Name: Dean Aguillen
Firm: Ogilvy
Age: 38
During the floor fight earlier this year over whether to fund an alternate engine to compete with the United Technologies–made engines used in the military’s F-35 fighter jets, United Technologies vice president for aerospace defense policy David Manke says that Aguillen stood out among the lobbyists working on the battle. Though Aguillen has no technical background in the area, Manke says after three or four meetings about the F-35s, “he sounded like he could make a fighter engine.” Equally impressive were the warm reception Aguillen got from Hill staffers and his ability to form new relationships.
Aguillen ultimately helped United Technologies kill the funding for the competitor engine. The former high-level staffer to Representative Nancy Pelosi counts the F-35 fight as “a huge win,” but he also works across other issue areas for clients such as NASCAR, Verizon, and Visa.
This article appears in the June 2011 issue of The Washingtonian.
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Marisa M. Kashino joined Washingtonian in 2009 and was a senior editor until 2022.
