, he reprised his role as a delegate wooer, working behind the scenes to bring superdelegates to Obama's camp. That campaign did pan out, and after the primaries ended, Nugen became Obama's convention director.
He previously served on the convention city selection committee that chose Denver for this year's confab, and he was a deputy chief for the 2000 Democratic convention in Los Angeles. Between the 2000 convention and the Lieberman campaign, Nugen was a vice president at the Kwame Building Group in his native St. Louis area. He majored in business at the University of Missouri.
Craig Smith, Lieberman's former campaign chief, said that Nugen knows what delegates want, given his experience. "At the end of the day, a convention is a meeting of delegates," Smith said. "They expect to be treated like a big deal. Matt understands that."
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