Lobbying world

The Network Branded Prepaid Card Association has named Doug Bower as executive director and president, effective Aug. 5. He comes from BlueYield, an auto lending exchange, where he served as the executive vice president of business development. He has also served in senior roles at AAA, Advanta Corp., MBNA Corp. and CIGNA, a global health insurance company. 

The public affairs and lobby firm Venn Strategies has made three additions to its staff. Jessica Layson has become an assistant vice president, and previously worked as the director of congressional and political activity at the American Academy of Physician Assistants and for Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.). The firm also hired Dustin Haygood as an associate and Lizzie Bowlin as an operations associate. The firm promoted Lindsay Punzenberger, who has been with the firm since 2011, to senior vice president, and promoted Alex Ford, a former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) staffer, to senior associate. 

{mosads} Kyle Kizzier, a former lobbyist at Navigators Global, has joined the office of Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), where he previously served as the lawmaker’s staff assistant, according to LegiStorm. Kizzier will work as Rogers’s legislative director after spending seven years lobbying, most recently for Alliant Techsystems, TracFone Wireless, Intuit, the United Parcel Service and others. He also served within the U.S. Department of Agriculture and on the reelection campaign of former President George W. Bush. 

Stuart Butler, a distinguished fellow and director of Heritage Foundation’s Center for Policy Innovation, will become a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s economic studies program, according to a farewell email. He had been with the conservative think tank for more than 30 years. In addition to his work at Brookings, Butler will also become a visiting fellow at the Convergence Center for Policy Resolution, a nonprofit that works to solve policy problems. He begins Sept. 3.

Neal Urwitz was named the director of external relations at the Center for a New American Security. Before that, he worked at PR firm Levick and at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.