Gibson Dunn partnership elects Barbara Becker as chair and managing partner, effective May 1 and succeeding Ken Doran, who remains a partner; Becker will leave post of co-chair, Mergers and Acquisitions Practice and has represented News Corp., VMware and others ... Precision hires David Plouffe, ex-Uber and who helped start Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, as of counsel ... Colorado Governor’s Office of Information Technology appoints Antonio Martinez, ex-U.S. State Department, as executive director, Colorado Broadband Office.
Twitter hires Neema Guliani from American Civil Liberties Union as head-national security, democracy and civil rights public policy, Americas, and Elizabeth Busby, ex-aide to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., for policy communications team, focused on U.S. public policy, safety policy and elections ... TechNet names Sacramento economic development and public affairs consultant Lia Nitake as deputy executive director-California and Southwest.
BakerHostetler hires broadcast lawyer Daniel Kirkpatrick from Fletcher Heald as partner, and broadcast, inmate calling service and broadband attorney Davina Sashkin as counsel; Fletcher Heald partner Tony Lee replaces Kirkpatrick as that firm's co-managing partner ... Microsoft hires C.J. Mahoney from Office of U.S. Trade Representative as deputy general counsel-U.S. international trade and Azure cloud computing service.
ACA Connects promotes John Higginbotham to executive vice president-chief operating officer, Caroline Persinger to manager-grassroots, and Tomeika Slappy to assistant to President-CEO Matt Polka ... Jenner & Block advances partner Rebekah Goodheart to co-chair, Communications, Internet and Technology Practice ... Latham & Watkins hires ex-FTC Competition Bureau Director Ian Conner as partner, Litigation and Trial Department and member, Antitrust and Competition Practice.
Department of Commerce leadership (see this section, Jan. 27) expands to include Deputy Director, Office of Policy and Strategic Planning Nell Abernathy; White House Liaison Cynthia Aragon; Counselor to the Secretary Matthew Bucci; Director-Public Affairs Gabriela Castillo; Director-Oversight, Office of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Rachit Choksi; Deputy Assistant Secretary-Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Christopher Day; Senior Adviser-Upskilling and Broadband Kevin Gallagher; Deputy White House Liaison Calynn Jenkins; Deputy Chiefs of Staff Luis Jimenez and Kim Peyser; Director-Intergovernmental Affairs Stephanie Sykes; and Deputy Director-Public Affairs and Director-Digital Strategy and Engagement Bradley Williams; at Bureau of Industry and Security, Chief of Staff Steven Emme and Senior Adviser Sahar Hafeez; at International Trade Administration, Deputy Assistant Secretary-Services Christopher Hoff; and at NOAA, Chief of Staff Karen Hyun; Senior Adviser Letise LaFeir and General Counsel Walker Smith.
Jon Sallet, special assistant to Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser (D), registers William Cavanaugh, Patterson Belknap senior litigation partner, with U.S. District Court in Washington to represent Colorado and Nebraska in their case against Google; Cavanaugh becomes co-lead counsel with Sallet and lead trial counsel for the state attorneys general lawsuit, Weiser's spokesperson tells us ... Jenner & Block hires from Boeing Paul Alp, rejoining law firm as partner, Aviation and Aerospace Practice and advising on aircraft communications and other issues.
Electronic Privacy Information Center board advances interim Executive Director Alan Butler to executive director ... TechNet taps Steve Kidera from CompTIA as director-communications and Evan Gillissie from Brownstein Hyatt as government relations and communications coordinator ... Computer & Communications Industry Association adds ex-State Department Deputy Chief Economist Trevor Wagener as director-research and economics and Alyssa Doom, ex-Pew Charitable Trusts, as state policy director.
Disney advances Susan Fox to senior vice president-government relations, succeeding the late Richard Bates (see here) ... Ex-Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., helps start Alpine Advisors that's a partnership between him and Alpine Group; Walden is chairman of the new "policy and strategic advisory firm" that has clients including in tech and telecom ... Department of Agriculture adds Lynn Overmann, ex-Opportunity Insights, as senior adviser-data and tech, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration.
At SAIC, John Bonsell, ex-Senate Armed Services Committee majority staff director, rejoins company as senior vice president-government affairs, succeeding Senior Vice President Tom Eldridge, retiring April 30 ... Rockwell Automation names CBRE’s Bobby Griffin vice president-human resources and chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer, newly created role ... Comcast's FreeWheel promotes Yuling Ma to chief technology officer, succeeding Diane Yu, co-founder and CTO who was hired by Better.com.
Fortinet hires Hugh Carroll, ex-Sprint, as head-government affairs ... Hogan Lovells adds lawyer-lobbyist Cybil Roehrenbeck, ex-Polsinelli telehealth practice leader, as partner in Government Relations and Public Affairs practice, working on telehealth and artificial intelligence .... Ballard Spahr hires Ricardo Jackman, ex-Shulman Rogers, as of counsel-media and entertainment law ... CableLabs' Rachel Beisel, senior vice president-chief marketing officer, leaves "to pursue personal interests"; Director of Communications Ann Finnie is acting CMO.