Lobbying Hires

• Christine Sequenzia Titus has joined the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists as government affairs manager. She previously worked as a federal policy adviser/lobbyist for the Animal Welfare Institute, an administrator at HM Capital Partners and a business markets group administrator at Level 3 Communications. Before that she worked for Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) as a legislative assistant and for the House Energy and Commerce Committee as a staff assistant.

• High Lantern Group has hired Austin Tuell, Jeremy Button, Contessa Kellogg and Jonathan Beker. Tuell will be an associate director of the firm, leaving the office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.). Button, who joins as a director, comes from the Heinz Family Foundation. Kellogg has served as a communications director, floor assistant and Democratic chief deputy whip and will be a director. Beker will be an associate director for the firm. He is a former Senate trade and foreign policy staffer and has held senior communications roles in the Israeli Ministries of Justice and Transportation.

• Lawrence Norton has moved to Venable to be a partner and co-chairman of the political law practice group. Norton leaves Womble Carlyle’s Washington office. He previously served the Federal Election Commission as general counsel from 2001 to 2007. He also has served at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement as associate director and at the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection as assistant director. 

• Pat Bousliman is joining Elmendorf-Ryan. Bousliman recently worked for Holland and Knight, where he was a senior policy adviser in the firm’s government section. He also has experience serving on the Senate Finance Committee. Bousliman was a staff member on the committee for more than 10 years, including a stint as lead staffer for energy, transportation and excise taxes under Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

• Robert Weiner is returning to Arnold and Porter to be a partner. Weiner leaves the Justice Department, where he was associate deputy attorney general. He served as the firm’s litigation and business litigation practice leader before he moved to the Justice Department. Weiner also previously worked for the White House Counsel’s Office as senior counsel under former President Clinton.

• Ronald Eckstein has come to Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications to be an associate vice president. Eckstein leaves the office of Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) where he was a press secretary. Before that, he worked for then-Senate Majority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) as a speechwriter and for Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) as communications director. He has also worked for Benenson Strategy Group and Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. 

• Former Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.) is returning to Shaheen & Gordon as of counsel.

• Bill Thorne will become the National Retail Federation’s senior vice president of communications and public affairs on June 1. 

• George Wu has joined the VENG Group to be managing partner of the group’s Los Angeles office, which is scheduled to open this spring. Wu leaves the Organization of Chinese Americans, where he served as executive director. He also has experience working for the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans as chairman.

• Eileen Marcus and David Wade are joining ASGK Public Strategies as managing director and principal, respectively. 

• Gregory Keeley has moved to TechAmerica to be the vice president of defense and homeland security policy. Keeley returned from Afghanistan last month after serving as a Reserve officer with the Navy Expeditionary Combat Command. He has worked for Monument Capital Group, served as president of the Senate Press Secretaries Association and worked for Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) as communications director. 

•Gregory Mastel has moved to Kelley Drye & Warren to be the director of government relations. Mastel most recently worked for Dutko Grayling as managing director. Before that, he worked on Capitol Hill for the Senate Finance Committee as chief international trade adviser and economist and served in a variety of roles for Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), including chief of staff.

• Ali Harden and Kristen Hawn have started the public affairs firm Granite Integrated Strategies. Hawn previously worked for the Blue Dog Coalition as communications director. Before that, she was a Fleishman-Hillard staffer. Harden served on the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush and in the White House under then-first lady Laura Bush.

• Holly Fechner has been named a co-chairwoman of Covington & Burling’s government-affairs practice. Fechner has previous experience serving under the late Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) as policy director. She also worked for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee as chief labor and pensions counsel during her eight years on Capitol Hill.

• ENERGY. DS2 Group has been hired by Entergy Corp. to “advocate on behalf of nuclear power, clean air and cybersecurity issues,” according to lobbying disclosure records.