Henry Bonilla joined The Normandy Group as a Partner after serving 14 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. At the firm, Henry works with a variety of clients to help them promote their initiatives on Capitol Hill and in the Executive Branch. In addition, he has significant experience working across multiple agencies and levels of government to accumulate the right relationships and ensure his clients’ success.

During his tenure in Congress, Henry was chosen to serve on the House Appropriations Committee in his first term, a position not held by a freshman in more than 25 years. He quickly moved up the committee ranks, serving as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture and a senior member of the Subcommittee on Defense.  In his role as Chairman, Henry was responsible for funding America’s agriculture industry, food safety and inspection, the Food & Drug Administration, and food distribution programs in foreign countries.  In addition, he served as a senior member on the Subcommittee on Defense and the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

Henry was the first Republican Hispanic ever elected to Congress from Texas. In his first term in office, Time Magazine chose him as one of America’s Top 50 Young Leaders.  In his final term in office, he was rated by Congress.org as the seventh most influential member of Congress in its Power Rankings.

Before his election to Congress, Henry’s professional career was in television news. Having started as a reporter in Austin, he later became a producer for WABC-TV, the flagship station of the ABC television network in New York City.

Henry earned a Bachelor of Journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin.

As a Founding Partner of The Normandy Group, Christine Pellerin participates in strategic planning to meet the goals and objectives of clients and supervises many aspects of client service by the firm’s government relations staff. She co-leads Normandy’s municipality, healthcare and higher education policy practices, in addition to Normandy’s appropriations practice, and heads teams serving corporate, non-profit, and governmental clients.

During her tenure at Normandy, Christine has worked with high-ranking members of Congress to secure nearly $4 billion in increased funding for the Community Health Center Program, helping the program to expand service to 30 million patients in 10,000 communities.  She has also worked to transfer client projects once dependent on congressionally-directed funding, or “earmarks,” to federal budget line items that yield permanent funding streams for the projects.  Christine has worked with Congress to enact key legislative provisions to be included in the National Defense Authorization Act.

Christine has more than 30 years of experience working on Capitol Hill and the government relations industry. Before founding Normandy, she worked as Vice President for The MWW Group where she established the firm’s appropriations practice and as Director of Federal Affairs for the National Association of Community Health Centers, leading the appropriations efforts.  Her previous positions on Capitol Hill include serving as Legislative Assistant and Appropriations Staff Associate for then-Congressman Henry Bonilla, now her partner at Normandy. Prior to that post, she worked for Congressman Silvio Conte and Massachusetts Governor William Weld, as well as a congressional campaign. She is an expert in the appropriations process and has extensive policy experience in health care and higher education issues.

Christine graduated from Syracuse University with a dual degree in Public Relations from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and in Policy Studies from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs.

Ron Eritano is Managing Partner at The Normandy Group, a bipartisan government affairs firm that was launched in 2006. Since joining Normandy in 2010, Ron has acquired a great deal of experience navigating the complexities of the federal government, working extensively and effectively with both the Administration and Congress regardless of political changes. With a strong understanding of client priorities, Ron has been able to successfully navigate both the federal grant process and a difficult legislative environment to the benefit of The Normandy Group’s clients. Ron serves as the lead or co-lead for Normandy’s higher education, municipality, transportation, and technology practices.

Prior to joining The Normandy Group, Ron had six years of experience on Capitol Hill in both the House of Representatives and Senate. This included serving as the Legislative Director for Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-TX-). In this capacity, Ron managed a wide range of legislative priorities for the Congressman. In addition, he assisted closely in the carrying out of the Congressman’s appropriations initiatives, as well as the Congressman’s participation on the House Committee on Ways and Means. Previously, Ron also served in several legislative roles for Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and Senator Bob Torricelli (D-NJ). Each of these experiences have given him a strong understanding of the federal legislative process and helped establish a number of close relationships across Capitol Hill.

In addition to his time in Washington, D.C., Ron worked in both a legal and business strategy capacity for three Fortune 500 corporations: General Motors, FedEx, and Bayer Corporation. Ron has also clerked in the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control’s Legal Counsel Office and with the law firm of Sowell, Gray, Stepp & Laffitte in Columbia, SC.

Ron received both a JD and MBA from the University of South Carolina. Additionally, he earned a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Maryland and a certification in EU business management from the Otto Beisheim Graduate School of Management in Koblenz, Germany.

Dr. John J. Goldberg is a partner at The Normandy Group and founder of Science Based Strategies, a Washington, DC based food, agriculture and environmental policy consulting firm. In addition to consulting with Science Based Strategies and Normandy Group clients, Dr. Goldberg serves as a science advisor to a Farm and Food Task Force established by Porter Novelli, and is a member of the Florida Department of Citrus’ Cabinet of Experts.

Prior to joining the Normandy Group, Dr. Goldberg served for 22 years as Science Advisor to the Committee on Agriculture in the United States House of Representatives. In this role, Dr. Goldberg was the principal policy advisor to 7 Chairmen for issues including animal health and welfare; food safety; livestock, dairy and poultry programs; fruit and vegetable programs; agricultural marketing and promotion programs; grain standards; homeland security and bioterrorism; plant health; pesticide regulation; water and air quality; biotechnology; agricultural research, education and extension; Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards for international trade (SPS); and organic agriculture.

Dr. Goldberg was responsible for numerous titles and subtitles of the last 4 farm bills. In the intervening years, Dr. Goldberg was the senior policy advisor to committee members responsible for development, advocacy and enactment of other major legislative initiatives including the Food Quality Protection Act of 1996; the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act of 1998; the Plant Protection Act of 2000; the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002; the Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act of 2004; the Pesticide Registration Improvement Acts of 2004, 2008 & 2012; the Food Safety Modernization Act; the Country of Origin Labeling Amendments Act of 2015; and most recently efforts initiated in the House of Representatives to establish national uniformity for marketing claims disclosing the presence of genetically engineered ingredients in food.

Dr. Goldberg holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Animal Science from Rutgers University, a Master of Science degree in Animal Sciences from the University of Vermont, and Doctorate in Animal and Food Sciences; and Microbiology and Molecular Genetics also from the University of Vermont. Following his graduate work, Dr. Goldberg accepted a Post-Doctoral Research appointment in both the Department of Dairy and Animal Science, and the Department of Veterinary Science at the Pennsylvania State University. John’s past academic research focused primarily on microbiological factors affecting milk quality and animal health.

Phil Powell serves as Associate Partner at The Normandy Group, where he provides legislative support, research, and outreach in order to implement our clients’ strategic initiatives. For our higher education clients, Phil conducts extensive research and in-depth analysis of government programs and aligns them with client interests. In many cases, such programs have been overlooked by clients and have resulted in new funding streams for their initiatives. Further, Phil identifies stakeholders as potential supporters for client programs and develops and implements strategies to fully engage them. He conducts regular outreach to program managers across government related to grant opportunities. He also orchestrates audiences at the highest level of key agencies for clients in order to elevate research portfolios.

Phil has also transformed and institutionalized the firm’s mechanism for requesting and advocating for programs and projects in the annual congressional appropriations process. His efforts have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars annually for programs championed by the firm’s clients. In the current FY21 process, Phil led the team ‘s efforts to submit over 550 separate appropriations requests to over 335 Members of Congress.

Additionally, he plans the Washington Program segment for academic courses for the firm’s higher education clients. Such segments include identifying and arranging meetings with federal agency officials, Members of Congress, staff and stakeholders and or thought leaders in a desired subject matter. This program results in full course credit for participating students.

Prior to joining the Normandy team, Phil worked in the Office of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. and at American Sustainable Business Council.

Phil received his Bachelor of Arts degree in International Studies magna cum laude with a minor in French from Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania.

Shawn Bloch serves as the Deputy Director of Federal Affairs at Normandy, where he assists in the firm’s overall legislative execution. He conducts in-depth research and analysis of proposed bills, existing statutes, and agency regulations affecting our clients.

Before joining The Normandy Group, Shawn served as the Staff Assistant at the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. As a member of Ranking Member Sam Graves’ team, Shawn assisted the Committee with all official Committee functions, including hearing and markup prep, stakeholder relations, member services, and general administrative duties. Shawn also was heavily involved in assisting Subcommittee staff with policy research and bill tracking on several pieces of marquee, bipartisan legislation. In addition to his time on the Hill, Shawn spent the contentious 2018 election cycle with the Congressional Leadership Fund, where he directed a field office dedicated to supporting Congressman Fred Upton. Congressman Upton went on to win the race by more than 6 points despite facing a tough challenger and heavy democrat spending.

In college, he interned in the Offices of Congresswoman Kristi Noem, Congressman Patrick McHenry, and Congressman Robert Latta.

Shawn graduated from Gardner-Webb University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a minor in Business Administration. In college, Shawn suited up for Gardner-Webb’s men’s NCAA Division 1 soccer program.

The newest member of the Normandy Team, Katherine Schmitz serves as the Office Manager/Federal Affairs Assistant, where she is responsible for assisting with client-related matters, filing Congressional disclosure forms, and overseeing day-to-day operations at the firm.

Before arriving at the Normandy Group, Katherine held internships within a local government, political campaigns, and a political action committee. She also held an internship with the Normandy Group during her Washington D.C. semester prior to joining full time after graduation. She graduated from Gettysburg College with a Bachelors Degree in Political Science and Data Science.

Louis Dupart is a founding partner and current Partner Emeritus at The Normandy Group. Louis capitalizes on 12 years of experience on the Hill in both the House and Senate and 16 years at the CIA and Defense Department to provide critical guidance to clients, especially in the areas of: competition and antitrust, immigration, privacy, and patent law; federal grants and appropriations; and, infrastructure projects, including highway, water, airports, and rail.

Louis has strong contacts in the Judiciary, Foreign Relations, Transportation, Appropriations, and Commerce Committees that have resulted in legislative language or project funding in each of these Committees. Additionally, he has worked successfully with the Armed Services and Intelligence Committees on a variety of projects that include export licenses, Committee on Foreign Investments in the United States, and other issues.

Louis has had multiple successes at the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission on major anti-trust reviews for DuPont, Google, People Soft and other companies. He has managed project requests for millions of dollars in federal funds overseen by the Department of Transportation and its constituent agencies, the Federal Highway Administration, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Federal Rail Administration.

Louis has more than 20 years of government and legislative experience including 11 years on Capitol Hill as the Chief Counsel for the House Intelligence Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Antitrust and Business Competition. In this role, Louis managed a wide range of important intelligence, IT, intellectual property, business competition, and antitrust issues. Louis also served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Inter-American Affairs at the Department of Defense for then-Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney. Louis has excellent contacts throughout Congress and the Administration, including the National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, and the U.S. Department of State, which formed through his years in service on Capitol Hill, the U.S. Department of Defense, and with the Central Intelligence Agency. He has successfully developed and implemented legislative strategies for clients working with various federal departments, commissions, and agencies. He has great relations with the European Commission and its principal competition agency, Directorate General for Competition.

Louis has a Bachelor of Arts cum laude from Wagner College and a JD from American University. He also attended the University of Geneva and the Graduate School for European Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.

Aaron Kahler, CFE, CAMS, CCI, CTCE, joins the Normandy team as a Strategic Advisor. Aaron is the Founder and CEO of the Anti-Human Trafficking Intelligence Initiative (ATII). He is also the Founder & Chair of the Anti-Human Trafficking Cryptocurrency Consortium (ATCC). He utilizes his subject matter expertise in financial crime investigation, regulatory compliance, open-source intelligence (OSINT), trust & safety and cryptocurrency forensics/blockchain intelligence to lead global efforts and influence meaningful advancement in the fight against human trafficking and child sexual exploitation (CSE).

Prior to ATII, Aaron has held a number of senior advisory consulting and private industry roles as a practice leader in the area of Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) Compliance and Financial Crimes within the financial services industry. He was also a Director of AML Global Market Planning for one of the worlds largest data and software companies.

He has 20+ years working with institutional clients within banking, capital markets, brokerage, asset management, money service businesses, crypto exchanges, hedge and private equity funds. Aaron is an Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), USA PATRIOT Act and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulatory compliance subject matter expert who also specializes in fraud management and investigative due diligence-Know Your Customer (KYC).

Aaron is an Advisory Member of the Cryptocurrency Compliance Cooperative (CCC), MS Investigations Board Member for the University of New Haven, Advisory Council Member for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and an Advisory Council Member for The Center for Identity Management and Information Protection (CIMIP). He also serves as a Co-Chair within the Technical Committee on Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) at IEEE Technology and Engineering Management Society (TEMS)

He earned a Bachelor of Science in Economic Crime Investigation from Utica College of Syracuse University.