SPEAKERS

Andrea Albersheim is the Director of Plastics Sustainability Policy at the American Chemistry Council, where she leads state-level advocacy on circular economy and plastics sustainability issues. Her work focuses on advancing pragmatic, data-driven policy solutions that strengthen recycling systems, support innovation, and align environmental progress with economic realities. With two decades of experience across public policy and strategic communications, Andrea brings a cross-disciplinary perspective to complex, consumer-facing sustainability challenges.

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Prior to her current role, she led strategic communications and reputation management initiatives for both the seafood and plant-based food industries. Her work in Washington, D.C.’s regulatory landscape has spanned a wide range of public interest topics—from enhancing recycling infrastructure to shaping the Dietary Guidelines and expanding WIC education.

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Andrea holds an MBA from the University of Maryland, where she also earned her undergraduate degrees in Journalism and Social Psychology.

Ryan Allain currently serves as Vice President of Government Relations at the California Retailers Association (CRA), where he leads advocacy efforts at the California State Capitol and represents the interests of retailers and consumers in statewide policy discussions.

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Ryan’s career in public policy developed through his education and early experience in Sacramento. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Government/International Relations with a minor in Peace and Conflict Resolution from California State University, Sacramento.

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Before joining the California Retailers Association, Ryan gained firsthand experience in California government through the California State Assembly Chief Clerk’s Office. His Assembly experience included serving as an Assembly Floor Analysis intern, where he developed an understanding of legislative procedure, the legislative process, and the work involved in reviewing and editing legislative materials.

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Ryan joined the California Retailers Association in August 2019 as an Administrative Assistant. His interest in political advocacy and public policy quickly translated into greater responsibilities within the organization. In 2020, he became Manager of State and Local Government Affairs and a registered lobbyist, supporting CRA’s advocacy at both the state and local levels.

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In 2023, CRA promoted Ryan to Director of Government Affairs. In that role, he became increasingly involved in legislative and regulatory issues affecting retailers, including organized retail crime, workplace regulations, and other policies with implications for California businesses and consumers. He has also participated in the California Organized Retail Crime Association (Cal-ORCA), including serving on its board and participating in the scoring of organized-retail-theft grant applications for law-enforcement agencies.

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In 2026, Ryan was promoted to Vice President of Government Relations. Ryan has become a trusted advocate with strong relationships at the State Capitol and a collaborative approach to working with legislators, legislative staff, and industry stakeholders. His work focuses on helping policymakers understand how proposed legislation and regulations affect California retailers, their employees, and consumers.

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Through his career in Sacramento, Ryan Allain has built a professional reputation around legislative advocacy, government relations, and public policy. His experience spans higher education, the California Legislature, statewide trade-association advocacy, and organized retail crime policy, giving him a broad perspective on the relationship between government policy, businesses, and the communities they serve.

Mark Bescher is the founder of Legacy Public Policy, a packaging consultancy. Most recently, Mark was the head of US Government Affairs at Mondelez International. In that role he developed and advocated for policy positions with local, state, and federal policymakers in coordination with critical industry associations and partners.

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On behalf of Mondelez, Mark served on the Board of Directors of AMERIPEN, the EPR Leadership Forum, and as a founding member of the Circular Action Alliance (CAA), the nation’s first and only Producer Responsibility Organization for paper and packaging. Within CAA, Mark sat on the Circular Action Alliance California Board.

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Prior to joining Mondelez, Mark was Government Relations Manager for Unilever and before that served as the Manager of Government Relations for the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition. He began his government relations career in regulatory affairs at Bombardier and in advocacy at the National Association of Manufacturers.

Legacy Public Policy represents companies and associations along the packaging value chain, supporting policy development to help create a more circular economy.

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Mark earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Notre Dame and Masters of Science in Public Policy from the University of Oxford.

Jason Brewer is Senior Executive Vice President, Communications and Marketing at RILA and leads their state affairs and grassroots advocacy campaigns, in addition to managing the organization's strategic communications efforts. Brewer works closely with our partners at the state level to ensure retailers' issue priorities are well-represented and communicated effectively to policymakers.

Elise Diedrich is a seasoned government and public affairs leader with more than 25 years of experience in public policy, advocacy and political strategy. As Director of Government Affairs at Target Corporation, she leads employment and workforce public policy strategy across all 50 states and represents Target on employment issues in Minnesota. Previously, Elise served as Director of Government Affairs at SUPERVALU, managing government affairs across 20 states on issues affecting grocery and supply chain interests.

Her earlier career includes roles as Political Director for a Member of Congress, Communications Director for a Minnesota environmental nonprofit, and eight years as a Leadership Assistant in the Office of the Minnesota Senate Majority Leader. Elise is a Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs Policy Fellow and a participant in the Twin Cities Leadership Program, focused on issues critical to the Greater MSP region.

She is a proud graduate of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Angelika Dorvel is Google’s Government Affairs & Public Policy Manager for Commerce in the US. For the past two and a half years, she has focused on future forms of payments, global payments regulation, product development, and most recently, agentic commerce.

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Previously, Angelika served as Google’s Global Public Policy Lead for Elections & Information Integrity in Ads. Her background at Google also includes public policy roles for Germany & Austria and consulting for Jigsaw in NYC.

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Before joining Google, she was a Political Advisor for the EU and Austrian Delegations to the UN in New York, and worked at the Austrian Embassy in Moscow. Angelika is a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council, she holds a Master's from Sciences Po Paris, and is originally from Vienna, Austria.

Edwin Egee is Vice President, Government Relations and Workforce Development at the National Retail Federation. He is responsible for NRF’s policy agenda on labor, employment, immigration and health care. He manages NRF’s Employment Law and Benefits Committee.

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Ed has more than 20 years of public policy experience in Washington.  Ed came to NRF from the National Labor Relations Board, where he was director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs, overseeing the board’s relationships with Congress, other federal agencies, the news media and outside groups. Prior to the NLRB, he directed federal policy for the Xerox Corporation, advocating on employee benefits, corporate governance and labor issues. He is a former Republican staff director for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee’s Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety. He began his career working on employment issues at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

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​Originally from Maryland, Ed holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.

Nathan Gonzales is Editor & Publisher of Inside Elections, which provides nonpartisan analysis of campaigns for Senate, House, governor, and president. He's also co-host of the Inside Elections Podcast and an Elections Analyst for CQ Roll Call. He tackles elections in a nonpartisan, data-driven, and accessible way and offers audiences some of the most detailed electoral forecasting in the business.

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Exclusively represented by Leading Authorities speakers bureau, Nathan is full of enthusiasm and thought-provoking insights about politics. His recall of facts and figures is incredible, and he is natural, energetic, and engaging on stage. With a combination of reporting and data, Nathan breaks down the key races and brings valuable context to complex elections. Drawing from personal candidate interviews and more than 20 years covering campaigns, Nathan combines entertaining anecdotes with historical trends and current polling data to project which candidates are best positioned to win, and which party is most likely to gain control. Nathan’s winsome approach to politics is refreshing at a time when the country is divided, and he can reliably navigate audiences with differing partisan views.

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On Election Night 2016, Nathan was an on-air analyst for Newshour on PBS after working as an off-air consultant for ABC News on their Election Night Decision Desk for 14 years. Previously, he was an editor, analyst, and writer for The Rothenberg Political Report, and worked for CNN as a political analyst and as an associate producer for Capital Gang.

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Nathan has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and NBC Nightly News, C-SPAN’s Washington Journal, NPR’s All Things Considered, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC, and has been quoted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. His work has also appeared on FiveThirtyEight, NBCLatino.com, and in Campaigns & Elections magazine.

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Nathan grew up in Oregon, earned his Master of Arts from The George Washington University’s Graduate School of Political Management (Washington, DC) and his Bachelor of Arts from Vanguard University (Costa Mesa, California). He first came to Washington, D.C. as an intern in the White House Press Office and lives in the city with his wife and four children.
 

John Holub brings more than two decades of experience in issue advocacy and campaign management to his work, advising and advocating on behalf of retail, pharmacy, chain restaurants, franchises, and cannabis industry clients. For the past 20 years, he has served as president and CEO of the New Jersey Retail Merchant Association.  John also serves as president of the Pennsylvania Retailers’ Association.

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Prior to representing retail, he served as the New Jersey state director for the National Federation of Independent Business. He also worked for some of the most closely watched and highly targeted New Jersey political campaigns as both campaign manager and consultant, and served as an aide to Governor Christie Todd Whitman during her first term in office.

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John earned his bachelor's degree in political science from Syracuse University.

Bill Knapp is a veteran political strategist, corporate consultant and ad maker. His clients include six U.S. presidential campaigns and several dozen Congressional, gubernatorial, mayoral, and attorneys general races, a long list of Fortune 100 companies, and major national nonprofits. 

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Bill’s first Presidential campaign was for Clinton-Gore in 1996. Other notable candidates and causes include all three of Mike Bloomberg’s mayoral campaigns and his work for Tobacco Free Kids, Feeding America, and Everytown for Gun Safety. For decades he has worked with the Business Roundtable on trade and tax issues. Other corporate accounts include Palantir, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Allstate, American Express, AT&T, and, of course, the National Retail Federation. He brings a political mindset to corporate strategy, positioning, and communication.

Cailey Locklair is the President of the Maryland Retailers Alliance, Maryland Chain Drug Store Association and Maryland Food Industry Council, and has worked and advocated in Maryland State and local politics for almost twenty years.

Cailey attended the University of Delaware where she received her Bachelor of Arts in political science and Towson University where she received her Master of Science degree in integrated homeland security management with a focus on security policy. She also holds a Certificate of Security Assessment and Management from Towson University and attended the United States Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Organizational Management at Villanova.

Previously, she worked at the Baltimore Jewish Council as their Deputy Executive Director and was the Assistant House Administrator for the Maryland House of Delegates. In 2014, she was chosen by The Seventh State as an "Annapolis Top Five Young Gun,” 2019 by the Daily Record as a "Successful by 40 VIP,” 2024 by the Daily Record on their Lobbying and Government Affairs Power List, a Legislative Session “Winner” by Maryland Matters 2026 and received the national J. Thomas Weyant award by the National Retail Federation. Cailey is a member of the State’s Unemployment Insurance Legislative Oversight Committee, is a past Chair of the national Council of State Retailer Associations, Leadership Maryland Class of 2024, sits on the board of Goodwill of the Chesapeake and is on the Executive Directors Council to the Maryland Tourism Development Board.

In her free time, she enjoys volunteering with animal organizations, boating, playing softball and is a proud "sponsor" of Naval Academy midshipmen. She resides in Annapolis, MD.

As Vice President, Litigation of the Retail Litigation Center (RLC), Josh advocates for sound legal policy and defends the interests of retailers in state and federal courts. As part of his duties, Josh also handles the RLC’s weekly publication, Courtside with the Retail Litigation Center.

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Prior to joining the RLC, Josh served as a trial attorney in the National Courts Section of the Civil Division at the U.S. Department of Justice. He began his legal career clerking for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and later practiced as a litigation associate at Sidley Austin LLP. Josh holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and a B.A. from Centre College.

Bruce Nustad is president of Minnesota Retailers and the Wisconsin Retailers Alliance, where he represents and advocates for retailers. He works closely with lawmakers, business leaders, and community partners to advance policies that support a competitive retail environment and strong local economies. Bruce has spent his career leading collaborative, membership-driven organizations at the intersection of business and public policy, including leadership roles with several local chambers of commerce and trade associations. His work focuses on bringing people together, solving problems, and ensuring the retail industry has a clear, effective voice in policy discussions.

Adam Peer leads the Packaging Team at the American Chemistry Council, advocating for policies that enhance the sustainability and circularity of plastic products and packaging. He previously led legislative and regulatory efforts for the physician assistant profession and helped enact professional employer organization legislation in 11 states. Peer has advised key leaders of the Wisconsin assembly and was elected as the youngest member of the county board, where he chaired the public safety and justice committee. He holds a master's in sustainability at Harvard University extension and an accounting degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Jeff Sadosky serves as the Head of U.S. Government and Public Affairs at Shopify. He began his political career on President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign. Over the next decade, he held senior communications roles in the U.S. Senate and on Senate, gubernatorial, and presidential campaigns, working for and with leaders including Rob Portman, John McCain, Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Mike DeWine.

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Before joining Shopify, Jeff was a partner at Forbes Tate Partners, where he advised clients on government relations and public affairs, and later led public affairs partnerships for Applecart, a venture-backed digital targeting company. Jeff studied international affairs at James Madison University and lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and two kids.

Colby Sholler is a corporate affairs leader with 15 years of experience shaping strategy at the intersection of business, public policy, and reputation. At Nestlé USA, he advises on complex external issues affecting the company and its brands, bringing together government affairs, industry engagement, and corporate positioning to advance business priorities and strengthen the company’s voice with key stakeholders.

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Prior to Nestlé, Colby served as Senior Director of Government Affairs for the Institute of Makers of Explosives, where he led the commercial explosives industry’s engagement on federal and state policy issues. Earlier in his career, he served with the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), supporting Congress and the Administration on international security engagements and priorities.

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Colby lives in Maryland with his wife and two young children and recently earned his MBA from George Mason University - in the ultimately unsuccessful hope of strengthening his ability to negotiate bedtime with his three-year-old son.

Kelly Smith is Vice President, Head of Institutional Affairs at Ferrero, where she leads engagement on all policy issues impacting the company in the U.S. She is a policy expert with extensive experience managing issues at all levels of government and is skilled at bringing stakeholders together in impactful coalitions. Kelly and her Washington, DC-based team are active participants and collaborators in a number of industry trade associations across the issue portfolio. Kelly currently sits on the Board of Circular Action Alliance (CAA) and is President at AMERIPEN, both critical organizations in the U.S. packaging policy space. She also sits on the Boards of the National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) and the International Food Information Council (IFIC).

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Prior to joining Ferrero, Kelly worked on the government affairs and sustainability teams at Keurig Dr Pepper, handling a broad portfolio of issues. She started her career at the American Beverage Association after graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Kelly lives in Arlington, VA, with her husband and two sons, where her main roles are chauffeur and sports cheerleader.

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Kevin Thompson serves as a Group Director on Walmart’s State and Local Government Relations team, where he leads a team focused on public policy and engagement with state and local leaders.

Before joining Walmart in 2013, Kevin held government affairs roles in Washington, D.C., with Philips Electronics, Hewlett-Packard, and Electronic Data Systems. He also served as legislative counsel for the Council On State Taxation and worked several election cycles with the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Kevin earned his bachelor’s degree from Syracuse University and his Juris Doctor from American University’s Washington College of Law. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar and lives in Rogers, Arkansas, with his wife and daughters.

Bill Thorne is Senior Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs at the National Retail Federation. In this role, he is responsible for the creation and implementation of communication strategies around advocacy priorities, policy campaigns and reputational programs.

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Bill came to NRF in 2012 from the Walmart Corporation in Bentonville, Ark. He started with Walmart as the senior director for advocacy and outreach. In this role, he was responsible for developing, implementing and growing the company’s strategic advocacy campaigns and reputational efforts. In 2009, he became the senior director of community affairs where he was responsible for helping the largest retailer in the world grow its presence in urban markets.

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Prior to Walmart, Bill served as a vice president for the DCI Group, a public affairs firm, where he worked with a range of clients such as AT&T, Verizon and Lockheed Martin on a number of public relations campaigns. He has association experience, serving five years as the director of political and legislative grassroots at the American Medical Association as well as a number of years working with successful political campaigns on the local, state and federal levels. Thorne started his career in Washington as a legislative assistant for banking and finance in the office of former U.S. Senator Phil Gramm.

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Originally from Savannah, Ga., Bill holds a journalism degree from the University of Georgia.

Monica Welt is the President of the Retail Litigation Center and  Senior EVP & General Counsel at RILA.  Monica joins RILA and the RLC after nine years with the Ohio-based retailer Big Lots. At Big Lots, she built the company’s first compliance department, then ascended through the legal department, rising to Deputy General Counsel in 2021. In that role, she served as the retailer’s top compliance leader and assistant corporate secretary, overseeing legal, compliance, and corporate governance strategies for the $6 billion public company. Among her responsibilities were leading cross-functional initiatives, including supporting the retailer’s omnichannel strategy, establishing oversight of sourcing operations abroad, and co-leading the company’s nationwide response to COVID-19.  During her time at Big Lots, Monica was an active participant in several RILA peer communities.​

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Prior to joining Big Lots, Monica focused on product liability litigation and risk management as an attorney with Crowell & Moring, LLP, in Washington, DC. She began her career as a trade attorney at Dewey Ballantine LLP and later as a litigator at Wallace King Domike & Branson.

Katie Wolf is President of the Colorado Retail Council and Founder & President of Wolf Strategies, LLC.  Prior to becoming a partner at Howes Wolf in 2022, Katie Wolf founded Wolf Public Affairs, a successful contract lobbying firm serving clients in healthcare, business and criminal justice. Katie brings well over a decade of government affairs and lobbying experience to the team. She has managed campaign strategy and fundraising for campaigns on both the state and federal level, branded and re-branded clients at the Colorado State Capitol, advised on long-term political and legislative strategy, and developed political giving entities and plans.

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After graduating from the University of Colorado Boulder, Katie began her career in politics as a Legislative Aide, staffer to the Majority Caucus in 2006 and eventual full-time lobbyist and Senior Associate with Michael Best Strategies and Mendez Consulting. Working with these firms over eight years honed Katie’s policy expertise, highly-regarded skills in legislative strategy and negotiation, and built her reputation as a trusted resource for her clients and legislators alike. Katie was also part of the campaign teams for Senator Michael Bennet’s successful 2010 statewide Senate campaign and Colorado’s 2008 Obama for President Campaign.

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Over the past decade, Katie has established herself as a well-respected, bi-partisan lobbyist and has earned the admiration of her colleagues and Colorado’s legislators as an honest broker and hard worker. In her free time, Katie enjoys camping, karaoke, and watching Broncos football.