Power 100 - May 2016

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100 Our annual list of un-elected, non-governmental heavy hitters demonstrates what we know to be true about those who hold the keys and open doors in this city: KNOWLEDGE is power, INFLUENCE is power, ACCESS is power, the PERCEPTION OF POWER is power and MONEY can translate into power, depending on how it’s used.

We cast a wide net to find heads of interest groups, political consultants, business leaders, real estate developers, journalists, innovators and philanthropists who — because of their knowledge, influence and access, projection of power and funds in the bank — influence our laws, the outcome of elections and how our capital and nation are perceived worldwide.

BY THE NUMBERS: Of the individuals on our list, 42 are new this year. Overall, about 20 are lobbyists, 18 are strategists or fundraisers, 24 are business leaders, 14 are members of the media and 10 are leaders in arts and entertainment.

Women continue to rise through the ranks and our list is reflective of that, featuring 28 influential female leaders.

PORTRAITS BY TONY POWELL

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Kennedy Center chairman and Carlyle Group co-founder David Rubenstein. Photographed at the Kennedy Center.

ROBERT ALLBRITTON CEO, Politico Robert Allbritton’s lengthy memo in January announcing the departure of his founding partners at Politico produced a new euphemism for a massive corporate bloodletting. He said CEO Jim VandeHei, COO Kim Kingsley, Chief Revenue Officer Roy Schwartz, Executive Vice-president for Expansion Danielle Jones and chief political reporter Mike Allen were “seeking their new adventures.” The mass exodus from the top deprived Politico of some of its best product: for example, Allen’s idiosyncratic “Playbook” newsletter is a must-read in Washington. But judging from its campaign coverage, Politico seems to have weathered the tsunami with little loss of the energy, originality and penetration that have in nine years built up its reputation. And to judge from the frequent appearances of its European correspondents on news shows in Paris and London, the brand has exported successfully.

The question is whether Albritton, now the CEO, and former editor-in-chief John Harris as publisher can sustain the momentum when yet another Politico star performer, Susan Glasser, exits towards the end of the year as scheduled to join her husband, New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief Peter Baker.

The challenge will be to build on its print circulation and boost its European imprint.

JOSÉ ANDRÉS Chef and Founder, ThinkFoodGroup Jose Andrés may be Spanishborn, but his success is a symbol of rising Hispanic inf luence in America. One of nation’s most renowned restaurateurs and head of a $125 million food empire, his numerous establishments in Washington, Miami, Los Angeles and Las Vegas offer menu choices that combine the gastronomic traditions of Spain with those of Latin America, and more. At China Chilcano, his latest restaurant in downtown Washington, he has combined the cuisines of China, Peru, and Japan. Energetic and outspoken, the

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celebrity chef (who recently became a U.S. citizen) pulled out of a restaurant deal in Donald Trump’s new Washington luxury hotel after the Republican presidential contender made derogatory comments about Mexican immigrants. Andrés argued that Trump’s comments made it impossible for a Spanish restaurant to survive in a Trump building, and there are pending countersuits for millions of dollars. Andrés was active in creating emergency kitchens in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake there and remains engaged in the country’s slow recovery through his World Central Kitchen.

The organization operates in countries affected by food shortages and works with the U.N. to bring solar and clean cookstoves to 100 million people around the world.

JIM BANKOFF & EZRA KLEIN Chariman & CEO, Vox Media and Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Vox Media Ezra Klein left the Washington Post (and his popular platform Wonkblog) in 2014 when the newspaper ruled his $10 millionplus proposal for a separate explanatory news site was a step too far for the digital media pioneer.

In the memo announcing his departure, the Post told staffers he would start the new venture on his own. That venture was Vox, the top-shelf viral video publisher and policy analytics powerhouse that nests among successful outlets that include megapopular sports chain SB Nation and tech news site The Verge. Jim Bankoff, an exAOL executive who serves as the the parent company’s chairman and CEO, has said he wants Vox Media to be “the Conde Nast of the digital age” and is working to make that happen. Amid reports that BuzzFeed missed revenue projections and cut jobs, Vox is raising money, including a $200 million injection from NBC. To manage finances, the company recently brought ex-Rosetta Stone CEO Stephen Swad on board as its first chief financial officer.

JEREMY BEN-AMI Founder and President, J Street In the few years of its existence, J Street has edged its way from what far-right Jews regarded as insufficiently pro-Israel to a strong mainstream voice for Israeli security, democracy and peace.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street’s president, says his advocacy organization stands for “an end to occupation, for a two-state solution and for an Israel that’s committed to its core democratic principles and Jewish values.” In practical terms that has meant opposition to Jewish settlement building on the Palestinian West Bank, criticism of what J Street sees as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu refusal to accept the concept of Israel and a Palestinian state co-existing side-by-side, and support for the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran. Without J Street’s support of President Obama’s signature foreign policy achievement, the Iran deal would have never made it through Congress nor would we have blocked Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon. The Obama administration acknowledged J Street’s work by sending Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry to speak at their annual conference earlier this year. Ben-Ami’s group is trying to re-define what it means to be pro-Israel consistent with the views of an overwhelming majority of American Jews. The New York Times recently reported that J Street “has gained inf luence on Capitol Hill.” The group has reportedly raised over $3 million in PAC money to support their pro-Israel congressional candidates in the coming election.

WAYNE BERMAN Senior Advisor for Global Government Affairs, The Blackstone Group Veteran G.O.P fundraiser Wayne Berman, who chaired Marco Rubio’s failed presidential campaign, is one of the most inf luential Republican operatives in Washington. For the past 35 years he has been at the center of Republican political advocacy and has

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used his inf luence and connections on Wall Street and within the Republican Jewish Coalition to get Republicans elected across the board. He worked in the campaign and administration of President George H.W. Bush, the campaigns of George W. Bush, John McCain and Mitt Romney and was one of earliest backers Rubio, whom he considered “the candidate who represents a new generation for the Republican Party.” Despite Rubio’s withdrawal, he remains the go-to fundraiser for nearly every member of the Repubican leadership, including House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Berman has also been a driving force behind maintaining the “carried interest” tax break for private equity firms, such as the Blackstone Group, where he oversees in-house lobbying at one of the country’s most powerful financial services firms.

WOLF BLITZER & JAKE TAPPER Host, CNN “Situation Room” and Host, CNN “The Lead with Jake Tapper” The first is the Emmywinning host of “The Situation Room” and CNN’s lead political anchor. The second is the “State of the Union” and “The Lead” host who prophetically asked Republican presidential hopeful Marco Rubio if he was in denial about his chances to win the G.O.P. race during a nationally televised primary debate. Together, they have a combined total of more than one million Twitter followers and about 1.5 million total daily viewers in February (the most recent CNN-reported numbers available). While Slate wrote that Blitzer started off the Feb. 25 presidential debate with soft questions and “by the end … seemed to have completely ceded control of the debate,” ratings don’t lie, and the event averaged 14.5 million viewers — the most since Blitzer’s last moderating gig in December, which drew 18 million. Tapper, meanwhile, has pressed candidates (most forcefully Donald Trump) with questions the Washington Post praised for their toughness.

The former ABC Washington correspondent

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(and onetime political cartoonist) is wellknown for more intense reporting than other cable figures. An example being when he unsuccessfully asked Donald Trump to condemn David Duke and the Ku Klux Clan.

DAVID & KATHERINE BRADLEY Chairman, Atlantic Media Group and President, CityBridge Foundation A week after the shake-up that made COO Michael Finnegan Atlantic Media’s first president since 2013, publishing magnate David Bradley lost James Bennet, president and editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, his keystone holding, who moved on to become an editor at The New York Times. It was the latest in a milestone year for Bradley, whose National Journal cut staff and ceased print publication after more than 40 years on the presses. It has been reported that Atlantic Media is looking to sell its digital-first outlet Quartz as well, but at The Atlantic, things are still going strong. Its circulation has risen from about 450,000 to 486,000 since 2007 and it boasts a staggering 21 million unique web visitors per the magazine’s March 2015 figures. Meanwhile, Katherine Bradley (who runs the family-founded CityBridge foundation and has been a huge supporter of Teach for America’s growth in our region) has been quite inf luential in educational reform in D.C. and is considered by some to be the “shadow chancellor” of education in the District because of her involvement in the the city’s public and charter schools.

DAVID BROCK Founder, Media Matters and Correct The Record A current Hillary Clinton supporter originally known for his takedown book on Anita Hill (which he later disavowed as a product of a tumultuous period when he supported the Republican Party), Brock now heads Media Matters, a non-profit group that bills itself as a “progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing and

correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media” as well as the pro-Clinton super PAC Correct The Record. Last July, Brock orchestrated a deal that gives Correct The Record 20 percent or $200,000 (whichever is lower) of each donation to a joint effort with another Clinton super PAC, Priorities USA. While some critics question whether Brock’s tactics may in fact hurt Clinton, Correct The Record has already raised $5.1 million this cycle and is on track to raise more.

ARTHUR BROOKS President, American Enterprise Institute Positioning itself as the free-market alternative to the policies of Sen. Bernie Sanders and the right-leaning alternative to the Brookings Institution, the AEI, under Brooks’ direction, has been notably active during this election cycle and is still home to a legion of neocons. Some believe AEI to be the heart of the conservative movement, occupying more space in Republican thinking today than ever.

Tracking what he has called the culture war between limited government founding principles and European-style socialism, Brooks has hit the opinion pages of the New York Times and other major publications, dishing on topics that range from narcissism to trade. Called the Republican Party’s “poverty guru” by NBC News last year, his “Conversation” column with Gail Collins in the New York Times has become a welcome regular jaunt through the election process from the minds of major inf luencers.

MATTHEW BROOKS Executive Director, Republican Jewish Coalition When the executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition debated Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, a pro-Israel, pro-peace group, in mid-March, he was doing so on the front steps of Republican heavyweight donor Sheldon Adelson, whose casino (and now newspaper) empire dominates Las Vegas.

Since taking the helm of the Coalition in

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1990, Brooks has positioned it as a unique bridge between the more conservative Jewish community and Republican decisionmakers, especially with regard to support for the position of the current far-right Israeli government, U.S. oil independence and a hawkish pro-regime-change foreign policy.

EVAN BURFIELD & DONNA HARRIS Co-Founders, 1776 The two founders and coCEOs of 1776 announced last April that the startup incubator — which has hosted such power players as President Obama and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull — would expand to San Francisco by acquiring Hattery, a similar entrepreneurial studio.

“Washington, D.C. is home to the world’s most important leaders,” Harris said in a 1776 news release, “and San Francisco is the heart of the startup movement. By combining … we’re in a stronger position than ever.” Other 1776 news includes the move of former CNN reporter Erin McPike into the communications director role and the recent addition of former New York State chief digital officer Rachel Haot as managing director. In September, 1776 announced a $12.5 million seed fund for new investments. “1776 is … a vibrant community,” the Oxford-educated Burfield said. “To be truly successful, we need to open these resources to … the world.”

WES BUSH Chairman, CEO and President, Northrop Grumman Corporation This MIT-educated engineer and executive won a massive victory in February when the Government Accountability Office denied a challenge from competitors Lockheed Martin and Boeing and upheld Northrop Grumman’s $80 billion contract to build the Air Force’s first new bombers since the Cold War. The 100-plane contract’s survival boosted stock in Northrop Grumman instantly.

The major defense contractor also won a

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Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter. Photographed at the Kennedy Center..

contract to build a laser-based airborne drone that detects sea mines. Meanwhile, the company’s operating income rose to more than $3.1 billion in 2014. ÁNGEL CABRERA President, George Mason University Just as he began the first semester as president of George Mason University, Cabrera — himself only five years older than G.M.U. — took to Twitter to introduce himself to

students. His followers have doubled since he took the helm in 2013, and the university’s rankings have skyrocketed as well. It’s now No. 135 among national universities rated by U.S. News & World Report, with top-20 marks for innovation and a top-70 rank among public schools. The green machine from Virginia also made headlines when it announced that, following a $30 million donation from the Koch Brothers and pending approval from Commonwealth’s higher education board, it would name its law school in memory of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

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STEVE & JEAN CASE Founders, Case Foundation He’s the entrepreneur, philanthropist and now bestselling New York Times author who co-founded AOL. She was elected in February as the first female to head the National Geographic Society. Together, they’re the husband-and-wife chairman and CEO team, respectively, who co-founded the Case Foundation to help foster innovation and entrepreneurship. Steve Case is also the chairman and CEO of Revolution LLC, a venture capital investment firm devoted to innovative and dynamic new companies.

Forbes estimates the couple’s net worth at $1.36 billion, noting that the McLean, Va., residents have joined The Giving Pledge, along with numerous wealthy thought leaders, to donate the bulk of their fortune to philanthropic causes.

GUY CECIL Co-Chair and Chief Strategist, Priorities USA After opting out of the race to be Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign manager, this DSCC alumnus made waves as head of the Clintonbacking super PAC Priorities USA. Last May, he consolidated power in what was understood to be a clear signal to co-board chairman Jim Messina (who led President Obama’s 2012 bid) that he would limit his role to fund-raising.

Cecil worked with David Brock last July to broker a joint fundraising effort between his super PAC and Correct The Record, which also backs Clinton. Priorities USA raised $10 million in January 2016 alone, adding to its $55 million total this cycle. Money, from donors including George Soros, Stephen Spielberg and the Plumbers/Pipefitters Union, has paid for pro-Clinton ads and attacks against Republicans.

JANE CHU Chairman, National Endowment of the Arts Inasmuch as the male head of a government agency is often referred to as its czar (“transportation czar,” “drug czar,” etc) then Jane Chu is the Obama

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Administration’s arts czarina. In February 2014, she was appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, the agency that supports arts projects with government funds and other financing. In 2015, for example, Chu approved grants totaling $103.47 million to finance 2,139 projects ranging from arts education in Alabama to a glass-blowing program for wounded soldiers in Tacoma, Wash.

In addition, Chu is fairy godmother to museum directors around the country because the NEA administers a $15 billion Federal government program that indemnifies against loss or damage of art works on loan from U.S. and foreign institutions for big exhibitions.

With post 9/11 insurance costs spiking, the program is what makes many blockbuster exhibitions still possible.

Born to Chinese parents in Oklahoma, trained as a pianist, she has worked mainly as an arts administrator and fund raiser, most recently as the director of the $413 million Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Mo., having supervised its construction. One interviewer called her approach to the NEA “beneficent populism” because she encourages social dancing, folk festivals and electronic media. Her own aim, she says, is to make people understand that “the arts are a part of our everyday lives. We want to change the elitist paradigm that the arts are off in a silo by themselves.”

JOE CIRINCIONE President, The Ploughshares Fund From his perch atop the Ploughshares Fund, a global security foundation that believes nuclear weapons “do very little to keep us safer from the real threats we face today,” Cirincione led a diverse coalition that eliminated any Iranian path to a nuclear weapon for decades to come. Together with a diverse group of organizations such as Win Without War, Arms Control Association, J Street, and others, Cirincione helped get congressional backing for a

deal that required Iran to pour concrete into the core of their plutonium reactor, eliminate its stockpile of highly enriched uranium, remove the majority of their centrifuges, including all advanced models and submit to around the clock monitoring in exchange for sanctions relief. This was a deal that no one believed could happen and Cirincione was an integral part of it.

STEVE CLEMONS Editor, Atlantic Live As editor-in-chief of Atlantic Live, this politics and foreign affairs writer leads a team responsible for more than 100 events each year that attract thousands of attendees to say nothing of generous media coverage. Past event headliners include secretaries of state, business magnates, television and film power players and politicians of every stripe. This all manages to happen when Clemons isn’t writing up a storm as Washington editor-at-large for The Atlantic, serving as editor-at-large for National Journal and Quartz, editorin-chief of National Journal LIVE and running his comment blog, Washington Note. In April, The Atlantic hired former MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner to will work under Clemons as a senior editor and help expand the company’s video presence.

KELLYANNE CONWAY President, The Polling Company/WomanTrend This self-described “pollstress” has watched her candidate Ted Cruz win the first-inthe-nation Iowa caucuses plus Wisconsin and other races — all with a brokered Republican convention in mind. As president and CEO of the woman-owned, 21-year old The Polling Company, Inc./WomanTrend, Conway’s clients have included the Heritage Foundation, Major League Baseball, American Express and ABC News. She has created a new political space in the Republican party (between evangelicals and the tea party) --- no easy task when dealing with a party that already has so many factions.

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LORENZO CREIGHTON President and CEO, MGM National Harbor When the $1.3 billion MGM resort casino opens in National Harbor, Md. by the end of the year, it will have 3,600 slot machines, 140 gambling tables, celebrity-chef restaurants and a 3,000-seat theater. The complex’s 300-room hotel, however, is rather small by MGM’s standards. According to Creighton, that’s entirely by design. “Our business model was thought of and developed to fit into the region,” he told the Washington Post, “and not in any way cannibalize the region.” An indirect part of that community commitment is the $40 million-plus in tax revenues Prince George’s County stands to collect from the resort. With enough dirt excavated to fill the Ravens’ football stadium and more than 6,400 concrete piles already driven, Creighton is rapidly readying for the next stage.

“When you choose a career in hospitality,” he once said, ”you have to get used to working a lot of nights and weekends.”

JIM DEMINT President, The Heritage Foundation When business mogul and Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump came to Washington for a news conference at the hotel his real estate empire is building at the Old Post Office Pavilion, he met with a few Republican senators and representatives as well as former Sen. Jim DeMint, who became president of the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank in 2013, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. DeMint stopped short of endorsing Trump, but at the hotel announcement later on March 21, the candidate announced that his shortlist of possible nominees for Antonin Scalia’s Supreme Court seat would be written in collaboration with The Heritage Foundation.

Insiders say that while Heritage remains an important political player, and maintains inf luence withTea Partiers in the House, it needs to start helping win more elections.

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TAD DEVINE & scott goodstein Chief Strategist, Revolution Messaging and Bernie Sanders 2016; Founer and CEO, Revolution Messaging Tad Devine is credited for creating the ads that were key to bolstering Sanders popularity, including what some call his “brilliant” preIowa Caucus ad featuring Simon & Garfunkel’s “America.” Insiders note that Devine will be instrumental in bringing the Sanders and Clinton campaigns and voters together in time for the general election. Goodstein has used his digital prowess to make Hillary Clinton “feel the Bern.” He was brought on board the Sanders team to run mobile in the first Democratic primary and from early on, he and his digital strategy firm, Revolution Messaging, did not disappoint. Considering his previous successes working as Obama’s external online director in the 2008 election, the decision to enlist him was a no-brainer for the Sanders team. A recent headline from Politico calls Sanders’ e-mail list of donors, assembled by Goodstein and his team, the Demcratic candidate’s, “secret weapon.” Democratic politicians and interest groups are clamoring to get access to Sanders’ database of donors and activists developed and maintained by Goodstein JOHN DICKERSON Host, CBS’s “Face the Nation” While NBC’s “Meet the Press” did best in the demographic of adults 25-54 in recent Nielsen ratings, CBS’s offering, “Face The Nation,” which Dickerson has hosted since taking over from Bob Schieffer in 2015, ranked highest — a massive 3.85 million viewers according to TVNewser.

The Dickerson-moderated Republican presidential debate that CNN called a “G.O.P. demolition derby” averaged 13.5 million viewers per Nielsen. The reviews from his eminent predecessor, a half-century news veteran, were glowing. “I thought he

was masterful,” Schieffer told the Washington Post. Among colleagues, Dickerson is wellrespected and admired for his integrity.

GLORIA DITTUS Chairman, Story Partners Dittus has been called “the nation’s first public affairs PR maven,” and her talent for cultivating relationships has been instrumental in building one of Washington, D.C.’s leading female owned-and-operated strategic public affairs firms. After leaving her namesake company, Dittus Communications, in 2009 (following a sale to Financial Dynamics), the Georgia native founded Story Partners. Her “third time’s the charm” agency has already amassed an impressive client list, including Southern Company, Noble Energy, the Aspen Institute and the Entertainment Software Alliance.

Dittus has been credited for running a successful business without strong partisan identification, which is quite hard to do in Washington. She has built a network and social inf luence in Washington, which she leverages to connect people, clients, and causes. Dittus and Story Partners also underwrite the Lincoln Medal Presentation at the annual Ford’s Theatre Gala.

LISA DONNER Executive Director, Americans for Financial Reform Donner runs Americans For Financial Reform a nonpartisan, nonprofit coalition of more than 200 consumer, business, investor, faith-based, civic and community groups. AFR has kept Wall Street regulation at the forefront of its mission since it was founded in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. With the grassroots of both parties demanding their presidential candidates represent Main Street, not Wall Street, Donner and the coalition have made complicated financial and trade issues understandable kitchen table topics for many Americans. Her AFR coalition is pushing to re-write the rules to benefit small business

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and American workers instead of multinational corporations and financial firms.

AFR continues to fight for a 21st century Glass-Steagall act so that no bank is so big that taxpayers would have to bail them out again in order to avoid a collapse of the entire financial industry and U.S. economy.

With Congress introducing a number of industry-written reforms supported by members of both parties that benefit the big banks, and with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under attack by powerful deep-pocketed interests, there are sure to be many show-downs to come.

Only two years after Dorsey launched the Divest-Invest campaign, hundreds of foundations and individuals around the globe have publicly taken the pledge to divest their portfolios of dirty energy (oil, coal and gas fracking) that contributes to climate disruption and to reinvest in clean green energy and technology instead. With trillions already divested and institutional investors from universities, cities, faith groups, pension funds and foundations taking the pledge every day, it looks like the movement is picking-up steam. Dorsey and the Divest-Invest campaign are challenging the status-quo thinking of many financial advisors that financial performance will be undercut by divestment by proving otherwise.

THOMAS DONOHUE & SCOTT REED President & CEO and Senior Politcal Strategist, U.S. Chamber of Commerce The Chamber of Commerce holds the top spot on OpenSecrets’s lobbying list, with more than $84 million spent on political contributions. One insider says, “every primary they have played in against the Tea Party, they have won, and there’s nothing like winning in Washington, D.C.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been called the “real winner” of the 2014 election and Donohue has turned it into a powerful lobbying and campaign machine that pursues a fairly narrow special-interest agenda. As senior political strategist for the more-than-a-century-old organization, Reed played a major part in its 2014 effort to elect big-business candidates, a goal it will certainly try to repeat this time around. Outside of the election arena, the Chamber is reportedly poised to sue over provisions of a federal retiree-protection regulation that it claims is “unworkable.”

ANITA DUNN & HILARY ROSEN ManagingDirectors, SKDKnickerbocker The managing directors of what an insider calls “the preiminent communications shop” are having a busy year. Their firm was just tapped to lead the Obama Administration’s media plan to get longtime D.C. Circuit Appeals Court Chief Judge Merrick Garland confirmed to the Supreme Court despite of the opposition of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. It’s been rumored that their goal is to use former administration and campaign insiders to weaken G.O.P. intransigence with regard to confirming the president’s nominee.

Dunn, a former White House communications director, is a political insider and go-to eminence gris close to Hillary and also Valerie Jarrett in the Obama White House. Once chairman of the Recording Industry Association of America, Rosen helped shut down Napster and is now regarded as a go-to behind the scenes media consultant on progressive and LGBT issues.

ELLEN DORSEY Executive Direcctor, Wallace Global Fund As executive director of the Wallace Global Fund, Ellen Dorsey has led the expanding campaign to divest portfolios from fossil fuels.

STEVE ELMENDORF Co-founder & Partner, Subject Matter consulting This Democratic strategist represents big-name clients like Time Warner, Verizon, Union Pacific, Ford Motor Co., the Human Rights

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Campaign and the NFL at the firm he cofounded, Elmendorf-Ryan Communications (re-branded as Subject Matter after merging with Home Front Communications last year). The former advisor to Hillary Clinton says one should think of Subject Matter as “your 26-year-old startup,” albeit one that has a reported total revenue of $25 million.

As a result, he and fellow lobbyist Tony Podesta are viewed by insiders as the top two Democratic lobbyists in town, who also know how to devleop clients and new business.

JOHN ENGLER President, Business Roundtable While the anti-trade critique coming from campaigns on both sides of this wildride election cycle has been giving corporate America the cold shakes, Business Roundtable President Engler isn’t all that worried. “There’s nothing new about candidates running who are opposed to trade deals,” he told the Washington Post. “What would be new is when they were elected, they held the same position.”

It is this philosophy that has helped the former three-term Michigan governor lead the Roundtable, which comprises CEOs of leading U.S. corporations that produce $7.4 trillion in annual revenue.

Engler’s Roundtable has published landmark reports on economic growth and monitored business interests through two terms of a Democratic presidency.

RICHARD FAIRBANK Chairman and CEO, Capital One Since co-founding Capital One in 1988, Fairbank has propelled his broadly diversified financial services company into the top half of the Fortune 500 with about 1,000 branches in six states and the District. His personal fortune has been estimated at $800 million, amassed in part by smart moves before and after the credit-card juggernaut went public in 1994. He is also a partial owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment (which owns the Capitals, Wizards, Mystics and the Verizon Center).

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KENNETH FELD CEO, Feld Entertainmentt The CEO of McLean-based Feld Entertainment since 1984, Feld has steered his family’s iconic Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in new directions, including Disney on Ice!, Doodlebops Live!, Disney Live!, Monster Jam, the International Hot Rod Association and the AMA Supercross Championship. He has also produced several Broadway plays. Feld and his circus have been criticized by animal rights activists for more than two decades with Feld fighting back against those who maintained his circus mistreated animals, most notably its elephant population. He even won an $11 million libel judgment against PETA when a judge ruled that the accusations were not true. In 2015, Feld decided to move the circus in a new direction by eliminating the elephant acts altogether. In their place, the “new” circus now has more trapeze artists, a BMX bike act and acrobatic dogs.

HOWARD FINEMAN & RYAN GRIM Global Editorial Director and Washington Bureau Chief, The Huffington Post Howard Fineman and Ryan Grim help keep the 11-year-old news site ahead of other digital-native outfits such as BuzzFeed, Vice and Vox, and on pace with other topranked sites such as CNN and The New York Times. A combination of old school and new, who schmoozes at lunch while checking Twitter and prepping for hits on MSNBC, Global Editorial Director Fineman tends to HuffPost’s expanding worldwide audience. In the last year mobile and international traffic has soared as HuffPost added more video and upped the the number of its editions to 15 (Australia is the newest). The site made its own headlines earlier this year when it publicly elected to cover Donald Trump as “entertainment” in a provocative post by Washington Bureau Chief Grim. A dogged reporter and shrewd, well-liked manager, Grim also bylined on the viral headline “A Racist, Sexist Demagogue Just Won The New Hampshire Primary.”

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Chris Wallace, Moderator, “Fox News Sunday,” which celebrated 20 years in April. Photographed at Fox News.

JACK GERARD CEO, American Petroleum Institute With the national average gas price hovering at $2 per gallon, the American Petroleum Institute and its president have a lot to fret about, but also a lot to celebrate with their unexpected lobbying victory to lift the U.S. oil export ban.

Although they were not able to keep the Department of the Interior from scrapping

plans to increase Atlantic oil drilling (via the optioning of drilling off the coast of Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia or Florida), pro-oil insiders have commented that they are “most impressed” that Gerard prevailed on lifting the oil export ban, something they never believed would happen, and under a Democratic president no less. Hess Oil’s top lobbyist, Drew Maloney, was also instrumental in this victory for fossil fuel advocates, a victory that is a true testament to their power.

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MARY KAY HENRY President, SEIU This international president of the two-million-member Service Employees International Union, Henry is the first woman ever elected to the post. She has become a political force as well, with her chapters orchestrating massive voting blocs and her worldwide coalition winning major victories to improve working families’ lives.

With kudos that include being named one of Fast Company’s 100 most creative leaders in 2015 and No. 4 on Nation’s Restaurant News’s 2016 power list, Henry has persistently fought for a $15 minimum wage, the Affordable Care Act and comprehensive immigration reform.

MARILLYN HEWSON President and CEO, Lockheed Martin Capping a more than 30 year career with the nation’s No. 1 defense contractor, Hewson has delivered record profits and expanded into growing industries that include cybersecurity and alternative energy.

Last year, she led the company’s purchase of helicopter giant Sikorsky for $9 billion and had “no regrets” about the buy, even as plummeting oil prices have led to a biggerthan-expected drop in Sikorsky’s sales. Since taking over as CEO in 2013, After naming her the fourth most powerful woman in 2015, Fortune reported that she doubled Lockheed Martin’s market cap, and in April 2015 theWashington Post listed her as the highest paid female CEO so far that year. Recently she has touted the company’s breakthrough efforts to build hypersonic jets that fly at 3,600 m.p.h., or six times the speed of sound.

ERIC HILTON Restaurateur & Co-founder, Thievery Corporation The co-founder of the downtempo DJ collective Thievery Corporation has been backing local entertainment and restaurant establishments for more than a decade. From his initial foray with the

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18th Street Lounge to a handful of bars (Marvin, Patty Boom Boom, El Rey, and The Gibson, among others) he has been insrumental in making the U Street/ Shaw corridor a District destination of note. With expansions to Petworth and Georgetown (Chez Billy and Chez Billy Sud, respectively) in more recent years, Hilton takes gentrification-related criticism in stride.

“I completely appreciate that perspective,” the restaurateur told The New York Times.

And with an eye for picking D.C. digs before they bloom, Hilton now says that North Capitol is the next blossom to watch.

MONTY HOFFMAN Founder & CEO, PN Hoffman Closer to Washington than National Harbor and a stone’s throw from the Waterfront Metro, The Wharf has been called “the biggest project of Monty Hoffman’s life.” Set on 24 acres of land and going for $1,000 a square foot in one of the condo towers, PN Hoffman’s $2 billion project to reinvent the Southwest Waterfront will tranform the area. Despite permitting setbacks, skyrocketing costs and five years of deficits at PN Hoffman, the project’s first phase completion is set for next year. With announcements of eight new restaurants, including a Spanish seafood spot from the Trabocchi’s (whose portfolio includes Fiola and Fiola Mare), the site is expanding by the day. “I knew through all of it that having a mile of shoreline in the nation’s capital ... was just so special,” Hoffman told The Washington Post. “I had to hang on to it.”

CYNTHIA HOGAN Vice President for Public Policy, Apple ESPN wrote in January that this District power player’s partnership with National Football League Commissioner Roger Goodell as the league’s chief lobbyist was “turning the NFL into a political machine.”

Now, Apple has torn a page out of Goodell’s playbook, tapping Hogan — previously counsel to Vice President Joe Biden — as its

watchful woman in Washington. Answering to Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson (ex head of the EPA), her appointment is seen as a major coup for the tech giant as it continues legal efforts to acquire greater access to its customers’ data. Apple has been spending more and more on lobbying, including a Politico-cited $4.4 million last year. As one insider puts it, “Apple is one of the few companies with a clear partisan identity that still manages to do well in a town controlled by Republicans.”

JON HUNTSMAN & CAPRICIA MARSHALL Chairman, The Atlantic Council; Ambassador in Residence, The Atlantic Council He’s a former ambassador to China, Utah governor and 2012 Republican presidential hopeful. She’s a former White House social secretary and chief of protocol.

Together, they headline the Atlantic Council, the bipartisan international affairs think tank of which Huntsman is chairman and Marshall is ambassadorin-residence for the group’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center. Huntsman, who maintains he’s willing to back Donald Trump if he wins the Republican nomination, but also said f lattering things about Hillary Clinton, whom he worked with while representing the United States.”

Marshall, who had been at Clinton’s side for two decades when she left State, also advised her presidential and two senatorial campaigns and remains extremely close to key operatives in the Clinton campaign.

SETH HURWITZ Founder & Owner, 9 :30 Club and I.M.P. “On any given night,” Washingtonian wrote in a glowing 2014 profile, “Hurwitz’s company, I.M.P. [or “It’s My Party”] … may have provided the entertainment for one of every three concertgoers in Washington.” In addition to the promoting gig — which lost a major

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antitrust suit against LiveNation in February 2015 — Hurwitz has his hand in U Street’s Lincoln Theater, the Merriweather Post Pavilion and an upcoming 6,000-seat venue at The Wharf development in Southwest D.C. That’s all in addition to his famous 9:30 Club of course, whose success Hurwitz says he can’t explain. “The bands who pay here understand it,” he says. “The fans who come here understand it, but it’s not really something you can put into words.” PBS will do its best to communicate the “feeling” to viewers with its new television show based on the venue’s concerts called “Live at 9:30.”

Golden Globe for Aaron Sorkin in 2015.

Since taking the helm of the Aspen Institute, a nonpartisan educational and policy think tank, this former Time managing editor and CEO of CNN led Voice of America from 2009 to 2012 as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and just kept on writing. His biographies of Jobs, Benjamin Franklin, Henry Kissinger and Albert Einstein have been well-received and well-read. A friend calls him “a force in Washington” and says Isaacson “has become an amazing convener in an era where it is hard to do so on a bipartisan basis.”

International Monetary Fund. A piece he wrote in The Atlantic in 2009 garnered more than 1 million views online, and his book about economic meltdowns putting 2008 in context was a major hit with critics and readers alike. Johnson wrote the book with James Kwak, a University of Connecticut School of Law associate professor with whom he co-founded the wildly popular economics blog, The Baseline Scenario. He is a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington and a member of the Congressional Budget Office’s Panel of Economic Advisers.

GWEN IFILL & JUDY WOODRUFF Co-anchors, PBS Newshour The PBS “Newshour” dual anchors made history in Milwaukee in February when they became the first-ever all female team to moderate a presidential debate.(one that had more than 8 million viewers).

Three years ago, they also made history as the first female duumvirate on a U.S. broadcast network. Apart from all that, they’ve also turned around a newscast was once deemed “destined for the boneyard” because it was hemorrhaging ratings faster than any broadcast news program.

With the ladies in front of the cameras, ratings grew from 2013 to 2014. Ifill is also moderator and managing editor for “Washington Week,” which won a 2008 Peabody Award for “its reasoned, reliable contribution to the national discourse.”

JO ANN JENKINS CEO, AARP Since taking over in 2014, AARP’s CEO has led numerous initiatives regarding healthcare, finances and personal fulfillment, including a signature campaign designed to revolutionize society’s views on getting older by driving a new social consciousness. Spearheaded by Jenkins’s new book, “Disrupt Aging,” the eponymously-named campaign recently took on a video component in which operators of a food truck pledge not to serve anyone over 40. As customers express outrage, the video asks “if we don’t tolerate … discrimination at a food truck, why do we at work?”

Jenkins has focused on becoming a “dynamic change agent” at AARP, which has a staff of 4,000 and a $1 billion-plus budget to serve its constituency of more than 100 million Americans 50 and older. According to watchdog website OpenSecrets, AARP spent more than $7.5 million on lobbying in 2015, the last year for which data was available.

STEVE JOYCE President and CEO, Choice Hotels Joyce led Choice Hotels, one of the world’s largest hotel franchisors — whose brands include Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Cambria, Sleep Inn and EconoLodge— to close to $860 million dollars in revenue in 2015, up from $758 million the previous year. Watchers of the company, which Joyce has helmed since 2008, say “he is making a splash” via his focused growth strategy and expansion into new markets. He’s also boosted Choice’s focus on corporate social responsibility, partnering with organizations like the Steve Harvey Foundation, which provides outreach to fatherless youth, and has allowed loyalty program members to make contributions to non-profits. Joyce, who’s worked in the industry for more than three decades, had sharp words on the Republican presidential frontrunner in a recent interview with Travel Agent Central. “Trump’s not a hotel guy,” he said. “He’s a name that goes on a building.”

simon johnson Economist & Professor, MIT Johnson is a professor of entrepreneurship at MIT Sloan School of Management, where he earned his Ph.D. in economics and is an expert on financial and economic crises like the one that began in 2008, just one month after the beginning of his tenure as chief economist for the

JIM YONG KIM President, The World Bank The World Bank, of which Kim has been president since 2012, recently projected that the global rate of those living in extreme poverty (defined as living on less than $1.90 per day) is now below 10 percent.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Kim, who oversees 15,000 employees and about

WALTER ISAACSON President and CEO, The Aspen Institute According to the National Endowment for the Humanities, “When … Steve Jobs came to Time to tout his awesome new desktop, Isaacson, the only staff reporter who wrote on a computer, was asked to sit in.”

More than 20 years later, Isaacson would profile the mysterious computer innovator in a landmark book that hit the silver screen to critical success, winning a best screenplay

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who oversees 15,000 employees and about $200 billion in loans to lift as many people out of global poverty as possible has faced challenges throughout his tenure that include rebounding from the Global Financial Crisis in 2008 and mitigating the harrowing effects of the Syrian refugee crisis today. The cofounder of Partners in Health and first AsianAmerican president of an Ivy League school (he led Dartmouth until his current post) once revealed a key element of his mission: “To say that there is not enough money is just a lie.

There’s plenty of money in the world; it’s just not going to healthcare for poor people.”

STEVEN KNAPP President, George Washington University Since the courts approved the takeover of the Corcoran Gallery of Art by George Washington University and the National Gallery, GW’s president has made strides expanding his university well beyond its Foggy Bottom reach. The university’s fund-raising receipts

skyrocketed from $98.5 million to $248 million in the year prior to June 2015 and Knapp seems well on his way to raising $1 billion in the next two years. Athletics-wise, the men’s basketball squad was ranked in the AP Top 25 this year; the women’s team also won its league. Academically, GW saw a record 28 percent increase in 2016 applications over the previous year since going test-optional. (Twenty percent of applicants chose not to include test scores, according to a GW news release.)

HOWARD KOHR Executive Director, AIPAC The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which Kohr heads, was more in the news than ever after a spring conference that packed about 18,000 convention-goers from all across the world into the Walter E. Washington Convention Center to discuss the future of the Jewish state.

Called “the fourth pilgrimage holiday,” the event drew scrutiny for including Republican frontrunner Donald Trump, who has made a

POWER PLAY:

THE CONSUMER FINANCIAL PROTECTION BUREAU’S BATTLE AGAINST DARK MONEY

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n 2008, under the Bush/Cheney administration, U.S. taxpayers were forced to bail out big banks. The administration argued that if the public didn’t bail out the private sector banks, the entire economy would implode. Millions of Americans who received bad loans from big banks and predatory lenders had their homes foreclosed, and never recovered. Middle-class Americans, particularly African-Americans, were hit the hardest with an estimated 40-60% of their wealth lost.

To help address such concerns and other financial regulation, the CFPB, an independent agency funded by the Federal Reserve, was established under “Dodd-Frank” legislation with a mandate to protect consumers from banks and other financial companies and lenders. Powerful interests immediately launched a coordinated campaign against the CFPB, spending tens of millions of dollars on TV and web ads to undermine any such consumer protections.

Politico recently reported that one of the

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organizations spending millions in attack ads in the D.C. market, “Protect America’s Consumers,” had an address that matches a lawyer who represents some of the Koch Brothers “astroturf” campaigns.

Astroturfing refers to organizations created to appear to be supported by a mass grassroots army of citizens, but in fact are supported by a few wealthy individuals or large corporations.

Americans for Financial Reform (AFR), a grassroots watch-dog group of over 200 consumer, religious, labor and grassroots organizations released a report in April that shows how a great majority of financial bills and amendments brought up for congressional vote last year “were industrybacked proposals to weaken existing reforms” or CFPB. Under existing laws, the funders of these “dark money” attacks are not known, but what is very clear is that the people spending millions in attacking the CFPB do not wish to be known and that the CFPB is in a pitched battle with powerful individuals and corporations which will play out in the years to come.

number of xenophobic and bigotted comments.

Notably absent was Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders — the only Jewish candidate in the presidential race — who declined an AIPAC invitation that all of the other candidates accepted. The event’s most notable moment came when Hillary Clinton spoke of her support for the Iranian nuclear deal that AIPAC had unsuccessfully tried to torpedo. According to watchdog website OpenSecrets, AIPAC spent more than $3.3 million on lobbying in 2015. Despite losing on the Iran issue, AIPAC has managed to gain members and raise more money. One insider calls Kohr “a disciplined ego, sort of like the Wizard of Oz. He doesn’t let people see behind the curtain, but he is pulling all he levers.”

MIKE KONCZAL Fellow, The Roosevelt Institute The Roosevelt Institute, inspired by namesakes Franklin and Eleanor, “reimagines America as … a place where hard work is rewarded, everyone participates, and everyone enjoys a fair share of our collective prosperity.”

Konczal, a fellow of the left-leaning think tank, has financial reform on his mind as he writes Rortybomb, one of the top financial blogs on the English-language web. His “comfort with the mathematical models and statistical wizardry that make most journalists blanch is married to an easy writing style and pop-culture sensibility,” ex-Washington Post Wonkblogger Ezra Klein once gushed. Konczal’s writing has also appeared in The New Republic, Al Jazeera America, the Wonkblog and Dissent.

CHRISTINE LAGARDE Managing Director, International Monetary Fund February, the International Monetary Fund Executive Board reselected Christine Lagarde for her second five-year term as managing director (starting in July). The first woman to hold the position, Lagarde has presided over a budget that tops $1 billion and is working tirelessly to boost the international economy. In her first term she dealt with an increasingly tumultuous Eurozone, an ever-changing economic landscape in East

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Asia and the monetary consequences of the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. Among many other key efforts, she will be remembered for bolstering the participation of women in the workforce as a means to reduce poverty. Through it all she’s remained cool and collected with an “grit your teeth and smile” attitude that she credits to her synchronized swimming career as a youth. Before working for the IMF, Lagarde served under French President Nicolas Sarkozy as France’s finance minister.

WAYNE LAPIERRE & CHRIS COX Executive Vice President and Executive Director of Institute for Legislative Action, National Rifle Association More guns were sold in December 2015 than almost any other month in this millennium — even when adjusted for the usual Christmas spike. The boost, reported by the New York Times, could be in response to the NRA’s highly effective ad campaign, “Freedom’s Safest Place,” where a range of NRA members use personal anecdotes to draw on the importance of gun rights. LaPierre has led the charge by lobbying against firearm safety restrictions in the face of a nation plagued by gun violence. Earlier this year, he fearlessly challenged President Obama to a televised debate on gun control in response to the President’s open invitation to hold discussions with the NRA at a CNN town hall meeting.

With a working budget upwards of $200 million, Cox, executive director of the NRA’s legislative arm, directs the organization’s lobbying, voter registration activities and government relations as well as its campaign “Victory Fund,” which propelled 90 percent of NRA-endorsed candidates to key election wins in 2014.

TED LEONSIS Owner & CEO, Monumental Sports and Entertainment His Capitals hockey team is looking to top off its exceptionally successful regular season and playoffs first round with a Stanley Cup triumph. Beyond a winning record,

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the Caps have a soaring revenue stream with Leonsis at the helm. His Wizards basketball squad hasn’t fared as well and is in rebuilding mode despite a playoff appearance last year.

The two teams play in the Leonsis-owned Verizon Center, which also hosted the first ACC tournament north of the Potomac in more than 10 years this past March. Leonsis recently gained a “33 percent equity interest” in Comcast Sportsnet Mid-Atlantic thanks to a deal with NBC involving Caps/Wizards broadcasting. His outstanding leadership also made him a natural fit as vice-chairman of Washington, D.C.’s 2024 Olympic bid.

TED LERNER & MARK LERNER Owners, Lerner Enterprises & Washington Nationals Ted Lerner turned a $250 loan from his wife in 1952 into what is now a multibillion-dollar business.

That meager sum became the foundation for Lerner Enterprises, which boasts a portfolio of over 7,000 apartments and other properties that make Lerner and his family, including son Mark, the largest private landowners in the Washington metropolitan area.

Of the many hats the Lerners have worn in their careers, the one with the Curly W stands out most to Washington sports fans. In 2006, the Lerner family took over official ownership of the Nationals baseball team, controlling 90 percent of its shares.

An impeccably built stadium and savvy branding have made Nats games a place to see and be seen. The Lerners often host high-rolling Washingtonians and political and media personalities in the stadium’s Diamond Club box seats. Last year Ted, 90, accepted a lifetime achievement award from the Urban Land Institute for the real estate empire he built from the ground up. In a Washington Post article published after the awards ceremony the Institute’s Lisa Rother praised Lerner “as a visionary real estate developer, generous philanthropist, MLB team owner and a pillar of the community.”

WALLACE LOH President, University of Maryland In a November 2015 “Ideas” column for Time magazine, the University of Maryland’s president invoked Frederick Douglass — whose statue had been erected weeks earlier on campus — as he discussed “the challenge now roiling American campuses: how to reconcile academic freedom and racial justice.” The statue later became a lightning rod for student protest, including efforts that eventually led to the renaming of Byrd Stadium — whose namesake was a segregationist UMd. president for nearly 20 mid-century years. But that’s not the only change in College Park. Cranes herald hundreds of millions of dollars in construction projects, including a new hotel, a computer science center, an engineering hall and an academic building. Under Loh, U-Md. joined the Big Ten Conference in 2014 and racked up five conference titles its first year.

PAUL MANAFORT Trump Advisor Manafort, Trump’s newlyminted head honcho and chief delegate wrangler, together with a slew of other experienced Republican operatives and former campaign managers Trump has brought on from the failed campaigns of Gov. Chris Christie (Ken Mckay), Gov. Scott Walker (Rick Wiley), and Ben Carson (Ed Brookover) have joined Trump world to help him secure the delegates and exude the “presidential demeanor” necessary to get Trump the Republican nomination. But, as with most presidential campaigns, the true believers and the newly added “establishment types” are jockeying furiously for position, with Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski and his allies, fighting back to preserve turf. Manafort made news and reportedly felt Trump’s ire for remarks he made to 100 RNC members at a closeddoor meeting in Florida suggesting that

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EXPENSIVE FACELIFT: SAUDI ARABIA HOPES TO BUY A NEW IMAGE, BUT WILL IT WORK?

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eal life, as we know, can be stranger than fiction. So, if the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s current, frenetic hiring spree of Washington lobby and public relations firms were the subject of a satirical novel it would be judged too far-fetched. This year, Saudi Arabia is conservatively estimated to be paying more than $20 million to K Street denizens to polish the desert kingdom’s tarnished image among American lawmakers and the media..

The most recent addition to a long list, according to the website Intercept.com, which tracks money and influence in politics, was BGR Government Affairs, founded by the former Republican Chairman Haley Barbour. BGR was one of five firms hired in 2015, and its reported $500,000 a year fee is a drop in the oil bucket compared to the astronomical sums paid to other firms on both sides of the political picture.

The Saudis are also clients of Qorvis MLS Group, the embassy’s prime contractor; the The Podesta Group, a lobbying firm with close ties to the Hillary Clinton campaign (Tony Podesta, who heads the firm, is the brother of John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton campaign), DLA Piper, and Pillsbury Winthrop.

The campaign coincides with the new monarch, King Salman, ascending the throne and pursuing a more aggressive foreign policy in the region at the expense of the decadesold practice of following America’s lead. The Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, and Obama’s recent remark that Saudi Arabia and Iran should “share the neighborhood,” disagreements over Syria’s civil war, and Saudi

Trump on the stump was “an image” he projected, and that the candidate projects “a different persona” in private discussions, as reported by RealClearPolitics. Still, for Trump to prevail, he will need the advice and dedication of his more experienced operatives and that means they will have

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Arabia’s disastrous Yemen offensive, alleged Saudi financial support for the Jihadists of alNusra, al-Qaida and ISIS, and the reduction of Saudi leverage from falling oil prices and U.S. declining dependence on oil, Saudi Arabia’s economic lifeline are all factors in the increased tension on the old alliance.

In addition, the enhanced reach of social media has placed the Saudi human rights record under unprecedented scrutiny even as the number of beheadings and whippings has spiked, as in the case of the blogger Raif Badawi sentenced to 1,000 lashes and the recent street beheading of a Burmese woman.

Ironically, an extensive and skillful use of Twitter and other social media is part of the new Saudi image enhancing strategy, along with lobbying Congress, engaging in dialogue with foreign policy experts, lavish receptions and trips to Saudi Arabia.

But is it money well spent? An essentially hostile Congress seems bent on legislation that would hold Saudi Arabia responsible for having a role in the 9/11 terrorist attack (15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis). Reports on President Obama’s visit to Saudi Arabia earlier in April did not hide the fact that the desert atmosphere was as cold as an Arctic winter.

But the Saudis have another, more potent, hold on Western governments – the prospect of lucrative arms purchases. For all the lack of bi-lateral warmth the Obama administration has since 2010 sold $108 billion worth of weapons to Riyadh, which is way more than the “friendly” George W. Bush administration’s $16 billion.

considerable inf luence on The Donald.

Manafort together with Glassner, a former Palin operative who was enlisted as national political director by team Trump in mid2015, will likely lead this quixotic campaign across the finish line for the Republican nomination, and perhaps the White House.

BILL MARRIOTT & ARNE SORENSON Executive Chairman; & Chairman of the Board and President & CEO, Marriott International He may go by “Bill,” but to hotel guests around the world, he is more recognizable as J.W. Marriott Jr. –the executive chairman of a hotel empire that reported more than $14 billion in revenue across its 4,400 lodging properties in 81 countries and territories last year. He and Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International, hope those numbers will explode with their acquisition of Starwood Hotels and Resorts, which owns 1,300 properties globally. After Starwood put itself up for sale last year, Marriott and Chinese insurance company Anbang engaged in an exhaustive bidding war that ended with the latter backing out in March. Insider sources marvel at how Marriott was able to kill the Chinese bid while keeping his fingerprints off of it by getting the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investments to put a hold on the deal, which led the Chinese government to withdraw their bid to avoid embarrassment. When finalized, the aquisition will make Marriott the largest hotel company in the world.

CHRIS MATTHEWS Host, MSNBC’s “Hardball” Although his wife Kathleen lost her recent bid for Congress, Chris Matthews continues to have outsized inf luence on the political conversation in Washington and around the country, and has been an inf luential journalistic voice amid a f lurry of talking heads reporting on the 2016 presidential election. . He recently threw Trump off script on his views of abortion, strategically maneuvering the presidential hopeful into letting his guard down. Trump maintained that women should be punished for having abortions, making his advisers cringe and his opponents celebrate. Matthews was praised for his

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unconventional approach to Trump’s notorious question-dodging antics.

JANE MAYER Journalist and Author In “Dark Money,” her groundbreaking book on political money and inf luence that has topped the New York Times’ best-seller list, this 20-plus year New Yorker veteran raised the stakes in her fight with what Mother Jones called “the Kochtopus.” And, boy, did they fight back.

Gawker called it a smear campaign stemming from a New Yorker article Mayer wrote on the Kochs in 2010. On the other hand, “Dark Money” revealed, per the Times, that “one or both of the Koch brothers apparently paid a P.I. firm … to dig up dirt on Mayer to retaliate.” Motivations and retaliations aside, Mayer is inf luencing serious political discourse on buying inf luence with the power of her searing pen.

J a n e M a y e r p h o t o c o u r t e s y L a r r y D . M o o r e v i a W i k i m e d i a C o mm o n s

KEITH MESTRICH President and CEO, Amalgamated Bank “Bankers are not the most popular figures in America right now,” Amalgamated Bank’s president and CEO journalist Katrina vanden Heuvel in one of 2015’s biggest understatements. Since joining the bank in 2012 and taking its top spot in 2014, Mestrich has attempted to remedy that with a community-banking approach resembling that of the late Curtin Windsor – Bank of Georgetown’s visionary founder. Mestrich has also offered unfailing support of grassroots and community-based organizations.

CHERYL MILLS Founder, BlackIvy Group BlackIvy Group’s founder and CEO has built and grown commercial enterprises in sub-Saharan Africa and is, together with Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan, one of the three closest personal advisors to Hillary Clinton.

Politico called her “the only person who

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says no to Hillary.” Mills also acted as general counsel to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign and advised her as State Department chief of staff. Republicans have alleged that Mills had knowledge of Clinton’s private email server in 2012 but her office responded otherwise to a State Department Inspector General’s request.”

LAWRENCE MISHEL President, Economic Policy Institute This nationally recognized economist joined the inf luential Economic Policy Institute (EPI) as research director in 1987, before becoming the nonprofit, nonpartisan group’s president in 2002. His think tank is devoted to the needs of lowand middle-income workers in economic policy discussions and in the past year its reach and inf luence have been extraordinary.

EPI and its president were cited in six New York Times editorials, among 179 mentions in the Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal alone. Website visitors jumped 79 percent from the previous year, topping 5 million in 2015. EPI partnered with dozens of other organizations incuding the AFL-CIO, Oxfam America, the NAACP and La Raza) last year.

SUSAN MOLINARI & bill PAXON Vice President for Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google and Senior Adviser, Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Fed, LLP Power couple Susan Molinari and Bill Paxon know politics, both having served as Republican members of Congress from New York.

After their retirement from government, the likeminded duo both found homes in the lobbying world — Paxon as a senior adviser with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, the country’s top-spending lobbying firm in 2015, and Molinari as Google’s vice president of public policy and government

affairs. Her team “interacts with government and elected officials to explain Google’s products and promote the growth of the web. There’s also the creation of holding company Alphabet (which boosted revenue in the last three months of 2015 more than $3 billion from the same period in 2014).

ROBERT MOSER JR. President & CEO, Clark Construction Group It’s impossible to drive a city block in the Washington, D.C. metro area and not see a sign for Clark Construction because the massive Bethesda-based company capitalizes on the region’s f lourishing economy. It is arguably the biggest developer in a place that never stops developing. At the helm is Robert Moser, better known as “Robby,” who began working at Clark as a field engineer in 1997.

Since that time he has grown the megacontractor into a $4 billion-plus business.

Earlier this year, Clark Enterprises, the parent company of Clark Construction, announced that the management group, including Moser, would purchase majority ownership of the company. Many of Washington’s most prominent landmarks have been built by Clark and that’s a legacy Moser and his team strive to continue. Beyond the opening of the highly-anticipated National Museum of African American History & Culture, Clark has plans to build the new D.C. United Stadium, complete phase two of the Metro’s Silver Line and continue spearheading work on Southwest Waterfront’s Wharf project.

JANET MURGUÍA President & CEO, National Council of LaRaza During her Kansas City childhood, the president and CEO of the National Council of LaRaza says that her Latino family “experienced the American Dream firsthand.” With her personal history in mind, she leads the group committed to breaking down barriers for Latinos in this country. The Council has registered 500,000 new voters to date and says that, where

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politics are concerned, it will “turn our eyes and ears to 2016 to make sure … our voices are heard at the ballot box.” Murguía has been vocal in her firm opposition to Donald Trump, who has called for the construction of a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and the deportation of all illegal immigrants. Her candid rhetoric combined with an esteemed reputation ensure that she will always have a seat at the Democratic Party’s table regardless of who wins the nomination. robert musslewhite Chairman & CEO, The Advisory Board The Advisory Board Company chairman and CEO’s ascendancy of the corporate ladder has been called “meteoric.”

He has been credited with breathing new life in Advisory Board, the once wildly successful company that was f lailing when he took over. The company’s 2014 annual report cited more than $520 million in revenue, easily double its 2010 figure. Many have called Musslewhite the architect of the comeback.

In late February however, ABC’s shares tanked following disappointing quarterly results. Still, Musslewhite remains steadfast.

“While we expect to see lower revenue growth,” he told The Motley Fool, “we will draw on our differentiated foundation of insight … to continue to drive outsized impact on healthcare and education.”

CHRISTOPHER NASSETTa President & CEO, Hilton Worldwide In 2014 the Washington Post called Nassetta, “the man who turned around Hilton” and the massive hotel chain’s president and CEO is just getting started.

In its latest annual report, Hilton, which is owned by the Blackstone Group, boasts 715,000 rooms in 94 nations with another 320,000 in the pipeline. If Marriott’s takeover of Starwood Hotels and Resorts goes through, Hilton will lose its coveted spot as No. 1 hotelier in the world. Nassetta took immediate action responding to the

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prospective merger and confirmed in late February that Hilton “will spin off its lodging properties and timeshare business into separate publicly traded companies in a bid to boost shareholder value,” according to Bloomberg. “By simplifying our business,” Nassetta said, “each segment should benefit.” On another front, Hilton is also aggressively exploring hostel-concept lodgings that will appeal to millennials.

TOM NIDES Vice Chairman, Morgan Stanley Although the former deputy secretary of state under President Obama did not, as expected, take a high-ranking role in the presidential campaign of his former State Department boss, Hillary Clinton, the Morgan Stanley vice chairman has nonetheless been active in this election cycle. Frequently quoted on matters of foreign policy in relation to the Democratic race, Nides has also been politically active through his firm’s political action committee. According to OpenSecrets, its PAC spent $601,000 as of March 31 report.

Insiders say Nides dodged a bullet on Benghazi as he was the State Department official in charge of admininstrative managment at the time of the ambush.

Although he testified before the congressional committee investigating Benghazi, he was not blamed for anything.

The speculation is he will be Hillary Clinton’s chief of staff if she wins the White House.

GROVER NORQUIST Founder & President, Americans for Tax Reform Since founding Americans for Tax Reform at President Reagan’s request in 1985, Norquist has worked diligently to recast America’s budget. His group’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, which pushes for no new income taxes and no reduction in deductions without matching lowered rates, has been signed by all but 16 Republican representatives

and six senators. Norquist’s goal, he says, “is to reduce the size of government … and eventually get it small enough that if you wanted you could drown it in the tub.” With tax reform looming during a potential Hillary Clinton presidency paired with a Republicancontrolled Congress, Norquist is sure to be making headlines in the coming years.

PHEBE NOVAKOVIC Chairman and CEO, General Dynamics Last year Fortune magazine named Novakovic its No. 10 most powerful woman, calling her “the spy in General Dynamics’ corner office.” Indeed, the former C.I.A. operative has used some of that background to her advantage at the helm of the nation’s No. 4 defense contractor.

She has been criticized for being “allergic to the press” and for limiting her contacts with most Wall Street analysts to quarterly calls, but this seems to have worked in her favor. Revenue is up from 2014 according to General Dynamics’s 2015 annual report, topping $31 billion last year, a rebound from revenue declines in years past.

MILT & JON PETERSON Principals, Peterson Companies The Peterson family is a major force in local development.

National Harbor, Md., its 300-acre development on the outskirts of the District, is a glowing example of the firm’s ability to analyze market-demand and then execute. The mixeduse project packed with retail, restaurants and lodging is flooded by locals and tourists on a daily basis. In addition to hosting the high profile Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord Convention Center next year, National Harbor will soon be home to casino giant MGM Resorts International. The project, slated for completion later this year, will occupy 23 acres and 1 million square feet of land. If that doesn’t impress you, the Peterson Companies just announced a massive new mixed-use project to cover an additional 1.28 million square feet in National Harbor with residential, hotel and retail.

Other notable developments are in Fair Lakes,

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Burke Center and downtown Silver Spring.

ERICH PICA President, Friends of the Earth Friends of the Earth, led by Erich Pica, is pushing the bounds of advocacy and succeeding across multiple fronts. In the fight to keep fossil fuels in the ground, the organization was instrumental in stopping the Keystone XL pipeline. By investigating and publicly exposing conflicts of interest, it was able to undermine the credibility of the State Department’s environmental review of Keystone, leading to the delay and eventual denial of its permit by President Obama. The organization is redefining fossil fuel public lands advocacy by leading the “Keep it in the Ground” movement, contributing to a moratorium on coal permitted on federal lands.

Advocating for safer, healthier food, Friends of the Earth’s corporate campaigning tactics persuaded Lowe’s and Home Depot, the two largest garden retailers, to remove bee-killing pesticides from shelves. It is also blocking the sale of GMO salmon by convincing 60-plus grocery store chains in more than 9,000 stores (including Safeway, Kroger, Target, Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods) across the U.S., not to sell it.

Internationally, Friends of the Earth is tracking financial flows and fighting to ensure that new global financial players such as China, Brazil and India are incorporating environmental and social standards into their financing practices.

Furthermore, the organization is leading the environmental effort to stop the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership in both the U. S. and with sister groups in Europe. Pica recently served as chairman of the Green Group and is board chairman of the Partnership Project.

JOHN PODESTA Chairman, Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign When Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton appointed Clinton and Obama Administration veteran John Podesta as her campaign chairman, The New York Times called him her “right hand with a punch”

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Hilary Rosen, Managing Director, SKDKnickerbocker. Photographed at Cafe Milano.

while crediting him with saving Bill Clinton’s presidency “from the fires of scandal” and salvaging Barack Obama’s presidency “from gridlock and malaise.” In his chairman’s role for Hillary, he has eliminated problems of organizational disarray that lingered from her 2008 campaign and helped propel the former secretary of state to a commanding lead in the Democratic primaries over challenger-from-the-left Sen. Bernie Sanders. Numerous publications have called for Podesta’s dismissal — a sure sign of power wielded — but he seems to have a hold on the reins. And, if his tweets are any indication, he still has a quirky penchant for discovering the real truth about UFOs.

TONY PODESTA Founder & Chairman, Podesta Group More than a year after a much-reported divorce from his wife, lobbyist Heather Podesta, this Podesta Group founder and chairman is still leveraging the narrative for clients of the global public affairs powerhouse that bears his name. “As the playbook for moving an advocacy agenda continues to change, we continue to bolster ours,” Podesta CEO Kimberley Fritts told Politico. According to watchdog site OpenSecrets, the Podesta Group earned more than $23 million in lobbying income

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in 2015 from major clients including the Saudi Arabia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Wells Fargo and Lockheed Martin.

EARL RUSTY POWELL Director, National Gallery of Art This is a big year for Earl A. (Rusty) Powell III and the National Gallery of Art of which he has been director since 1992. The NGA is marking its 75th anniversary as a purpose built gallery to house 900 art works left to the nation by Washington financier, art collector,and former Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon. Powell called it “the largest single gift ever given by an individual to a government.” In March, he reactivated the long dormant Andrew Mellon Memorial Fountain situated opposite the gallery to launch a yearlong series of anniversary celebrations, including a reception for over 1,400 donors large and small in the NGA’s galleries. On display were some of the 6,500 art works absorbed by the NGA from the Corcoran Gallery of Art when the latter was forced to close in 2014 because of financial problems; but the complicated process of selecting what to add to the NGA’s collection – one large museum digesting another of considerable size – is nowhere near complete. At the same time, the National Gallery brought to a close a unique exhibition of Hellenic bronzes which was one of its most successful shows. And by September, Powell hopes to be able to re-open the I.M.Pei East Wing, which has been closed since 2014 for renovation and enlargement – an undertaking financed by $30 million in private donations.

REINCE PRIEBUS & KATIE WALSH Chairman and Chief of Staff, Republican National Committee Priebus weilds considerable power given that he will be presiding over a highly divided and potentially contested Republican convention.

Whatever Donald Trump has done or will do to damage the Republican Party, Priebus will

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have to fix it. Following a series of contradicting statements on abortion and Trump’s retraction of his vow to support the G.O.P’s eventual nominee, the two men met for about an hour to focus on “party unity” and other topics Priebus wished to air to get things back on track. Since becoming chief of staff in January 2015, Walsh has made waves herself, even approaching CNBC officials during an October debate regarding the dearth of questions for Jeb Bush (an issue which led the RNC to break with NBC for future debates).

Now, Walsh is working with other operatives to prepare for a contested convention. As one insider put it, “there’s no Reince without Katie as she executes everything and is wise beyond her years.”

MARTHA RADDATZ Moderator, “This Week,” ABC News Since formally joining George Stephanopoulos as co-anchor of ABC News’ “This Week” in January, Raddatz has helped boost the show to its strongest season-to-date ratings performance in seven years — bolstered by election coverage that has seen nearly every major candidate appear on the show. This follows a performance in the Democratic presidential debate where Raddatz went toe-to-toe with Hillary Clinton and outshone moderator David Muir in front of a Nielsen-reported 7.85 million Saturday night viewers. Raddatz’s move to “This Week,” which will keep Stephanopoulos’s name in the title, elevated ABC Chief White House Correspondent Jonathan Karl to the primary substitute role. Though not the first, Raddatz is the only current female host of a network news Sunday show.

ANDREW SHAPIRO & MICHAEL ALLEN Co-founders,Beacon Global Strategies; a Shapiro, Hillary Clinton’s former deputy Secretary of State, and Allen, a former White House staffer for President Gerorge W. Bush, and their foreign policy consulting firm, Beacon Strategies, have remarkably

been advising both Republican and Democratic presidential candidates alike, including Cruz, Rubio and Clinton. The hawkish foreign policy group, founded in 2013 by Shapiro, Allen, Phillipe Reines, a long-time spokesman and media fixer for Hillary Clinton, and Jeremy Bash, former Pentagon and CIA Chief of Staff to Leon Panetta, also advises companies, primarly defense contractors focused on international defense business, as well as cyber, according to Politico.

JOHN F W ROGERS Executive Vice President, Goldman Sachs Some call Rogers “the prince of the Acela corridor” as he is constantly traveling between Washington and New York. A former State Department undersecretary and assistant Treasury secretary, the man Bloomberg called “Goldman’s quiet power player” and Business Insider called “one of the scariest, most important people at Goldman Sachs” has helped keep the company on good terms with government while protecting the company’s industryleading bottom line ($34 billion in net revenue in 2014). Goldman continues to hire high-level Republican and Democratic officials, who go in and out of government, to preserve its’ outsized inf luence.

HORACIO ROZANSKI President & CEO, Booz Allen Hamilton The Washington Post called this Argentine power-player “the man who will steer Booz Allen Hamilton into the future.”

His business chops are considerable. In November 2015, little more than a year after taking the job, his firm bought a software development unit to help Booz Allen expand its technical portfolio and customer base. According to its 2014 annual report, the consulting giant took in more than $5.4 billion in revenue, down from the previous fiscal year. But it was paired with a boost in operating and net incomes.

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DAVID RUBENSTEIN Co-founder, The Carlyle Group and Chairman, The Kennedy Center Since co-founding The Carlyle Group in 1987, this mega-philanthropist has fought to preserve myriad national landmarks that dot the Potomac’s shores, all the while building his private equity firm into a worldwide force managing more than $200 billion.

In March, the New Yorker published a story about a major source of Rubenstein’s wealth, his use of the “carried interest loophole,” a tax break that allows private investment funds to pay a lower tax rate than most individuals.

This year, candidates for president, including Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have attacked the loophole, although Rubenstein continues to maintain it is both justified and necessary to encourage his business to succeed and has successfully lobbied members of Congress and officials in several presidential administrations to keep it in effect.

Rubenstein, who has a personal net worth of $2.4 billion, has signed “The Giving Pledge” and plans to give away most of his wealth during his lifetime. He serves as a Smithsonian regent and is the chairman of the Kennedy Center, Duke University and the National Gallery of Art. DEBORAH RUTTER President, Kennedy Center When Deborah Rutter, the former president of the Chicago Symphony was appointed head of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts 18 months ago, the Washington Post described her as “a breath of fresh air from the Windy City.” Fresh air? Cyclone was more like it. Rutter has taken the country’s largest cultural complex by the scruff of its neck and vigorously shaken it out of its complacency. Not that the Kennedy Center didn’t have a good reputation, but Rutter is about pushing boundaries and getting more out of people than they thought they could give. Washington Post critic Anne Midgette

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has called her “one of those rare individuals everyone likes” – which for Rutter herself is probably beside the point. What she wants most of all is to raise the performing level of the National Symphony Orchestra - for which she has hired the brilliant conductor Gianandrea Noseda as the new musical director (a controversial choice since Noseda has made a reputation as an opera conductor); to have the coming Wagner “Ring Cycle” - the highlight of the Washington Opera’s program this season - live up to expectations; to attract a broader – and younger – audience to the Kennedy Center; to promote more contemporary “classical” music (for which she has appointed the Kennedy Center’s composer in residence); and to broaden the cultural landscape. Hence her engagement of Q-Tip, best known as the founder of the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest as artistic director of Hip-Hop Culture.

FRED RYAN & MARTY BARON Publisher, The Washington Post; Executive Editor, The Washington Post Ryan, left his job as Allbritton Communications’ president and chief operating officer when Jeff Bezos named him publisher of the Washington Post in September 2014. Baron is the second Post executive editor to get the Jason Robards treatment — although this time it was by Liev Schreiber in Best Picture Oscar-winner “Spotlight” and focused on Baron’s time as editor of The Boston Globe. Together, they’ve pushed the District’s paper of record into an all-around digital news agency (driven in no small part by Bezos, the founder of Amazon, who bought the Post for $250 million in 2013). The Post’s new headquarters at One Franklin Square, which the trio officially inaugurated in late January, is a big part of that commitment.

“We’re becoming a digital news organization, and everything that means,” said Baron, whom Esquire recently said could be “the best news editor of all time.” Baron added, “There’s a lot of pressure in the business right now. We have to move quickly.”

KEN SAMET President and CEO, Medstar Health As president and CEO of MedStar Health overseeing a $4.6 billion healthcare system that sees more than 800,000 patients each year, Samet was thrust into national headlines this March when he weathered a security firestorm after hackers infiltrated his organization’s computer system. The catastrophe sent MedStar back to the paper-charting era, prompting FBI involvement and many weeks of recovery time. He had sharp words for the hackers, calling “the attempt to negatively impact an institution designed to save lives and care for those in need” a “sad and troublesome reality of our times.”

PETER SCHER Regional Chairman and Head of Corporate Responsibility, JPMorgan Chase When JPMorgan Chase lost about $2 billion in 2012, it fell upon the firm’s regional chairman and head of corporate responsibility to help mitigate the crisis. Scher, who is seen by many as a permanent member of the Washington establishment, also made waves leveraging the banking company’s major philanthropic gifts, including its Global Cities initiative, a partnership with the Brookings Institution to help cities understand how to participate more effectively in the global economy.

The firm had a year-to-date value of more than $153 billion at deadline according to the Wall Street Journal.

STEPHANIE SCHRIOCK President, Emily’s List The so-called “Acela primaries” were a wild night for Schriock and the slate of female candidates for congressional offices her organization has backed with more than $52 million raised during her tenure alone. Although there was disappointment in the form of Rep. Donna Edwards’

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2015 TOP SPENDERS

Which lobbying groups spent the most funds in 2015? Here are the top 20, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. >> US Chamber of Commerce - $84,730,000 National Assn of Realtors - $37,788,407 Blue Cross/Blue Shield - $23,292,049 American Medical Assn - $21,930,000 Boeing Co - $21,921,000 General Electric - $20,920,000 American Hospital Assn - $20,687,935 Business Roundtable - $19,250,000 Pharmaceutical Rsrch & Mfrs of America $18,920,000 National Assn of Broadcasters - $17,360,000 National Assn of Manufacturers - $16,950,000 Alphabet Inc - $16,660,000 AT&T Inc - $16,370,000 Comcast Corp - $15,680,000 CVS Health - $15,230,000 National Cable & Telecommunications Assn $14,120,000 Lockheed Martin - $13,794,05 Southern Co - $12,860,000 American Bankers Assn - $12,690,000 FedEx Corp - $12,405,835

S o u r c e : O p e n s e c r e t s .o r g

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loss in the Democratic Senate primary in Maryland, there was triumph in Pennsylvania, where Katie McGinty won her race.

Most of the more than 30 candidates Emily’s List backs, including Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) in her Senate race, Kamala Harris’ California Senate run and Catherine Cortez Masto for Senate in Nevada, would not be competitive without the group’s financial and political support. With more than 3 million members, Emily’s List will continue to exert considerable influence. andy shallal Owner, Busboys and Poets The nation’s capital does not take the First Amendment lightly and neither does community activist Andy Shallal, who has welcomed artists, writers and performers from all walks of life into his restaurant/performing arts Busboys & Poets venues. Over the last decade, he turned the self-proclaimed “gathering place” into a six-location fixture of Washington’s art community. His newest concept Mulebone, named after a Zora Neale Hurston and Langston Hughes play, dishes Southern fare and in true Shallal fashion, showcases retail from local lifestyle brands. The restaurateur who ran for Mayor in 2013, was also recently appointed by Mayor Bowser to preside over the District’s Workforce Investment Council, a board run by the privatesector that advises local government how to allocate funds for job training programs. Upon his appointment, Shallal said, “I am ready to get to work ... to improve workforce development and ultimately achieve our shared goal of expanding meaningful prosperity and lift up our city.”

MARC SHORT & STEVE LOMBARDO Koch Companies Lombardo joined The Koch Companies Public Sector in Februar y 2014 as the billionaire brothers’ industr y consortium’s chief communications and marketing off icer after a short stint as public affairs and crisis chair for

Burson-Marsteller. Short had led the Koch brothers’ political arm, Freedom Partners, before leaving in Februar y for the presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio and consult for several Senate and gubernatorial candidates, some of whom are likely to get Koch backing. It has been reported that he is also consulting for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Lombardo and remaining Koch operatives have only just begun to rev up their political machine this election cycle, in which the Kochs intend to spend an unprecedented $ 889 million.

Short also runs Mitch McConnell’s super PAC while still helping the Kochs. chris shelton President, Communication Workers of America A f ter on ly a ye a r a s pre sident of t he C WA u n ion , Shelton f lexed t he col lec t ive mu scle s of t he 6 0 0,0 0 0 70 0,0 0 0 U. S. com mu n ic at ion s worker s he repre sent s by st a nd i n g w it h sm a l l bu si ne s s a nd A mer ic a n worker s a nd st a nd i n g up to t he Oba m a ad m i n i st r at ion a nd t he mu lt in at ion a l cor por at ion s t h at back t he Tr a n s Pac i f ic Pa r t ner sh ip ( T PP ) t r ade de a l. Shelton , who se u n ion i s not l a rg e but i s seen a s power f u l bec au se of h i s abi l it y to m a ke m a i nt a i n st ron g rel at ion sh ips on Capitol H i l l a nd i n t he ad m i n i st r at ion , wa s out-f ront a nd voc a l when le a k s reve a led t h at t he sec ret T PP a g reement wou ld g ive ba n k s a way to subver t t he l aw by a l low i n g U. S. ba n k reg u l at ion s to be ch a l len g ed i n foreig n t r ibu n a l s.

H i s popu l i st u n ion endor sed Ber n ie Sa nder s e a rly on — at a t i me when no one bel ieved h i s c a mpa ig n wou ld be able to t a ke on t he Cl i nton ju g g er n aut. Shelton’s C WA h a s a l so joi ned ot her u n ion s, com mu n it y g roups a nd A mer ic a n s i n t he “F ig ht for $ 15” c a mpa ig n , to g ive A mer ic a n s a m i n i mu m wa g e of $ 15 a n hou r.

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KEVIN SEIFERT & JAKE KASTAN Team Ryan fundraiser Recruiting two longtime aides in his stronger-thanever political operation, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) announced his “Team Ryan,” a fundraising and political endeavor, in November after assuming the speakership. Seifert, formerly Ryan’s Washington chief of staff, and Kastan, once high up in Ryan’s Prosperity Action PAC and the then-congressman’s “body man” during 2012’s vice presidential campaign, lead the Team as executive director and deputy executive director, respectively.

As of an April Politico report, Ryan took in $17 million this quarter through Team Ryan, “a joint committee” that supports the National Republican Congressional Committee, Prosperity Action and his Ryan for Congress committee. While the Speaker has repeatedly said he won’t pursue or accept the GOP presidential nomination, enthusiasm for his legislative agenda has driven big money through Seifert and Kastan’s organization. The largest individual donation to Team Ryan was from Charles Koch, in stark contrast to the billionaire executive’s tepid thoughts on the Republican presidential slate that led him to say it was “possible” he could support Hillary Clinton.

J KNOX SINGLETON CEO, Inova After 25 years under Singleton’s leadership, Inova is now serving more than 2 million people each year in its 1,700 beds across Northern Virginia and is still eyeing expansion. Inova is scheduled to open/opened a newly-expanded, state-of the art children’s and women’s hospitals facilities, part of $850 million in improvements to the nonprofit healthcare company’s Fairfax campus. In February, Singleton unveiled a $100 million venture fund based on precision medicine. Last May he announced the largest gift in Inova’s history, a massive

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$50 million from developer Dwight Schar, in a year that also saw the $180 million purchase of Exxon Mobil’s old Merrifield Campus and the unveling of a $250 million cancer center project. “I’m not sure it was some ‘Eureka!’ in the middle of the night,” Singleton told the Business Journal (which named him its CEO of the Year) of the Merrifield expansion. “But it was clearly where the economic opportunities lie.”

DAVID SKORTON Secretary, The Smithsonian Institution In nearly a year since he left his post as president of Cornell University to become secretary of the venerable Smithsonian Institution, this ex-University of Iowa president has made waves at the world’s largest museum complex. Ahead of the much awaited opening of the National Museum of African American History this fall, the Smithsonian’s 13th secretary has presented his congressional pursers with a $922.2 million budget request for Fiscal Year 2017 that represents an $82 million uptick from this fiscal year. “Innovation comes from the ideas of individual people,” he says. “If you’re interested in innovating, you have to … allow people to try out new ideas and take risks.”

JON TALISMAN Founding Partner, Capitol Tax Partners With a résumé that includes serving as assistant U.S. treasury secretary for tax policy during the administration of President Bill Clinton, chief tax counsel to the Senate Finance Committee under Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan and a transactional tax planner for powerhouse Akin Gump, it would be safe to say that Talisman is not your average tax lobbyist. His firm, which he founded in 2001, has clients that include Amazon, Citigroup, Delta, Time Warner and a slew of big banks specializes in tax and political affairs matters. In fact, some call him “the number one tax guru in the United States.” Having occasionally given

advice to then-Sens. Barack Obama (DIll.) and Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) , he would be on a shortlist for a senior tax role in a Democratic administration.

NEERA TANDEN President and CEO, Center for American Progress Since joining the progressive Washington think tank Center for American Progress as one of its first senior staffers, this former policy adviser to Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign, domestic policy director for the Obama-Biden ticket and deputy campaign manager of Clinton’s 2000 senatorial run has risen to president and CEO of the group, which is widely acknowledged as providing the policy underpinnings of the Hillary Clinton campaign. She was also associate director for domestic policy in President Bill Clinton’s administration and policy adviser to Hillary Clinton during her time as first lady. Tanden has lauded Clinton’s commitment to making “a government that looks like America,” which she has championed from her perch atop the Center (founded in part by Clinton campaign manager John Podesta).

VIRGINIA THOMAS Lobbyist In the days before “Confirmation” aired on HBO in mid-April, critics and fans alike examined the life and career of Virginia Thomas, the lobbyist wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who is hailed by insiders to be part of the right wing’s ideological and lobbying intelligencia.

Her husband’s famously tumultuous confirmation process — blown open by sexual harassment allegations from his former staffer Anita Hill — drives the HBO drama.

Her 2011 founding of Liberty Consulting and subsequent role as “a self-appointed ambassador to the freshmen Republican [congressional] class and … the tea party” raised eyebrows. Thomas made headlines in 2012 again when congressional Democrats called her relationship with anti-Obamacare

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lobbyists and donors a conflict of interest as her husband ruled on it from the bench.

million on lobbying in 2015, according to watchdog website OpenSecrets.

CHUCK TODD Moderator, “Meet the Press,” NBC News Since taking over “Meet The Press” in 2014, this NBC anchor has gone head-to-head with 2016 presidential candidates and pushed the national conversation from his post as moderator of the longest-running Sunday morning interview show.

Todd earned headlines in March when he made an about-face and announced he would no longer allow Donald Trump to call into his show, saying the Republican frontrunner could only participate if he appeared in person. Under his direction, “Meet the Press” continues to lead the ratings in the Washington, D.C. market, where it has ranked number one in total viewers since March of 2015.

The national ratings are just as good, and on April 17, the show took the lead over the other networks, winning #1 across the board and topping A BC for the 15th straight broadcast.

CHRIS WALLACE & BRET BAIER Moderator, “Fox News Sunday” and Chief Political Anchor, Fox News Few would doubt that when the Wallace-Baier dynamic duo teamed up with Megyn Kelly for the f irst Republican debate of the season, the race really took off. And if the highest ratings of any non-sports cable program in history are any indication (a whopping 24 million viewers per Variety-reported Nielsen stats), viewers simply couldn’t turn away. On a main stage that still featured ten candidates, the two anchors and Kelly deftly navigated the crags of a f ield that was anything but predictable.

When he’s not moderating, Wallace (who in 2014 celebrated a half-century in broadcasting and is known as the dean of the Sunday shows) hosts “Fox News Sunday” from Washington, which is celebrated its 20th anniversary in April.

Baier, in addition to his role as Fox News’s chief political anchor, draws the largest cable news audience in his time slot for “Special Report with Bret Baier.”

RICHARD TRUMKA President, AFL-CIO The 56 members of the AFL-CIO represent about 12.5 million workers, and the president of the country’s largest organization of labor unions has become one of the nation’s leading advocates of raising workers’ wages during a slow economic recovery since becoming its president in 2009. In the political arena, that means declaring war on Donald Trump or refusing to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary in order to seem neutral. Eighteen unions have endorsed frontrunner Hillary Clinton, but “the AFL-CIO’s decision to stay out of the Democratic race is viewed by some as a victory for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ campaign. Separately, the union conglomerate spent more than $5

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RANDI WEINGARTEN President, American Federation of Teachers As president since 2008 of the American Federation of Teachers, 1.6 million members strong, Weingarten has worked to put meaningful education reform high on the nation’s agenda. With a carefully caveated position of tentative positivity on the much-debated Common Core standards rolled out to tepid response over the past few years, the AFT has carefully weighed issues in education against labor interests, leading to an endorsement of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries. Her backing of Clinton only

boosts Weingarten’s power status. In the political funding arena, the AFT’s PAC has spent more than $4.5 million this election cycle, according to the most recent reports.

CARDINAL DONALD WUERL Roman Catholic Archbishop of Washington In terms of his present post, Cardinal Donald Wuerl is living on borrowed time. In 2015 he reached the age of 75 and offered his mandatory resignation to Pope Francis.

But until the pope names a successor, which generally takes months, it’s business as usual for the unfailingly courteous, unf lappable but somehow still distant spiritual leader of the Washington area’s 630,000 Roman Catholics, which, of course, includes some of the country’s leading political f igures. The former Speaker John Boehner, for example, said he went to the cardinal for spiritual counsel when he decided to step down.

Wuerl knows how to lobby privately while maintaining good relations in public, almost a “lost art” in today’s political arena. As bishop of Pittsburgh he took early action against pedophile priests in his diocese, but typically, privately, and under his leadership the DC archdiocese has an inclusive approach to immigration.

Post-Washington, he is likely to end up as a close adviser to Pope Francis, whom he has known for years, and whose successful Washington visit he ably organized in September 2015. He is already one of two Americans who screen nominations for bishops around the world. But the word is that he wants an active part in helping Pope Francis “picking up where (the reformist) Vatican II left off.”

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