Brian Hughes has been hired as a staff member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. He was a speechwriter for the Romney-Ryan campaign. Hughes previously worked on the committee. He also was a speechwriter for former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Kate Williams has been hired as a staff member on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. She was a regulatory affairs representative at the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Williams also has worked as a lawyer at Anchorage firm Birch, Horton, Bittner, Cherot. She was legislative director and chief counsel to former Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska.

Julian E. Hammar has been hired as special counsel and member of the corporate practice at Covington & Burling. He was assistant general counsel at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Jim Mulhern has been hired as chief operating officer at the National Milk Producers Federation. Mulhern was chief of staff to Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis. He also has worked as partner at Fleishman-Hillard. He served as principal at the Fratelli Group. He was owner at Watson/Mulhern.

George Rogers has been hired as an executive vice president and corporate secretary at Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, a lobbying firm. Rogers was a senior policy adviser and counsel to Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio. He has worked as general counsel to the Republican staff of the House Rules Committee. He also has worked as a legislative assistant to Sen. Richard G. Lugar, R-Ind.

Michael Gfoeller has been named a member of the board of advisers at The Chertoff Group, a security advisory firm. Gfoeller is head of Middle East and North African affairs at Exxon Mobil’s International Government Relations Department. He has served as a senior political adviser to David Petraeus in Iraq. He also has served in the State Department as a diplomat in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Russia.

Thomas M. Dunham has joined the intellectual property practice at law and lobbying firm Winston & Strawn as a partner. Dunham was chairman of the litigation practice group at Novak Druce + Quigg. He has worked as a partner at Howrey. He also has worked as a staff engineer in General Electric’s aerospace control systems division.

Jack Cochran has been named as a member of the board of directors for the National Quality Forum, a health care quality advocacy group. Cochran is the executive director of Kaiser Permanente’s Permanente Federation. He has served as executive medial director, president and chairman of the Colorado Permanente Medical Group.

Matt Allen has been promoted to senior project manager at environmental issues consulting firm Kynoch Environmental Management Inc. Allen was an environmental specialist. He has worked as an associate at consulting firm Environ. He also has worked as a project manager at Brook Environmental & Engineering.