CalChamber Promotes Three to Senior Policy Advocates

The California Chamber of Commerce promoted Ashley Hoffman, Robert Moutrie and Preston R. Young to senior policy advocates on January 1, 2024 in recognition of their efforts on behalf of members.

• Ashley Hoffman joined the CalChamber in August 2020 as a policy advocate, specializing in labor and employment, and workers’ compensation issues. As a former labor attorney, she has led CalChamber advocacy on many key labor issues, helping stop job killer bills that increased business costs by establishing onerous mandates and facilitating litigation, including Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA) lawsuits.

• Robert Moutrie joined the CalChamber in March 2019 as a policy advocate. As the CalChamber’s expert on occupational safety issues, Moutrie also is an expert on Cal/OSHA’s regulatory process, and works closely with Cal/OSHA staff to make California’s regulations more feasible for businesses. Recently, he has represented employers’ concerns with Cal/OSHA during the drafting of California’s emergency and nonemergency wildfire smoke regulations (Title 8, California Code of Regulations Section 5141.1), COVID-19 emergency and nonemergency regulations (Section 3205), and indoor heat regulation (Section 3396).

• Preston Young joined the CalChamber in October 2019 as a policy advocate, specializing in health care policy and taxation issues. Over the last four years, Young has represented the concerns of the business and employer community and has helped stop the largest proposed tax increase in state history by defeating a proposal to establish government-run health care; restored net operating loss deductions and business incentive tax credits that were paused during the pandemic—including the research and development credit; and stopped numerous pieces of legislation aimed at increasing health care premiums for California’s employers.