Prior to founding Metropolitan Public Strategies, Neal was Chief of Staff to New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman from 2011-2013. In his capacity as Chief of Staff, Neal managed and directed the overall strategic direction of the office, as well as oversaw its day-to-day operations. While at the office, Neal was responsible for pursuing mortgage fraud by the nation’s largest financial institutions in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, and was the architect around the comprehensive campaign that the AG's office waged alongside the legal efforts to hold Wall Street firms accountable. In 2012, Kwatra helped the AG successfully pass a statewide measure called the Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP), which was designed to help stem the tide of prescription drug abuse by creating a system to electronically monitor drug prescriptions. Later that year, he was responsible for seeing through an overhaul of the state’s not-for-profit campaign finance regulations, putting New York’s AG at the forefront of the nation’s debate over dark money in the political system. Before his work for the AG, Neal was the Director of Political and Strategic Affairs at the New York Hotel Trades Council, the largest local union of hotel employees in the nation. Between 2008 and 2011, Neal helped turn HTC's 30,000 members into a political force. Neal and HTC oversaw all opposition research and coordinated the political operation that helped Democrats capture a majority in the New York State Senate for the first time in nearly four decades. In 2009, Neal and HTC coordinated the campaigns for 22 New York City council candidates and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and in 2010, he and the Union played a key role in the campaigns of New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Comptroller Tom Dinapoli, and Governor Andrew Cuomo. The union, which had previously not had an internal political operation, became a New York political heavyweight known for its members' effective campaign volunteer work and its staff's organizing and political research skills. Prior to his work at HTC, Neal served as the Deputy Director of Strategic Affairs for UNITE HERE, the national hotel worker’s union, where he founded and led the union’s new hotel development program. This program was the single most successful program for organizing new workers into the union in UNITE HERE’s history. Neal’s inaugural efforts with MPS include successful campaigns for Brooklyn District Attorney, the Vote Yes on Proposal 1 campaign to expand commercial gaming in New York State, and the New Haven, CT mayoral race. In each of these cases, Neal and the MPS team strategized and implemented road maps to victory against steep odds. In Brooklyn, Ken Thompson was a first-time candidate facing a 23-year incumbent. Thompson defeated the incumbent 55% to 44% in the primary and 75% to 25% in the general election, becoming the first person to unseat a sitting New York City District Attorney since 1955 and Brooklyn’s first African American DA. For Proposal 1, the public voted on a statewide ballot to allow the largest expansion of commercial gaming in New York State’s history. Proposal 1 was passed by a margin of 57% to 43%. In New Haven, though Toni Harp shared a crowded ballot with three other candidates, she still received 50% of the vote in the four-way race, becoming New Haven’s first female mayor. Kwatra was named to Crain’s New York Business “40 under forty” in 2012 and to City and State’s “Power 100” in 2014.