Lobbying World

Chartwell Strategy Group launched this week, becoming one of K Street’s newest firms. Filled with bipartisan operatives, and led by Matt Epperly, Oswaldo Palomo and David Tamasi, it will focus on both strategic communications and lobbying campaigns. Epperly comes from the Harbour Group, Palomo most recently worked at a firm he founded in 2016, and Tamasi formerly worked at Rasky Partners and served as the Washington finance chairman for the Trump campaign. The firm will have offices in Washington, New York and Boston. 

Cristina Antelo formed a firm called Ferox Strategies. She left the Podesta Group last year — the firm once helmed by Tony Podesta, who stepped down, and chief executive Kimberley Fritts, who left to create her own firm — and partnered with Democratic operative Manny Ortiz at his firm, VantageKnight. Now, she’s striking out on her own.

{mosads}Dykema, a national law firm celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, has named Eric Fingerhut as the managing member of its Washington, D.C., office. He already serves in Dykema’s intellectual property practice. 

Paige Thoman has joined G2G Consulting as a government relations manager. She previously worked on Capitol Hill as a legislative assistant to Rep. Ann Wagner (R-Mo.).

Kathleen Coulombe joined American Council of Life Insurers’s (ACLI) federal relations department as a vice president. She’ll focus on retirement security issues, according to the industry group. Before that, she worked as a senior adviser for government relations at the Society for Human Resource Management and previously worked at the Defense Department and for former Nevada Republican Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Venable hired Josh Finestone to serve as a senior policy adviser in its legislative and government affairs practice. He spent more than a decade on Capitol Hill, working for Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) and former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). Finestone comes from the firm Navigators Global, where he served as a vice president of legislative affairs.