Lobbying World: NCAA scores new government relations director

The NCAA has a new director of government relations: Kevin McColaugh, former director of federal relations at Northeastern University. McColaugh was also previously deputy chief of staff for federal affairs to former Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R), current NCAA president.

FGS Global tapped Josh Tzuker as head of antitrust and competition. He was most recently chief of staff and senior counsel for the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.

Nicole Petrosino has joined MetLife as vice president of U.S. government relations. She was most recently senior vice president for government relations at LPL Financial, and she previously worked in government relations at Mastercard and TIAA-CREF. Petrosino also previously worked for the George W. Bush administration as a director in the White House Office of Legislative Affairs and as a legislative assistant in the Office of Management and Budget.

Kilpatrick Townsend has added Keval Patel as a government relations adviser in the firm’s Washington, D.C., office. Patel most recently served as a government and public affairs specialist at Cox Communications and previously served as a finance director for Sen. Raphael Warnock’s (D-Ga.) campaign.

FleishmanHillard has hired Evan Keller as vice president of corporate reputation, Shelby Powers as account supervisor for public affairs and Caroline Bryant as senior account executive of corporate reputation.

Keller was previously press secretary for Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and is an Avoq alum. Powers returns to FleishmanHillard after a stint at the consumer cybersecurity startup Aura. Bryant previously worked as senior campaign executive at the public relations agency Team LEWIS.

Terry Grafenstine, the former inspector general of the House of Representatives, is the new chair of the global board of directors for the Institute of Internal Auditors. In addition to her role as chair, she serves as the chief audit executive for the Pentagon Federal Credit Union. 

The Economic Speakers Bureau, a network of national economic policy experts and former Biden administration officials, announced Christina Carr will be its director. Carr was most recently communications director at the Joint Economic Committee, and she previously worked as the press secretary for the Small Business Administration under President Biden and as Rep. Ruben Gallego’s (D-Ariz.) communications director.

The bureau is an initiative of the Groundwork Collaborative, which named Mike Webb as its deputy director and chief of communication. Webb most recently served as the senior vice president for media and marketing at the News Literacy Project and is a ProPublica, The Nation and Honolulu Civil Beat alum.

Signal Group has hired Erika Bellido-Jin as vice president of operations and promoted Madeleine Russak to senior vice president and Jackson Parker to senior associate.