The Directors Guild of America is elevating its in-house public relations staffer ahead of the union’s 2026 negotiations with top studios and streamers.

The union announced that it was appointing Mitchell Schwenz its executive in charge of communications on Monday. Schwenz, who joined the guild in 2024, was previously the union’s public relations director.

In his new role, Schwenz’s responsibilities will be expanded beyond handling media and public relations to leading the union’s communications department and overseeing the union’s website, social media and its internal magazine, the DGA Monthly. Schwenz will report to the union’s associate executive director of communications, Morgan Rumpf.

“I am proud to announce the promotion of Mitchell to the position of Executive in Charge of Communications. Our membership has already benefited from his innovative thinking in helping to enhance our public relations,” said national executive director Russell Hollander in a statement. “At a time when effective communication has become increasingly more important, we look forward to continuing to grow other areas of our communications under his leadership.” 

Schwenz is a veteran in the labor and Hollywood communications space, having come to the DGA from Precision Strategies, where he was based in L.A. as a senior vice president and worked closely with actors’ union SAG-AFTRA during its 2023 strikes. In that role, Schwenz additionally worked with the NBA Players Association, the union for professional basketball players, to guide communications around a collective bargaining agreement.

Schwenz has previously worked with Leonardo DiCaprio, Meghan Markle, Arianna Huffington, Comcast and Viacom as a public relations consultant. He also did crisis communications with the SXSW festival for a decade.

He initially broke in to the communications space by assisting on communications around Obamacare for the late Pennsylvania senator Arlen Specter.

Amid the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, the DGA was heavily scrutinized by industry workers and some commentators for not launching a work stoppage but later gaining at least one major contractual perk obtained by those who did. With the addition and elevation of Schwenz, the union looks to be changing up its strategy around negotiations communication ahead of next year’s bargaining.