Lobbying World: Watchdog welcomes key member of Biden’s National Economic Council

Bharat Ramamurti is joining the American Economic Liberties Project as senior advisor for economic strategy. He was most recently deputy director of President Biden’s National Economic Council and was previously senior counsel to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“Bharat is one of the key architects of the Biden administration’s competition agenda, where he helped drive the President’s whole-of-government approach to tackling corporate concentration across the economy,” said Faiz Shakir, interim executive director of the American Economic Liberties Project, in a statement.

Virginia Kase Solomón will be the next president and CEO of Common Cause. Currently CEO of the League of Women Voters, she will start her new role in February and will be the first Hispanic person to lead the democratic watchdog. She succeeds Karen Hobert Flynn, who passed away this spring after three decades with the organization.

Squire Patton Boggs has hired Darien Flowers as a principal with the firm’s global public policy practice. Flowers’ resume includes stints as deputy policy director on the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee and senior advisor to the undersecretary for policy at the Department of Transportation.

The American Petroleum Institute named Mason Hamilton as vice president of economics and research. Hamilton was most recently at the International Energy Forum, where he was the special assistant to the secretary general. He was previously a senior advisor in the Office of Oil and Natural Gas at the Department of Energy and a lead petroleum market analyst for the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

AeroVironment has hired Paul “Church” Hutton as vice president for government relations. Hutton previously led government relations for Mercury Systems and was a staffer on the Senate Armed Services and Appropriations committees

Katrina Bishop joined the American Seed Trade Association as senior director of strategic communications. She was most recently the public affairs director at the Association of Equipment Manufacturers and was previously press secretary and communications director for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.).

Adam Broder joined the Federation of American Hospitals as senior vice president of external affairs. He was previously managing director at FTI Consulting and is a Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) alum.

Bully Pulpit Interactive (BPI), the public affairs firm founded by former Obama campaign leaders and sporting close ties to the Biden administration, has acquired the European consultancy firm BOLDT. The firm will rebrand as Bully Pulpit International, expanding the team to 250 people across six countries following its first international acquisition.