Sara Taylor Fagen (born September 15, 1974) is a technology and data entrepreneur, and former staff member in the administration of President George W. Bush.
Education and early career
Fagen was born on September 15, 1974, in Dubuque, Iowa. She graduated from Wahlert High School, a private, co-educational, Roman Catholic school, in 1992. She then attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. While in college, she was the National Co-Chairman of the College Republicans. She also took a year off, in 1995–1996, to work on Senator Phil Gramm's presidential campaign in Iowa.
After graduating from Drake in 1997 with a B.S. in Finance, Fagen worked for two years at the Tarrance Group, a northern Virginia polling firm headed by Ed Goeas.
White House career
In April 1999, Fagen began working for the presidential campaign of George Bush. Her initial position, through January 2000, was coalitions director for Bush's Iowa caucus campaign. She then did field work in the South Carolina, Virginia, Washington, and Illinois primaries, and finally served as executive director of the Michigan campaign. After Bush was elected, Fagen worked for the White House as an associate political director (Midwest) doing political and public affairs outreach.
A ranking member of the Senate Judiciary committee, Arlen Specter (R-PA) said that the White House had not responded to an April 11, 2007, inquiry by the committee, and he supported the issuance of the subpoena in light of the lack of response by the White House and Taylor. On July 9, 2007, White House counsel Fred Fielding, in letters to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) said President Bush is invoking executive privilege and not allowing Taylor to testify, but reiterated that Taylor was available for a private, off the record interview.
Business career
In 2008, Fagen founded a media firm, BlueFront Strategies, as a strategic consulting and public affairs company to focus on issue advocacy and solutions for business. In mid-2009, Fagen co-founded, with public affairs veteran John Brady, the company Resonate Networks, an advertising firm that uses data on political leanings and attitudes to help companies and interest groups sell online ads.
Fagen became a partner at DDC Advocacy in 2011 after the company acquired Bluefront Strategies. Fagen also sits on the board of CentraForce. Fagen's commentary appears on CNBC, where she is regular contributor.
Deep Root Analytics
In 2013, Fagen and TargetPoint Consulting partners founded Deep Root Analytics, a media analytics company that helps clients use big data to make ad buying decisions. They aim to improve microtargeting by providing better web-enabled media targeting. In June 2017 cyber risk analyst Chris Vickery discovered Deep Root's data on an unsecure Amazon server, which exposed political data on more than 198 million American citizens. Sources of the data included American Crossroads, the Kantar Group and r/FatPeopleHate, among other subreddits.