Anheuser Busch

BGR Government Affairs has hopped on Anheuser-Busch Cos.’ Washington lobbying team, providing strategic guidance and counsel on issues impacting the St. Louis-based brewer.

Bob Wood, BGR GA president and former chief of staff to Tommy Thompson when he served as Wisconsin governor and Dept. of Health & Human Services secretary, spearheads the five-member lobbying team.

He’s joined by Dave Boyer, former lobbyist at Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America; Brent Del Monte, aide to former Virginia Republican Senator John Warner; John Stone, former staffer for Michigan Republican Congressman Fred Upton; and Rob Walton, ex-aide to Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy.

A-B spent $1.3M in first-quarter lobbying for issues such as Anheuser-Bush InBev's merger with SABMiller, tax reform and the Craft Beverage Modernization Act.

The brewer has used the firms of Missouri politicos Kit Bond (ex-Republican Senator of the Show Me State) and Dick Gephardt (former Democratic Congressman from St. Louis).

Haley Barbour, former Republican National Committee chairman and Mississippi Senator, founded BGR.