Towner French has been hired as deputy Republican staff director for the House Rules Committee. French was chief of staff to Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, the incoming committee chairman. He also has served as a rules associate and Republican staff director for the Legislative and Budget Process Subcommittee for former Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. He was also a rules associate to Sessions.

Anna L. Higgins has been hired as director of the Center for Human Dignity at the Family Research Council. She was an assistant to the national field director of Concerned Women for America. She also served as a judicial intern for Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker.

The following people have been hired or promoted at the National Association of Federal Credit Unions:

Tessema Tefferi has been promoted to senior regulatory affairs counsel. Tefferi was regulatory affairs counsel and has been with NAFCU since 2006.

P.J. Hoffman has been hired as regulatory affairs counsel. Hoffman was finance director for Virginia congressional candidate Paul Hirschbiel. He also has worked as a law clerk for Camner Professional Group in Florida. He served as a summer associate at Salvi, Schostok & Pritchard in Illinois.

Angela Meyster has been hired as regulatory affairs counsel. Meyster was a law clerk at the Financial Services Roundtable. She also has served as a legal intern at the New York Department of Financial Services.

Jill Rademacher has been appointed a managing director in Washington, D.C. for Arabella Advisors, a philanthropy services firm. Rademacher was the president of Water For All, a nonprofit providing clean water solutions. She has also worked as senior vice president of the Case Foundation.

The following people have been elected to the leadership of the Professional Services Council:

John Hillen has been elected chairman. Hillen is the president and CEO of Sotera Defense Solutions. He has served in the State Department as assistant secretary of State for political-military affairs. He has also worked as president of what is now CGI Federal, a federal information technology services company.

Ellen Glover was elected vice chairwoman. Glover is the executive vice president of consulting firm ICF International. She has served as board chairwoman and member of the American Council for Technology & Industry Advisory Council. She also has worked as president of Impact Innovations Group.

Andy McCann was elected secretary. McCann is the vice president of the U.S. public sector for HP Enterprise Services. He has worked as vice president and general manager of information technology company EDS, and before that was vice president at EDS, after a stint as vice president of sales business process management there.

Brian D. Briggs has been hired as chief financial officer at Commtouch, an information technology company. Briggs is the executive vice president and CFO at SecureNet. He has worked as an executive vice president and CFO at Custom Direct. He also has worked as vice president of finance and human resources at Ashton-Potter (USA).

Steve Katz has been appointed as a member of the advisory board at Xceedium Inc., a hybrid-cloud solutions provider. Katz also is an adviser to the CISO Roundtable Network. He is currently the owner of Security Risk Solutions. He was CISO of Citigroup. He also served as information security officer at JP Morgan.