Charles Willoughby

Profile

Charles brings over 15 years of legislative and executive experience and helps clients navigate Ohio’s state government structure. As a registered lobbyist with the State of Ohio, he can provide support for clients seeking to develop a government relations strategy and message their needs and views to key elected officials, especially within the Ohio General Assembly and the Governor’s Administration.

He understands that clients are increasingly experiencing changes in government rules and regulations that impact their day-to-day business operations and can provide clients with effective representation to ensure that they have a voice in the legislative and executive branches. Charles has led efforts to reform Ohio’s electric utility subsidies and competitive energy markets to improve and attract new industrial investments. He previously helped shape Ohio law to allow more clean energy projects to be eligible for credit in Ohio’s energy market. He led an effort to remove legal hurdles for the “Teach for America” program to flourish in Ohio schools and navigated law changes to reduce and eventually eliminate certain illegal gaming operations across the state. Charles has successfully advocated for millions in additional telecom technology while preserving important local control mechanisms granted to cities and villages under the Ohio Constitution.

Charles’ political experience began as an aide to the Chairman of the Ohio Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. He then served as chief aide to the Chairman of the Ohio House Transportation Committee, then served Ohio’s “top cop” as legislative liaison for the Ohio Attorney General before directing the Ohio Chamber of Commerce’s Energy & Environmental Policy section.

Charles worked with the Attorney General Office on criminal justice legislation from distracted driving laws to wrongful imprisonment as well as shutting down pill mills and changing the legal definitions of chemical compounds to ensure bath salts and spice were taken off Ohio’s store shelves. As a former senior aide to the Chairman of the Transportation Committee, Charles has also gone line by line through many transportation budgets that fund state roads and bridges every year to around $20 billion dollars.

He studied political science and history at Miami University and carries an extensive background in utility and computer systems. Charles is an active certified member of the Ohio Lobbying Association and a contributor to the Ohio Lobbying Association Foundation, which provides academic scholarships to Ohio college students studying public policy.