Lobbying World

• Richard George Feasey has become a senior international policy advisor within Wiley Rein’s telecom, media and technology group. Prior to that, he worked as the public policy director at Vodafone Group. Feasey also served as vice president at MCI Worldcom International. 

• Communications shop Fenton hired Ryan Cunningham and Eric Raymond as senior vice presidents in Washington, D.C., and San Francisco. Cunningham launched a firm called Cunningham Strategic Communications and previously co-created the energy and sustainability practice at the Glover Park Group. Raymond most recently managed global communications for energy and sustainability at Google and formerly worked at PR giant Edelman. Fenton is focused on social change and environmental policy issues. 

• Gadi Dechter, who served as a senior advisor at the White House National Economic Council and National Security Council in the Obama Administration, has been named the head of the public affairs practice at APCO Worldwide. Prior to that, he worked as deputy director of policy and strategic planning at the Commerce Department and as managing director of economic policy at the Center for American Progress.  

• Bill Hulse, formerly a policy aide at the Consumer Bankers Association, has become a legislative assistant for Rep. Randy Hultgren (R-Ill.) focusing on the lawmaker’s role on the Financial Services Committee.

• Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) has hired Kelly Misselwitz, a former lobbyist for the AFL-CIO, as a legislative assistant. Misselwitz most recently served as a legislative analyst and political coordinator at the AFL-CIO’s Transportation Trades Department. 

• Venn Strategies promoted three: Matt Pearce to vice president, Natascha Cumberlidge to assistant vice president and Chelsea Doubleday to associate. The firm also announced a pair of hires. Brian Beaty, who worked at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, will serve as a senior associate. Erica White, who formerly worked in the press shop of Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), joins the shop as an associate. 

• Akin Gump has hired Leslie Kiernan as a partner in its Washington, D.C., litigation practice. She most recently served in the State Department as a senior adviser to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, where she represented the United States in the 69th Session of the General Assembly. Prior to that, she worked as deputy assistant to the president and deputy White House counsel, counsel to the White House Council on Women and Girls and as counsel to the Office of the First Lady.