Lobbying World

By The Hill Staff - 12/13/11 08:11 PM ET

• Former Rep. Tim Roemer (D-Ind.) has joined APCO Worldwide as senior vice president and senior counselor. Roemer previously served as U.S. ambassador to India. Before that, he was a member of the House for 12 years. He served on the 9/11 Commission and as president of the Center for National Policy.

• Viveca Novak has joined the Center for Responsive Politics as editorial and communications director. Novak reported for FactCheck.org from 2006 until early 2011. Before that, she was a reporter for publications such as Common Cause magazine, The Wall Street Journal and Time.

• Williams Mullen has hired Charles “Chip” Nottingham as a partner and part of the firm’s federal government affairs group. Nottingham has served in several transportation-related positions, including as chairman, CEO, commissioner and vice chairman of the Surface Transportation Board. He has also worked for the Federal Highway Administration as associate administrator for policy and governmental affairs and as counsel for the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

• Stephen Payne is now a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, focusing on Food and Drug Administration and healthcare issues. Payne left Sidley Austin, where he had worked since 2000, most recently as a partner. Before that, he worked for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps as senior trial counsel and as a special assistant U.S. attorney in the Middle District of Georgia.

• The company formerly known as Blackwater and then Xe Services has changed its name to ACADEMI. The group was acquired by USTC Holdings in December 2010 and has since acquired a new board of directors and new senior leadership. The company is also now centered in Arlington County, Va. ACADEMI provides international “training and technical services focused on counterterrorism, force protection, law enforcement and security operation.”

• Natalie Thorpe Muñoz is joining SKDKnickerbocker as a senior associate. Muñoz comes from Capitol Hill, where she was most recently press secretary for the New Democrat Coalition. She also worked in the office of former Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez (D-Texas) and on the 2008 Obama presidential campaign.