Bottom Line

• Michael Dunn has joined Patton Boggs to be a senior policy adviser for the firm. Dunn has served as commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). He has held the position of chairman and designated federal official of the CFTC’s Agricultural Advisory Committee and served as director of the Farm Credit Administration’s Office of Policy and Analysis.

• The American Bankers Association has promoted James Ballentine to executive vice president of congressional relations and political affairs. Ballentine has also served as senior vice president of the ABA’s grassroots and political operations. Before joining the association, he worked for the U.S. Small Business Administration as an associate deputy administrator. He also worked on Capitol Hill as chief of staff and legislative director to former Rep. Albert Wynn (D-Md.) and as legislative director to former Rep. Frank Horton (R-N.Y.).

{mosads}• Michael McGarry has come to the Cruise Lines International Association to be senior vice president of public affairs. McGarry most recently worked for R2M Solutions, “a risk and reputation management firm he founded,” as managing partner. Before that, he worked with Royal Dutch Shell, Visa, MasterCard and KPMG.

• Ilene Ringel Heller has joined Venable as of counsel in the firm’s food and drug law practice. Heller comes from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, where she was the associate director of legal affairs. Before that, she served as an associate at both Arnold & Porter and Keller and Heckman.

• Reinsurance Group of America has hired Kim Welsh to be vice president and assistant general counsel in the group’s new Washington office. Welsh joins from the Reinsurance Association of America, where she served as assistant general counsel and vice president.

• J.P. Fielder will join Philip Morris International in Switzerland to be a part of the global regulatory communications division. Fielder leaves the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he has worked since April 2008, ending his career there as senior director of communications. Before that, he worked at the National Association of Manufacturers as senior director of media relations and director of media relations.