Lobbying World

• Michael W. Johnson will become the president and chief executive of the National Stone, Sand and Gravel Association on Aug. 1. He currently serves as the executive vice president and chief advocacy officer at the National Beer Wholesalers Association, where he has worked since 2006. Johnson also worked for the National Association of Home Builders and Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America.

• Former Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) joined the International Advisory Board at FleishmanHillard, where she will serve in conjunction with her post as senior counsel at Bracewell & Giuliani. After her retirement from the Senate in 2012, Hutchison took on roles at Bank of America’s Global Advisory Council, the Center for Strategic and International Studies Advisory Council and the Campaign to Fix the Debt’s Congressional Fiscal Leadership Council.

{mosads}• Capitol Counsel has named Jeff Walter a partner. He comes from a firm with his namesake, the Walter Group, which he founded in 2001. He has also worked at several other lobby firms in Washington. Before the foray into the private sector, he was a campaign consultant for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, a staffer for former Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) and a fundraiser for former Sen. Connie Mack (R-Fla.).

• LaTara Harris has joined AT&T as its regional director of external affairs in the mid-Atlantic, focusing on local legislation and regulations in Maryland, Washington and northern Virginia. Before that, she worked for more than a decade at the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education.

• The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has hired Will Villota to serve as its chief marketing officer, planning media relations and strategic communications. Prior to that, he worked at Clean Energy Works Oregon and Bonneville Environmental Foundation. He’s also held marketing posts at Yahoo! and Adidas. 

• Blue Star Strategies brought on Jesica Dobbins Lindgren to become a general counsel to the strategic consulting firm. Before that, she worked for ResCare, a human resources company, where she served as a director and senior vice president. Lindgren worked for nearly 10 years at the International Labor Organization, an office within the United States based in Switzerland.