May 28, 2010

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The departure May 28 of CPSC Executive Director Maruta Budetti and the pending departure of Chief of Staff Rebecca Senhauser mean the arrival of a new CPSCer and a new job for another. Replacing Budetti will be Kenneth Hinson, currently an attorney at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough in Columbia, S.C. He will arrive June 14, and Deputy Executive Director Jacquie Elder will be acting director until then.

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In 2002, Hinson earned a law degree and a master’s degree in international business from the University of South Carolina-Columbia. He also holds a 1996 bachelor’s degree in economics from Clemson University. He has been with Nelson Mullins since 2002, where he has focused on representing companies in pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, product liability and securities litigation.

In 2007, he was Nelson Mullins’ “extern” to the South Carolina AG’s office where he focused on criminal domestic violence prosecution. In 2001, he was an intern in international management training at BMW in Munich, Germany, and from 1996 to 1998, he was deputy press secretary for the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, including work for the Armed Service Committee. See his picture and other information at www.nelsonmullins.com/attorneys/kenny-hinson.

Replacing Senhauser will be Matt Howsare, who currently is Chairman Inez Tenenbaum’s legal advisor. He came to CPSC in August 2009, also from Nelson Mullins, where he did work in general commercial, appellate and consumer product litigation.

Budetti – a 23-year veteran on the Department of Health and Human Services, including numerous executive level positions – will work in healthcare reform. Senhauser –holding executive level positions at Fannie Mae prior to joining CPSC – will become executive VP of strategic communications at the Urban Land Institute.

More about Budetti, Howsare and Senhauser was in an August 2009 piece in Product Safety Forum. See www.productsafetyletter.com/news/5609-1.html.