Top Lobbyists 2017: Corporate

Cory Alexander, UnitedHealth Group Inc.

Alexander oversees government and public affairs for the nation’s largest health insurance payer, which largely withdrew from Affordable Care Act markets this year but continues to lead in the world of managed care.

Bryan Anderson, Southern Co.

Anderson, in his seventh year in Southern’s Washington office, is working to influence the Trump administration’s actions on energy regulations.

Sid Ashworth, Northrop Grumman Corp.

Ashworth — who will retire from Northrop at the end of the year — transformed the defense firm’s approach on Capitol Hill, securing support for several lucrative yet secretive nuclear modernization efforts, including the new B-21 bomber.

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Bill Barloon, Sprint Nextel Corp.

Barloon leads the Washington office for the fourth-largest wireless carrier, which is attempting a merger with T-Mobile.

Wayne Berman, Blackstone Group LP

The private equity firm counts on Berman, a long-time GOP insider, to stay in the mix on trade policy and tax reform.

Karan Bhatia, General Electric Co.

A former deputy U.S. trade representative in the George W. Bush administration, Bhatia has been with GE since 2008 but took control of its Washington office in April.

Abigail Blunt, The Kraft Heinz Co.

Blunt drew upon her Washington know-how to lobby for an exclusion of steel tariffs for canned food; she’s also been active on trade deals, sugar reform and labeling rules for unfiltered milk.

Stephen Brown, Andeavor 

Andeavor — known before this summer as Tesoro Corp. — scored a high-profile guest in September, when President Trump gave a major tax reform speech at one of the company’s refineries in North Dakota.

Maria Cino, Hewlett-Packard Co.

Cino has been at the controls of HP’s advocacy wing for five years, putting the company’s weight behind high-skilled immigration visas and free trade policies, among other things.

Peter Cleveland, Intel Corp.

Cleveland, who draws on his experience working for Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.)  and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, manages Intel’s policy portfolio, which includes promoting innovation in artificial intelligence.

Kenneth Cole, Pfizer

Cole and the Pfizer team are working to shape the future of trade and intellectual property worldwide, even as they battle back in Washington against accusations of unfair pricing.

Bob Filippone, Merck & Co. 

Filippone, once the top lobbyist for the drugmaker’s largest industry group, is working to ensure that a bill allowing terminally ill patients to try unapproved drugs doesn’t have unintended consequences.

Tucker Foote, Mastercard Inc.

Foote covers a lot of ground with the credit card company’s lobbying force. Beyond the Beltway, he also has a  hand in the global trade policies that remain a top concern for the company. 

Matt Gelman and Fred Humphries, Microsoft Corp.

Taxes and immigration top Microsoft’s biggest policy issues, but the company is also working on legislation that would require federal authorities to obtain a warrant before a company has to hand over a customer’s emails. 

Bruce Harris, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

Harris was promoted to vice president of government affairs less than a year ago, and is now responsible for leading all federal advocacy for the conglomerate, which spent nearly $7 million on lobbying in 2016. 

Robert Helm, General Dynamics Corp.

Helm, the chief lobbyist for contracting giant General Dynamics, is in pursuit of funding to build the Army’s updated Abrams tanks, the Army Stryker combat vehicle and the Navy’s Columbia-class submarines, among other projects.

Guy Hicks, Airbus Group

Hicks was on the frontlines as Airbus notched a major victory over rival Boeing and bought a majority stake in Bombardier’s C Series program.

Ed Hill, Bank of America Corp.

A veteran of the National Governors Association, Hill carries the banner for the second largest bank in the U.S. as lawmakers look to reduce Dodd-Frank’s banking rules and revamp the tax code.

Brian Huseman, Amazon

In Huseman’s second year as head of public policy, the e-commerce giant won quick federal approval for the acquisition of Whole Foods — a key victory for a company that increasingly holds sway in Washington.

Alethia Jackson, Walgreens

Jackson, the manager of the store’s federal advocacy, triumphed in a two-year lobbying battle when regulators accepted a $4.4 billion deal for Walgreens to buy nearly 2,000 Rite Aid stores.

Joel Kaplan, Facebook Inc.

A former deputy chief of staff for George W. Bush, Kaplan brings Washington savvy to the social media giant’s growing public policy practice.

Timothy Keating, Boeing Co.

As head of government operations for the world’s largest aerospace company, Keating holds considerable clout; the company’s advocacy work this year included negotiations on a new presidential aircraft fleet.

Kent Knutson, The Home Depot Inc. 

A jack of many trades, Knutson is keeping a close eye on corporate tax reform, the trade agenda, duties on softwood lumber, steel and aluminum, as well as labor rules and port improvements.

Laura Lane and Dontai Smalls, UPS

This dynamic duo has been fighting to protect air cargo interests in an air traffic control reform bill, beating back against amendments that would make cargo plane pilots subject to the same standards as passenger plane pilots.

Melissa Lavinson, PG&E Corp.

Like its home state of California, PG&E has embraced environmental causes, leading the utility to advocate for technologies like solar power and electric vehicles.

Chris Leahy, Bayer Corp.

The drug and agricultural company is counting on Leahy as it deals with drug pricing, intellectual property provisions in trade deals and a proposed mega-merger with the seed-maker Monsanto.

Melissa Maxfield, Comcast Corp.

Before joining Comcast in 2003, Maxfield spent more than a decade in Democratic Party politics; now she’s poised to use her experience to help the company notch wins on issues like tax reform and net neutrality. 

Tim McKone, AT&T Inc.

McKone is a steady hand at the wheel of AT&T’s policy shop; lobbyists there have been pushing back on net neutrality rules that telecom companies warn would stifle investment while working on a merger with Time Warner.

Jeanne Mitchell, Exxon Mobil Corp.

As the United States’ biggest oil and natural gas company, Exxon can move the needle on issues like climate change, drilling regulations and tax policy, and Mitchell has more than three decades in its lobby shop.

Susan Molinari, Google Inc.

A former New York congresswoman, Molinari knows the ins and outs of Capitol Hill, advocating for Google on issues like privacy, data security and the regulation of content and advertising online.

Christopher Myers, Caterpillar

Myers keeps the gears turning on Caterpillar’s lobbying machine, balancing a federal and international portfolio that covers issues such as infrastructure, tax reform and trade.

Sarah Novascone, The Travelers Companies Inc.

Novascone was at the forefront of the effort to fix the National Flood Insurance Program after a string of devastating hurricanes struck the United States.

Ziad Ojakli, Ford Motor Co.

Ford’s veteran lobbyist steered the automaker back onto smooth terrain after it took criticism from President Trump for planned investments in Mexico.

 
Chris Padilla, IBM

A former top trade official in the George W. Bush administration, Padilla is overseeing IBM’s push for a pro-tech trade agenda.

  
Michael Paese, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

With Goldman alumni leading the Treasury Department and National Economic Council, Paese’s bank is well positioned to shape changes to Dodd-Frank.

Dean Pappas and Steve English, Nationwide Mutual Insurance 

Pappas and English roam widely across the policy landscape, having recently tackled the tax treatment of life insurance and retirement plans, the Labor Department’s fiduciary rule, and patent and tax reform. 

Adam Peterman and Marie Sylla-Dixon, T-Mobile

Peterman and Sylla-Dixon bring years of Capitol Hill and telecom policy experience to the wireless provider, which is on pace to break its lobbying spending record for the fifth year in a row. 

Robert Rangel, Lockheed Martin Corp.

Rangel oversees the powerhouse defense contractor’s lobbying on projects such as the F-35 fighter jet program, a project that won favor with President Trump after a rocky start.

Issac Reyes, Target Corp.

Reyes, a former Democratic aide recently promoted to vice president of government affairs, helped defeat an effort to repeal the caps on fees banks charge on debit transactions.

Joseph Seidel, Credit Suisse Group AG

Seidel is speaking out for the international financial services company as Washington grapples with the rapid change taking place in global investment and trading markets.

Jonathan Weisgall, Berkshire Hathaway Energy Co.

Weisgall has a loaded agenda this year thanks to movement on numerous fronts that are important to electric utilities, a core part of Berkshire’s energy portfolio.

Candi Wolff and John Emling, Citigroup Inc.

Wolff and Emling are advocates to watch as lawmakers debate how the federal government regulates banks and emerging financial technology products, data security issues and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s arbitration rule. 

Read more from The Hill:

Top Lobbyists 2017: Hired Guns

Top Lobbyists 2017: Associations

Top Lobbyists 2017: Grass roots