Lobbying World

•Concerned Veterans for America hired Bill Turenne Jr., a senior George W. Bush administration official and former public relations specialist at Burson-Marsteller, as its director of communications. He will help the organization “advance policies to preserve freedom and build upon the recent momentum in renewing accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

•A former senior official in the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which levies sanctions, has joined the law firm Allen & Overy. Maura Rezendes has become a senior counsel in the firm’s Washington office, joining its global economic sanctions practice. She served within OFAC’s office of enforcement and will now be giving advice to corporations or financial institutions under sanctions.

{mosads}•The North American Millers’ Association, a trade group for companies that mill grains such as corn, oats, wheat and rye, hired former Capitol Hill staffer Benjamin Boroughs. He has become the director of regulatory and technical affairs. Before that, he served as an aide to Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), who serves on a Senate Agriculture panel.  He also has experience at the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers and the Biotechnology Industry Organization.

•Jeannine Bender is the Medicaid Health Plans of America’s (MHPA) newest lobbyist. Before that, she worked at the consulting arm of drug wholesaler AmerisourceBergen. She also has experience in the government affairs and public policy offices of some of the most prominent pharmaceutical companies, including Otsuka, Merck, Roche, and Cephalon. 

•Gilead Sciences hired David Pulliam, a health policy aide to Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.), as a manager of government affairs. He worked for the Georgia lawmaker for about two years. Prior to that, he worked in the office of Rep. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), starting as an intern and rising to legislative correspondent. 

•Sebastian Vos has joined Covington & Burling, where he will lead the European division of the firm’s global public policy and government affairs practice. Though he will be based in Covington’s Brussels office, the firm says he will partner with the global firm’s Washington office, which includes former Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.). Vos will concentrate his practice on public policy involving emerging technologies and services.