Dale Oak, staff director at the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, and principal adviser to subcommittee Chairman José Serrano, D-N.Y., is leaving the Hill and will soon join the Podesta Group as a principal. The Podesta Group says Oak "will provide strategic counsel to the firm's financial services and appropriations sectors." 

"We are experiencing an expansion period," says Missi Tessier of the Podesta Group, a DC-based government relations and public affairs firm. She adds that the firm's lobbying business grew by about 40 percent from 2007 to 2008. The group also recently announced that Israel Klein, former deputy staff director for communications at the Joint Economic Committee chaired by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., would be joining the group as a principal this month. Tessier says several more announcements of staff additions are expected in the coming weeks. 

                                                                                                                -- Winter Casey