Full Stack Strategies enables senior executives in times of growth and crisis.
Full Stack Strategies is the independent consulting practice of Barton Lorimor.
Professional services primarily focus on executive communications, state and local government, and corporate affairs, including marketing campaigns and change management initiatives. Project-based contracts and retention agreements available. Clients typically operate throughout North America and enjoy access to a full-slate of services allowing them address their needs that advance institutional goals.
Full Stack Strategies is a limited liability corporation domiciled in the State of Illinois. The company maintains Illinois state government lobbying credentials to field inquiries from executive, legislative, and administrative government officials on behalf of clients. Annual Reports and regulatory filings are on-file with the Illinois Secretary of State. The Full Stack Strategies, LLC sexual harassment policy is available here.
Barton is a proud husband and father with professional interests in executive communications, public policy, and corporate strategy. Barton’s practice regularly involves clients in highly technical and heavily regulated industries – spaces his career in journalism, state government administration, and public affairs consulting has more than prepared him to undertake.
Though his byline appeared in central and southern Illinois local newspapers and media outlets throughout the 2000s, Barton’s tenure as a reporter and columnist is best remembered for his stint in the Illinois Capitol Press Room on behalf of Capitol Fax, Reuters, and the St. Louis Beacon (now part of St. Louis Public Radio). His globally syndicated reports on Illinois election cycles and state legislative processes earned him a reputation for appearing in oft-overlooked spaces, especially administrative proceedings and hearings impacting state revenues and appropriations.
Frustrated his reports were not producing greater transparency nor fiscal management controls in the wake of a corrupt gubernatorial administration, Barton accepted in 2011 a policy and communications position within the late Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka’s administration. As an aide to Illinois’s elected chief fiscal officer, Barton’s duties included implementing Comptroller’s many open government initiatives, public service transformation projects, comprehensive financial report writing, advancing legislative and intergovernmental affairs, and contributing to official statements. Though more likely to be found in behind-the-scenes settings, Barton tapped into his media background to serve as Comptroller’s representative in community meetings, national conferences, and background media interviews. When Comptroller Leslie Munger suddenly took office in 2015, Barton’s portfolio expanded to include additional information systems management and fiscal policy roles. He was among Comptroller staff identifying what legal paths were available to pay state vendors, especially nonprofit organizations providing basic health care and human services, despite the Governor and state Legislature embarking on a wildly destructive 793-day budget impasse.
Barton became Policy Advisor to Director Jeff Mays of the Illinois Department of Employment Security in 2017. As a direct report, Barton introduced lean management principles to the agency’s outdated operating policies and procedures manual while advancing Director’s executive communications and statewide media tours. Barton sat for media interviews on behalf of the Department during monthly unemployment rate announcements and was a quotable spokesperson when a cybersecurity incident affected government databases containing Social Security numbers.
Between a political transition in 2018 and his founding Full Stack Strategies in 2020, Barton served as corporate sponsorships manager to the Illinois Institute for Continuing Legal Education, a lobbyist specializing in Medicaid reimbursements on behalf of the Health Care Council of Illinois, campaign manager to the Jack Campbell for Sheriff committee in Sangamon County, Illinois, and a private researcher.
In 2021, Barton sidelined Full Stack operations to accept a position with Morreale Communications – a boutique public relations firm then-based in Chicago. He became the firm’s inaugural state capital presence and represented multi-state clients with special interests in public affairs communications, including health and human service agencies during the COVID-19 pandemic, state government agency media relations and workforce recruitment efforts, and utilities and engineering firms pursuing major capital construction projects. Before reorganizing Full Stack in 2024, Barton oversaw implementation of Morreale’s media monitoring platform and led numerous training initiatives for media and content strategy staff.
Barton also has a long history with community advocacy and political campaigns. No stranger to picking up clipboards, working call centers, and scoping get out the vote efforts, Barton has engaged voters in dozens of national, statewide, legislative, and municipal elections. Candidates across the partisan spectrum have utilized his tactics before, during, and after all votes are counted.
Born and raised in McLean County, Ill., Barton was a member of the Normal Community West High School graduating Class of 2007. He earned in 2011 a dual bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and married his college sweetheart, Jenette, shortly thereafter. Barton and Jen live in Springfield, Ill., with their two children. If not shuttling them to after-school activities, chasing a client need, or volunteering at a community event, Barton can most likely be found on one of the many hiking and bike paths in central Illinois.
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