McBee

jeff markeybs<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Calibri, Trebuchet, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Jeff Markey joined McBee Strategic in 2003. As Advocacy Director and a member of the McBee Strategic executive committee, Jeff is focused on ensuring that the advocacy business unit drives success across the McBee Strategic platform.  He manages the firm’s application and collaboration of high level client strategies across the Advocacy practice.  Additionally, Jeff maintains a lead role in managing a large number of transportation, energy, and public sector clients. Since joining McBee Strategic, Jeff has worked extensively across the McBee Strategic client base and has helped the firm grow from its first year to where it is today with three diverse business units centered on providing results oriented solutions for McBee Strategic clients.<p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); font-family: Calibri, Trebuchet, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; text-align: justify; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Prior to joining McBee Strategic, Jeff spent a decade in government service where he served as the Legislative Director and Deputy Chief of Staff to the current House Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-WA).  Previously, he served in a similar capacity for former Congressman Jack Metcalf (R-WA). Jeff also worked for Senator John Seymour (R-CA) and the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Political Military Affairs. Jeff received his Bachelor of Arts from The Catholic University of America, his Master of Arts from the American University, and is a graduate of the United States Air Force Air Command and Staff College. Jeff lives in Virginia with his wife Kate and their three children.--

Rob Chamberlin never took his ex-boss, Steve McBee, for the type who would sell his K Street outfit to a big, multinational advertising conglomerate.  Turns out, he was right — sort of.  
But he could not have predicted what happened to the firm late last year.  Like his other 60 colleagues, Chamberlin was shocked when McBee announced <a href="http://blogs.rollcall.com/beltway-insiders/k-street-files-steve-mcbee-on-leaving-his-shop/?dcz=" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">his departure from the shop he founded to take the chief executive job at energy company NRG Home</a> . Law firm Wiley Rein bought McBee Strategic Consulting and amid the chaos nearly 20 people hit the exits, including McBee's wife, Jennifer Noland, and several high-level lobbyists.  The drama is over now, according to Chamberlin and others who remain at McBee. Their message: McBee is open for business, clients are signing up and the firm is making senior-level hires as it rebuilds under the new ownership. “The uncertainty is really gone,” said Chamberlin, who spent a decade working in <a href="http://www.rollcall.com/issues/53_102/-22367-1.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">McBee’s mini-empire</a> . “It’s almost the best of both worlds: We’re an independent wholly owned subsidiary, yet we have all the benefits and resources of working with a large law firm.”  McBee Strategic recently brought in Noe Garcia, a longtime lobbyist and policy veteran, as an executive vice president. And the firm announced last week a new hire, Clare Adams, who will serve as a director specializing in cybersecurity. She joined from Intel Security.  Chamberlin, Eric Bovim, Jessica Rihani, Sam Whitehorn and Jeff Markey round out the McBee leadership team, which also includes Wiley Rein executives Peter Shields and Kim Melvin.  Bovim, who folded his communications outfit Gibraltar Associates into McBee Strategic in January 2013, said the pipeline for new advocacy and communications work in the first 30 days of this year has resulted in contracts valued at $2 million of annual business.  “Wiley has inundated us with client leads,” Bovim said of the new parent during an interview in the airy, hipster-esque McBee suite at 4th Street and Massachusetts Avenue Northwest, across town from Wiley Rein’s K Street digs. They don’t plan to move in together.  <div class="mainbody-subscribe" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 20px;"><div class="email-box" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="footerSubscription" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span class="glyphicon glyphicon-menu-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; top: 1px; display: inline-block; line-height: 1; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></div></div></div>Even though the tumult has quieted down and many employees stuck around, the departures took a toll.  Rival firm Podesta Group scooped up Matt Johnson — a rare K Streeter with close ties to Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas — and Josh Lahey, a communications specialist. Emily Crane Pimentel, a vice president, left McBee just two weeks ago to go in-house for ICANN.  And McBee disclosed several client terminations at the beginning of the year, including the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, Corrections Corporation of America, Eastman Chemical Co. and the National Mining Association, among others. (The firm is keeping NRG as a lobbying client, Chamberlin said.)  Bovim acknowledged a period when the firm was “bereft of leadership” — McBee himself was focused on finding a buyer for his shop in the fall, though many of his employees were completely in the dark.  “You have to understand, the day that Steve told us between the time when the Wiley opportunity arose, there was a period of a couple weeks of complete uncertainty,” Bovim said. “A lot of people, especially junior people, were looking at this and thinking, ‘Am I even going to have a job in two, three weeks, a month?’ And they began looking in earnest.”  Bovim, Chamberlin and Shields, Wiley Rein’s managing partner, stress the departures were all voluntary; some senior employees who left were under heavy pressure to stay. But Wiley Rein, when making the deal whose terms the firms will not disclose, factored in staff and client attrition. (The McBees were the sole owners of the shop.)  “We are encouraging them to hire new people. We want them investing and hiring,” Shields said. “We’re having a lot of discussions about growth and hiring.” He said the firm does not have a head-count target. “Smart growth for us is the right people, whether it’s eight or 20,” he said.  Shields also won’t specify Wiley Rein’s revenue targets for McBee, which last year brought in more than $10 million in Lobbying Disclosure Act fees.  “They don’t have immense pressure in year one,” Shields said. “We are in this for the long haul, and we want it to work.”  And if there is any remaining animosity for the shop’s ex-owner — insiders say there never was an official going-away fete for McBee — Chamberlin and Bovim won’t let on to it publicly.  Once Chamberlin understood the unbelievable opportunity McBee had before him to run a $6 billion energy company with 5,000 employees, he said, he believes McBee had no choice but to take the job.  “I would’ve done it in a heartbeat," Chamberlin said. "I would’ve been like, ‘Hey, love you guys, see you later.’”  Kate Ackley is a staff writer at CQ Roll Call who keeps tabs on the influence industry. <a href="http://info.cqrollcall.com/NewMemberGuide2014.html" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: none;">The 114th: CQ Roll Call's Guide to the New Congress </a>Get- See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/k-street-files-mcbee-shop-rebuilding-under-wiley-rein#sthash.F74zMUa9.dpuf - See more at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/home/k-street-files-mcbee-shop-rebuilding-under-wiley-rein#sthash.F74zMUa9.dpufhttp://www.rollcall.com/news/home/k-street-files-mcbee-shop-rebuilding-under-wiley-rein=
McBee Strategic Consulting — 10 Clients

The client list at McBee Strategic Consulting is diverse, and so are its lobbyists. McBee’s roster includes a bipartisan pair of former counsel to the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee (Democrat Samuel Whitehorn and Republican Robert Chamberlin) and a bipartisan pair of former legislative aides to Washington state’s members of Congress, including name partner Steve McBee. McBee worked for then-Representative and current Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington. Ashley Slater served as director of legislative affairs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George W. Bush, while her colleague Glynda Becker also served that administration as associate political director in the White House Office of Political Affairs. McBee’s clients include a wide array of companies from JPMorgan Chase to Boeing and Eastman Chemical. The Port of Seattle, the American Trucking Associations, and alternative energy firm Akermin are among other clients.
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20.034px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">On the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the new chairwoman, Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), has added several new staffers to her roster. Colin Hayes, a former lobbyist with McBee Strategic Consulting, is the committee's new deputy staff director. Michael Pawlowski, formerly Alaska's deputy commissioner of revenue, was recently hired as an energy and natural resources adviser (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1060009886/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">E&ENews PM</a>, Dec. 3, 2014).<p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20.034px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Karen Billups is staying on as GOP staff director for the panel; she's been on the committee's staff since 2003.<p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20.034px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Across the aisle, Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington is staffing up, now that she's become the top Democrat on the ENR panel.<p style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 20.034px; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Cantwell has hired her former staffer Angela Becker-Dippman to return to Capitol Hill to become her staff director. Becker-Dippman has been working as a senior policy adviser in the energy and environment unit of the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, Wash., and previously worked for McBee Strategic Consulting after a stint on Capitol Hill working on energy policy for Cantwell (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1060010813/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: bold; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><em style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">E&ENews PM</a>, Dec. 18, 2014).<h3 style="border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">House hires</h3>