Vinca LaFleur

Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer

Member of the Board of Directors

When Bill Clinton made history as the first sitting U.S. president to visit Northern Ireland, Vinca LaFleur helped him find the words to inspire new hope for peace.

The Financial Times described the president’s speeches as “Ciceronian”; the Times of London called his Belfast keynote address “one of the finest” of his presidency; and The Guardian advised the British prime minister to “hire that man’s speechwriter.”

Working at the White House combined two of Vinca’s passions: writing and international relations. As a foreign policy speechwriter and special assistant for national security affairs, she accompanied President Clinton to Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. Previously, she served as a speechwriter for the Secretary of State, and before that as a human rights analyst at the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.

Today, Vinca draws on her more than 25 years of experience to help high-profile leaders ensure the impact of their words matches the power of their ideas. As Chief Operating Officer and an Executive Director at West Wing Writers, she collaborates with senior executives in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors to shape compelling messages and drive conversations in fields from global development to public health, women’s empowerment, and many more.

Vinca collaborated with Senator Kamala Harris on her New York Times bestseller, The Truths We Hold. She has been published under her own name in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Politico, Elle, The New York Observer, and elsewhere. Vinca is also a leader of West Wing Writers’ workshop practice, helping professional communicators at home and abroad to sharpen their own talents. She has guest lectured to university audiences from American University to BI Norwegian Business School; and served as a visiting fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. From 1998-2008, she ran her own speechwriting consultancy, Vinca LaFleur Communications.

Vinca graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Yale University and holds a master’s degree from The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. She and her husband, scientist David LaFleur, live in Washington, DC.