• Former White House press secretary Dana Perino has joined Burson-Marsteller as chief issues counselor. Perino was President George W. Bush’s press secretary from 2007 to 2009 and had served in the White House press office since 2005. She previously was director of communications for the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She also was a spokeswoman for the Justice Department.
• Hill & Knowlton has announced several new hires. Stacie Paxton, most recently the national press secretary for the Democratic National Committee, has been named vice president of strategic media at the firm. Former political reporter and editor Terry Neal has been named the firm’s new senior vice president and director of strategic media. He comes to the firm from the Caraway Group. Chris Hull, former president of Issue Management, and Antoinette Forbes, a senior vice president for Porter Novelli, have also joined the firm as a senior vice presidents. Separately, Hill & Knowlton announced that Steven Immergut will direct the firm’s healthcare practice. He most recently worked in its New York office.
{mosads}•Michael Fratantoni has been named by the Mortgage Bankers Association as its new vice president of single family research and policy development. Fratantoni joins the trade association from Washington Mutual, where he was an economic strategist. He also was director of economic and policy research at Fannie Mae.
•Jonathan Kurrle is the new vice president of government affairs and public policy for the Society of the Plastics Industry. Kurrle comes to the trade group from the Association for Manufacturing Technology. He also served as a legislative assistant to former Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) from 1990 to 1994.
• Thomas A. Russo has joined Patton Boggs. He will be senior counsel in its New York City office. Russo was vice chairman of Lehman Brothers and chief legal officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings.
•Pete Lawson is Ford Motor Co.’s new vice president of government relations. Lawson, who is a Democrat, replaces Bruce Andrews, another Democrat, who returned to Capitol Hill to take a job as counsel on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee under Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). Lawson was vice president of congressional and public affairs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining Ford. Previously, Lawson was senior counsel to Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.).