NRF Hires House Lobbyist, PAC Director

The National Retail Federation (NRF) has added a veteran Washington lobbyist and the former manager of a major corporate political action committee to its growing government relations team. Kelly Knott is now senior director for federal government relations and will serve as the organization’s primary lobbyist for the House of Representatives, a new role directing engagement with House members and their staffs. Lisa Rice has come aboard as senior director for political affairs and will be director of RetailPAC, NRF’s political action committee, in which capacity she’ll be responsible for administering and growing the PAC.

“NRF is continuing to enlist top-notch talent as we work to grow the retail industry’s advocacy footprint to match the size of its economic footprint,” explained Mathew Shay, president and CEO of the Washington-based trade association. “Kelly and Lisa have tremendous expertise that will help ensure that the voice of retail is heard loud and clear in the nation’s capital.”

Knott’s position is parallel to that of NRF senior director for federal government relations Beth Provenzano, who joined NRF in April as its main Senate lobbyist. Knott will additionally handle labor and immigration issues. She comes to the group from the Associated General Contractors of America, where she had been director of government affairs since 2001, lobbying primarily on labor issues affecting the contracting industry. Before that, Knott was a federal government relations representative at J.C. Penney, worked at the Jefferson Government Relations lobbying firm, and was a legislative assistant to former Rep. Mel Hancock (R-Mo.)

Rice’s most recent role was manager of political and external affairs at Citigroup Inc., where she had managed the Citi Political Action Committee since 2005 after earlier stints in marketing and brand management.