It's been musical chairs in the government affairs office of The Information Technology Industry Council. Josh Ackil, the lead Democratic lobbyist, left ITI more than a year ago to start his own lobbying shop, the Franklin Square Group. Others to leave ITI in the past year include Jonathan Hoganson and Brian Peters. Now Kara Calvert, a Republican, is the latest ITI lobbyist to jump ship. She has joined Ackil at Franklin Square.
Long time Republican lobbyist Ralph Hellmann, ITI's senior vice president of government relations, says he is "in the process of interviewing a lot of great candidates" and plans to fill the positions formerly held by Hoganson and Calvert and to bring his staff up to five full time lobbyists. Hellmann views the turnover "as a positive development," he says, because "we have kind of become a great proving ground for good lobbyists who go on to our companies. In the end the companies and some of these [lobbying] firms just have more money and more resources and that is something that is hard to compete with from an association perspective."
Hellmann notes that ITI has "lost 12 lobbyists over the past 5 or 6 years but to our member companies and they are great because when they get to their companies they are big advocates of ITI and of the broader tech agenda." The result is, ITI just has a "bigger family," says Hellmann. "Franklin Square is almost like an adjunct office of ITI," Hellman adds jokingly.
-- Winter Casey
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