Jody Richardson moves to Brown McCarroll after 17 years at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld, joining the lobby shop of that Austin law firm.

Leonard Olson, director of government affairs at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, is leaving government for the private sector; he'll open a consulting and lobby shop.

Robert Elder, who's kept an eye on state pension funds and investments as a reporter at the Austin American-Statesman, is leaving the press corps for an inside job: He's taking a job with Commissioner Denise Voigt Crawford at the State Securities Board, starting in November.

Gov. Rick Perry appointed Ada Brown of Dallas and John Thomas Steen Jr. of San Antonio to the Texas Public Safety Commission. Brown is an attorney and former criminal judge. Steen is an attorney and former chairman of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.