NFIB

He has been the top advisor to a speaker of the House, a legislative director for a majority leader, an aide to a U.S. senator and congressman, directed political campaigns, won elective office, and run his own public affairs firm. Troy Nichols brings his vast experience to his new role as the Washington state director for the nation's leading small-business advocacy group, the National Federation of Independent Business.

The very best advocates have experience in political campaigning, public relations, public affairs, and upfront and behind-the-scenes lobbying, and Nichols's roots run deep in each. A 1996 graduate of Western Oregon University with a degree in political science and a minor in economics, Nichols cut his teeth as a legislative assistant in the Oregon Senate from 1995 to 1998. He moved over to the office of U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith as his eastern Oregon field representative, before joining the office of U.S. Rep. Greg Walden in 2000 as a field director. He then spent a year (2001) as a legislative director for the Oregon House Majority Leader before heading up the Oregon House Republican Caucus PAC from 2002 to 2004. From there he moved on to serve as chief of staff to the Oregon House majority leader from 2003 to 2005, before taking the same job for the Oregon House Speaker for a year.