Lobbying World

• Brian Johnson, deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, will join Alston & Bird as a partner in March.

• Brad Close was named president of the National Federation of Independent Business, the small-business advocacy group. He has been acting president since December when former President Juanita Duggan left the organization. Close was previously senior vice president for public policy.

• The Raben Group hired Brandi Colander, former deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department under former President Obama, as a principal. Colander most recently was head of external relations and diversity and inclusion for Charter Communications and before that was associate vice president of the National Wildlife Federation. Jessica McCall, a former White House and Department of Health and Human Services aide under Obama, was also hired as a principal. Most recently, McCall was vice president of marketing and external affairs at Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. 

• Kountoupes Denham Carr & Reid named Adam Hechavarria as a principal. He was legislative director to Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) for more than three years and before that was legislative director to ex-Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) for more than six years. 

• Better Markets announced that Ed Silverman, a policy consultant at TD Bank, will be a senior fellow. He was previously head of government relations for TD Bank, as well as a staff director of the Senate Banking Committee, managing director of RBS Americas, and chief of staff to ex-Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.). 

• Scott Riplinger, former legislative director for Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), is now a partner at CGCN Group. Alex Renjel, former aide to Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), was also named vice president.  

• David Clunie was named executive director of the Black Economic Alliance, a nonpartisan group of business leaders. He most recently was managing director of senior corporate responsibility engagement at JPMorgan Chase and before that was an aide to former President Obama and Treasury Secretary Jack Lew.