Chris Wahl’s first public relations client was an oil company that literally destroyed Avila Beach with a 400,000-gallon oil spill and then spent millions of dollars in the 1990s cleaning and helping to rebuild the town.

The company was Unocal, which was blamed for the decades-long seepage of oil from pipelines beneath the town. Wahl had formed his own PR company in San Luis Obispo after graduating from UCLA and helped form the company’s response to the crisis. Although Unocal was often criticized, it eventually won praise for its efforts. “The town has been rebuilt,” says Wahl. “This was a model of good corporate responsibility.”

Five years ago, Wahl formed Southwest Strategies LLC in San Diego with Alan Ziegaus, his father-in-law, and veteran publicist Bernie Rhinerson. The public affairs and public relations firm has grown into a 20-member staff with a long list of corporate, civic and government clients.

“The favorite part of my job is helping my clients develop strategies to achieve their goals,” says Wahl.

Although Wahl, 35, has worked on a variety of political campaigns for candidates during his career, Southwest Strategies doesn’t get involved in candidate work. Instead, it focuses on political issues. It is developing the framework for a land use ballot measure campaign in Northern California.

Wahl’s appetite for public affairs developed from a week-long trip he took at age 12 to Washington, D.C. with his father, a lawyer working for the banking industry, during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. “I’ve been fascinated ever since,” he says.

Wahl is a volunteer with several community organizations but much of his time these days is spent with wife, Jennifer, an attorney who works part-time at Southwest Strategies whom he first met at UCLA, and their twin sons Lucas and Tyler, 15 months. “They were a big surprise,” he says, “bigger than anything that ever happened in our lives.”