Lobbying World: Uber, Expedia alum joins Forbes Tate Partners

Colin Tooze is joining Forbes Tate Partners as a senior vice president in the firm’s state government relations practice. Tooze was most recently a principal at Skytree Advisory, and he previously managed government relations and public affairs efforts at Expedia, Uber and Pacaso. 

The firm also promoted Andrew Freedman to public affairs partner. Freedman is also executive director of the Coalition for Cannabis Policy, Education, and Regulation (CPEAR), which advocates for federal cannabis reform.

Signal Group hired Grace Dahl as senior director of analytics, Andrew Postal as senior manager, Alexa Velickovich as manager and Luke Pineda as an associate. Postal was previously press secretary for Rep. Julia Brownley (D-Calif.) and deputy communications director for the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its then-chair, former Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

The public affairs firm also promoted Will Burdulis and Ari Neugeboren to managers and Diana Rahmani to analyst.

Williams and Jensen added Alec Aramanda as a principal and member of the firm’s health care team. Aramanda most recently oversaw the Medicare portfolio of the House Energy & Commerce Committee Majority staff. His resume includes stints as director of legislation and director of stakeholder engagement for the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), deputy assistant secretary for health policy at the Department of Health and Human Services, and domestic policy adviser and deputy legislative director to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

BGR Group welcomed Raghav Aggarwal as a vice president with the firm’s health and life sciences practice. He was most recently a senior adviser at CMS and previously served as a senior health policy adviser to the Senate Finance Committee.

Quinting Lacewell joined Wells Fargo as senior government affairs specialist. Lacewell was most recently the senior associate director in Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Office of Federal and Regional Affairs.