Linda A. Woolley

Linda A. Woolley is executive vice president of government affairs for the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), the leading global trade association of businesses and nonprofit organizations using and supporting multichannel direct marketing tools and techniques. DMA today represents companies from dozens of vertical industries in the US and 48 other nations, including nearly half of the Fortune 100 companies, as well as nonprofit organizations.

In this role, Woolley is responsible for strategically managing DMA’s advocacy, legislative, and political efforts, supporting its overall business and marketing objectives, and building upon DMA’s significant position in the greater marketing community and the business world at large. She also works to establish strong working relationships with DMA members and influential external constituencies, including the Administration and federal, state, and local government officials.

Prior to joining DMA in August 2008, Woolley was the principal of LegisLaw, a full-service public affairs and government relations consulting firm that she founded in 1999. The firm specialized in lobbying, particularly in the tax and trade areas, and in providing PAC-related services. Clients included Fortune 500 companies and trade associations from a wide range of industries, including transportation, manufacturing, chemicals, healthcare, energy, building materials, banking, and defense.

Woolley, who is an attorney, has extensive government relations experience, having worked for Congress, a trade association, and two Fortune 200 corporations. She began her career working on environmental legislation, and over the years has worked on a wide range of legislative and regulatory issues, including tax, trade, pension, health, energy, defense, and communications.

From 1995 to 1999, Woolley was director of public affairs for ITT Industries (a spin-off company of ITT Corporation) where she managed the company’s Washington office, lobbying on issues of critical importance. Prior to that, she was director of public affairs for ITT Corporation from 1983 to 1995, where she was a lobbyist and chairman of the corporation’s PAC. She participated as an auditor in ITT Corporation’s environmental auditing program and worked extensively with the United Nations Environmental Programme. Woolley has also held senior positions with the US Chamber of Commerce and the US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Health & Environment.

Woolley holds a B.A. in Government from Hamilton College and a Juris Doctorate from American University in Washington, DC.