thenextweb.com
March 29, 2013
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has hired two lobbying firms in Washington, DC to help lead his new issue advocacy group, called TechNet, to help its fight for immigration reform. According to Politico, lobbyists Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart along with Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock have joined the group’s list of consultants.
With the hiring of these lobbyists, Zuckerberg gains two firms who have experience petitioning Congress to advance their clients’ issues. As Politico notes, both are K Street veterans (the part of Washington, DC home to dozens of well-known lobbying firms) and have lobbied on immigration reform issues in the past. Interestingly, John Michael Gonzalez of Peck, Madigan, Jones & Stewart previously represented Facebook in 2012 in an issue before the Senate.
The group was started by Zuckerberg along with other Silicon Valley executives such as Andreessen Horowitz’s entrepreneur-in-residence Joe Green, Zuckerberg’s former Harvard roommate and someone who was involved with NationBuilder.com and Causes.com. Joining these two are Joe Lockhart (a former Facebook VP of global communications) of the Glover Park Group, Jon Lerner, a Republican strategist, and Rob Jesmer, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
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