Rob Alderfer is Vice President of Technology Policy at CableLabs, the global research and development consortium of the cable industry. Alderfer brings sound science to bear in policy decisions by harnessing CableLabs’ technology and innovation expertise. His focus is empowering the industry to address technology policy matters of substantial strategic consequence. Alderfer joined CableLabs in 2012 from the Federal Communications Commission, where he guided United States wireless broadband policy as chief data officer of the agency’s wireless bureau. Previously, he shaped communications policy at the White House Office of Management and Budget. Alderfer has been engaged in significant policy decisions for over a decade, helping to shape today’s communications technology landscape. He has deep expertise in wireless spectrum, and has facilitated the development of mobile and Wi-Fi technologies and services by bringing new spectrum to market.
James Assey is Executive Vice President for the National Cable & Telecommunications. As NCTA’s second most senior executive, Assey is involved in all aspects of NCTA’s work on behalf of the cable industry. Prior to NCTA, Assey was a longtime staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Most recently, he was Senior Democratic Counsel to the Committee, and earlier was Senior Democratic Counsel on Communications and Media Issues for the Committee chaired by Sen. Daniel K. Inouye and Telecommunications Counsel for former Sen. Ernest F. Hollings. Prior to that time, he held positions as Communications Associate in the Washington, D.C. office of Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Law Clerk for the Honorable Cameron M. Currie in the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina, and Legislative Assistant to Sen. Hollings. He was awarded the Annenberg Fellowship to Eton College in England and taught English and American literature, as well as American politics and culture. He has also taught communications law as an adjunct faculty member of Georgetown University Law School. Assey is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University Law School.
John Bergmayer is a Senior Staff Attorney at Public Knowledge, specializing in telecommunications, Internet, and intellectual property issues. He advocates for the public interest before courts and policymakers. He previously worked as a law clerk for Governor Ritter’s Office of Legal Counsel, as well as with the state of Colorado on a number of broadband-related initiatives. Bergmayer was a member of the Colorado Army National Guard, was awarded an Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement, and was a member of the Colorado National Guard Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and High-Yield Explosive Enhanced Response Force Package. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado Law School, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif, was production editor of the Journal on Telecommunications & High Technology Law and co-President of the Technology and Intellectual Property Society. Bergmayer also earned a B.A. in English from Colorado State University.
Timothy Bresnahan is the Landau Professor of Technology and the Economy and a Professor of Economics for the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He is the former Chief Economist of the Antitrust Division of the U. S. Department of Justice. His research focuses on industrial organization, applied econometrics, and the economics of technology. Currently, he is researching entry and appropriability in technology industries, competition between old and new-paradigm computing, and economic organization for high social return to technical progress. Bresnahan received his B.A. in Economics and German from Haverford College and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from Princeton University.
The Honorable Julie Brill is a Partner and Co-Leader of the Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice at Hogan Lovells LLP. She formerly served as Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission. Brill was appointed to the FTC by President Obama and unanimously confirmed as a commissioner in 2010. Prior to serving on the Commission, she was an Assistant Attorney General in the States of North Carolina and Vermont for over 20 years. Before joining the Vermont Attorney General’s office, Brill was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. Brill received her B.A., magna cum laude, from Princeton University and her J.D. from New York University School of Law.
Hilary Cain is Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at Toyota. In this position, Cain handles policy issues relating to connected and automated vehicle technology, including spectrum, data privacy, and cybersecurity. Prior to joining Toyota, she was on the staff of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. She served as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation and as Counsel. Before joining the Committee staff, Cain served as Legislative Director and Ways and Means Counsel for individual Members of Congress She holds a J.D. and a M.A. in Public Affairs from the University of Texas, and a B.A. in Political Science with honors from the University of Washington.
Carol Corrado is a Senior Policy Scholar at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. She is also Senior Advisor and Research Director in Economics at the Conference Board and a member of the Executive Committee of the NBER’s Conference on Research on Income and Wealth. Corrado has been the recipient of two grants for innovation research from the National Science Foundation. Prior to that, she was Chief of the Industrial Output Section at the Federal Reserve Board. She received the American Statistical Association’s prestigious Julius Shiskin Award for Economic Statistics and was a recipient of a Special Achievement Award from the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Corrado holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Management Science from Carnegie-Mellon University.
Robert W. Crandall is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute and Nonresident Senior Fellow, Economic Studies Program, at the Brookings Institution. His current research focuses on antitrust and regulatory issues in the telecommunications sector. He is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and books on communications policy, including Competition and Chaos: U.S. Telecommunications since 1996; Broadband: Should We Regulate High-Speed Internet Access? (with James H. Alleman); Who Pays for Universal Service? When Telephone Subsidies Become Transparent (with Leonard Waverman); and Talk is Cheap: The Promise of Regulatory Reform in North American Telecommunications (with Leonard Waverman). He was Acting Director, Deputy Director and Assistant Director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability. Crandall has also served as a consultant to the Antitrust Division, Federal Trade Commission and the Treasury Department. He has taught economics at Northwestern University, MIT, the University of Maryland, George Washington University, and the Stanford in Washington program. Crandall holds an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University.
The Honorable Michael Daniel is a Special Assistant to the President and the Cybersecurity Coordinator. In this position, Daniel leads the interagency development of national cybersecurity strategy and policy, and he oversees agencies’ implementation of those policies. He also ensures that the federal government is effectively partnering with the private sector, non-governmental organizations, other branches and levels of government, and other nations. Prior to coming to the National Security Staff, Daniel served for 17 years with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He played a key role in shaping intelligence budgets, improving the management of the IC, and resolving major IC policy issues including cybersecurity, counterterrorism spending, and information sharing and safeguarding. Daniel received a Bachelor’s in Public Policy from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, and a Master’s in Public Policy from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.
Donna Epps serves as Vice President for Public Policy and Strategic Alliances for Verizon Communications. In this role, Epps is responsible for managing Verizon’s domestic public policy efforts, including policy development and issues management. She also is responsible for managing Verizon’s relationships with strategic third party organizations, including those representing various different consumer interests. Prior to her current position, Epps worked in Verizon’s Federal Regulatory Affairs group and as a federal regulatory lawyer. Prior to joining Verizon, Epps was an Associate at the law firm of Covington and Burling, in Washington, D.C. and was a law clerk to Judge Audrey B. Collins of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Epps earned her J.D., with distinction, from Duke University School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts with degree in Journalism and Public Relations from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Jason Everett is Chief Democratic Counsel for the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet of the House Committee on the Judiciary. Prior to that he served as Democratic Counsel for the House Committee on the Judiciary and served as Judiciary Legislative Assistant for Congressman Mel Watt (D-NC). He also worked as a Legislative Aide to United States Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA). A native of Alexandria, Virginia, Jason is a graduate of Duke University with a B.A. in History and minors in Political Science and Spanish and a graduate of William and Mary Law School.
Neil Fried is Senior Vice President, Government and Regulatory Affairs at the Motion Picture Association of America. Fried joined the MPAA from the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, where he most recently acted as Chief Counsel for Communications and Technology. Prior to his work on The Hill, Fried practiced law in the private sector, representing clients before Congress and the Federal Communications Commission on television, telecommunications, and broadband issues. He has also served as an attorney with the Federal Communications Commission. Fried received a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Northwestern University and his law degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis.
Avi Goldfarb is the Ellison Professor of Marketing at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. He teaches courses on data, marketing, and digitization. Goldfarb’s research focuses on understanding the opportunities and challenges of the digital economy and has been funded by Google, Industry Canada, Bell Canada, AIMIA, SSHRC, and others. He is Chief Data Scientist of the Creative Destruction Lab, Senior Editor at Marketing Science, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Goldfarb received his Ph.D. in economics from Northwestern University.
David Goldman is the Chief Counsel for the Communication and Technology Subcommittee. Before that he served as the Senior Legal Advisor for FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel. He was the Commissioner’s chief advisor on issues of policy, strategy, public relations, and office operations. In addition, he had primary substantive responsibility for wireless, international and public safety issues. Goldman joined Commissioner Rosenworcel’s office from the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where he served on detail as Counsel to the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, and the Internet. Prior to serving on Capitol Hill, Goldman served in a number of positions at the FCC, including in the office of Chairman Genachowski and as a Policy Advisor to the Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. He joined the agency as an Honors Attorney, serving as Attorney Advisor in the Spectrum Competition and Policy Division of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. Before this, he served as Staff Law Clerk at the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago. He also worked as an associate at the law firm Hughes Hubbard & Reed in New York. Goldman received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his undergraduate degree from the University of Florida.
Ambassador David A. Gross is a Partner in Wiley Rein’s Telecom, Media & Technology Practice. He advises companies and others on international and domestic telecoms, internet, and high-tech strategy focusing on both specific markets and international organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperative, and many regional organizations. Gross is the former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State. He has addressed the United Nations General Assembly and led more U.S. delegations to major international telecommunication conferences than anyone in modern history. During his tenure at the State Department, Ambassador Gross had overall responsibility for the formulation and advocacy of international communications policy for the United States. Prior to this position, he served as Washington counsel to AirTouch Communications (now Vodafone) and was in private law practice. Gross received his J.D. from Columbia Law School and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
John Haltiwanger is the Distinguished University Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland. He is also a Research Associate of the Center for Economic Studies at the Census Bureau and of the National Bureau of Economic Research, a Senior Research Fellow with the Longitudinal Employer Household Dynamics program at the Census Bureau, and a consultant with The Conference Board. Haltiwanger’s recent research centers on the process of reallocation, retooling and restructuring in developed, emerging and transition economies and the connection of this reallocation to cyclical fluctuations and productivity growth. He previously served as Chief Economist of the U.S. Census Bureau from 1997-99. He also served on the faculty of UCLA and John Hopkins. Haltiwanger received his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University
Kathleen Ham is Senior Vice President, Government Affairs at T-Mobile. She oversees the company’s work before the FCC and other governmental bodies. Prior to joining T-Mobile, Ham worked for fourteen years at the Federal Communications Commission in a number of top policy positions, including Deputy Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau. She was also the first Chief of the FCC’s Spectrum Auctions Program where she was responsible for the first PCS spectrum auctions. Ham also served on the FCC’s Spectrum Management Task Force and was involved in the Intergovernmental Advisory Committee that negotiated the reallocation of third generation (3G) wireless spectrum from government to commercial use. FierceWireless has named her one of the most influential women in wireless. Ham received her undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism, and her law degree from Catholic University Law School.
Robin Hanson is Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Research Associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Oxford University Press published his book The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth in May 2016. Hanson pioneered prediction markets, also known as information markets and idea futures, and was the first to write in detail about creating and subsidizing markets to gain better estimates on a wide variety of important topics. He was a principal architect of the first internal corporate markets, at Xanadu, of the first web markets, the Foresight Exchange, of DARPA’s Policy Analysis Market, and of IARPA’s combinatorial markets DAGGRE and SCICAST. Hanson developed new technologies for conditional, combinatorial, and intermediated trading, and studied insider trading, manipulation, and other foul play. Hanson also has nine years experience as a research programmer at Lockheed and NASA. He has a doctorate in social science from California Institute of Technology, and master’s degrees in physics and philosophy from the University of Chicago.
Thomas Hazlett holds the H.H. Macaulay Endowed Chair in Economics at Clemson University, conducting research in the field of Law and Economics and specializing in the Information Economy, including the analysis of markets and regulation in telecommunications, media, and the Internet. Hazlett served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission, and has held faculty positions at the University of California, Davis, Columbia University, the Wharton School, and George Mason University School of Law. His research has appeared in such academic publications as the Journal of Law & Economics, the Journal of Legal Studies, the Journal of Financial Economics and the Rand Journal of Economics, and he has published articles in the Univ. of Pennsylvania Law Review, the Yale Journal on Regulation, the Columbia Law Review, and the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. He also writes for popular periodicals including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Reason, The New Republic, The Economist, Slate, and the Financial Times, where he was a columnist on technology policy issues, 2002-2011. Hazlett also serves as Director of the Information Economy Project at Clemson University. Hazlett has a Ph.D. in Economics from University of California, Los Angeles.
Ginger Zhe Jin is Director of the Bureau of Economics at the Federal Trade Commission. She supervises economic analysis at the FTC for both the antitrust and the consumer protection missions and advises the Commission on economic policy matters. Jin is Professor of Economics at the University of Maryland and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. She has served on the University of Maryland faculty for more than 15 years. Most of Jin’s research focuses on information asymmetry among economic agents and ways to overcome the information problem. In 2014, she co-founded Hazel Analytics, an analytics company that promotes the use of open government data. Jin earned a doctorate in Economics from UCLA; a master’s degree in Economics from UCLA and the Graduate School of the People’s Bank of China; and a bachelor’s degree in Economic Management from the University of Science and Technology of China.
Michael Katz holds the Sarin Chair in Strategy and Leadership at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. He also holds an appointment as professor in the Department of Economics. He has published numerous articles on the economics of networks, intellectual property, and antitrust enforcement. Katz served in the Bush Administration as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economic Analysis in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. He also served in the Clinton Administration as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission. Katz has consulted for both governmental and private entities on competition and regulatory policy issues involving payment networks, telecommunications and information services, and healthcare products. He holds an A.B. summa cum laude from Harvard University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University. Both degrees are in economics.
Dennis Kooker is President, Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales, Sony Music Entertainment. He leads Sony Music Entertainment’s digital business strategy and activities worldwide, as well as its sales and distribution division in the U.S. He is responsible for working closely with the company’s key business partners as well as internal labels and divisions to develop new revenue streams and grow Sony Music’s revenues across all digital and physical platforms. In addition, he oversees Sony Music’s U.S. Sales and Distribution team, as well as its independent distribution company RED, and its digital distribution company, The Orchard. He also represents SME on the boards of a number of companies operating in the digital space. Previously, Kooker was Executive Vice President, Operations and General Manager, Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales, and served as Executive Vice President, Operations for SONY BMG Music Entertainment’s Global Digital Business and U.S. Sales unit. Kooker also served as Senior Vice President of BMG North America, and before that, he held a number of London-based operational roles within the company’s UK & Ireland division.
Wolfgang Kopf has been Senior Vice President for Group Public and Regulatory Affairs at Deutsche Telekom AG since November 2006. He is responsible for Regulatory Affairs, Competition and Media Policy, Spectrum Strategy and Public Affairs. Kopf joined Deutsche Telekom Group in 1995 where he held various senior positions since. During his training as a lawyer, he worked for a leading international law firm and the European Commission. Kopf is a Board Member of GSMA. He is also a Member of the Foundation Board of the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen and a Board Member of the Brussels based Economic Think Tank BRUEGEL. In addition, he is the Vice-Chair of the BIAC Competition Committee at OECD and co-editor of two German Law Journals. Kopf studied Arts and Law at the Universities of Mainz and Speyer, specializing in European and International Law. He also holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree from the University of London.
Adam Kovacevich is Director for Public Policy and Government Affairs at Google. He previously led the company’s public affairs and public policy strategy on antitrust and competition issues. Before that he led Google’s public policy communications team in Washington, D.C. and California. Kovacevich launched Google’s Public Policy Blog, and created the company’s “Google D.C. Talks” thought leadership seminar series. Before joining Google, Kovacevich served as an Assistant Vice President at Dittus Communications and Communications Director at the Information Technology Industry Council. Kovacevich served as a press secretary in both the House and Senate as well as a communications strategist on major presidential, Senate and House campaigns. Kovacevich is a graduate of Harvard University.
The Honorable William Kovacic is Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy, Professor of Law, and Director of the Competition Law Center at George Washington University Law School. Before joining the Law School in 1999, Kovacic was the George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law. From 2006 to 2011, he was a member of the Federal Trade Commission, serving as Chairman from 2008 to 2009. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from June 2001 to December 2004. In 2011 he received the FTC’s Miles W. Kirkpatrick Award for Lifetime Achievement. Kovacic is a Non-Executive Director with the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority. He was also Vice-Chair for Outreach for the International Competition Network. He has advised many countries and international organizations on antitrust, consumer protection, government contracts, and the design of regulatory institutions. Kovacic received his B.A. from Princeton University and J.D. from Columbia University.
William Lehr is an economist and industry consultant. He is a Research Associate in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, currently working with the Communications Futures Program. Previously, Lehr was the Associate Director of the MIT Research Program on Internet & Telecoms Convergence, and was an Associate Research Scholar and Assistant Professor on the faculty of Columbia University’s Graduate School of Business. Lehr’s research focuses on the economics and regulatory policy of the Internet infrastructure industries. He is currently engaged in research on the convergence of the Internet and telecommunication services and the implications for corporate strategy and public policy. Dr. Lehr holds a PhD in Economics from Stanford, an MBA from the Wharton Graduate School, and MSE, BS and BA degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Thomas Lenard is President and Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. Lenard is the author or coauthor of numerous books and articles on telecommunications, electricity, antitrust, privacy, e-commerce and other regulatory issues. His publications include Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated?; The Digital Economy Fact Book; Privacy and the Commercial Use of Personal Information; Competition, Innovation and the Microsoft Monopoly: Antitrust in the Digital Marketplace; and Deregulating Electricity: The Federal Role. Before joining TPI, Lenard was Acting President, Senior Vice President for Research and Senior Fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. He has served in senior economics positions at the Office of Management and Budget, the Federal Trade Commission and the Council on Wage and Price Stability, and was a member of the economics faculty at the University of California, Davis. He is a past president and chairman of the board of the National Economists Club. Lenard is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin and holds a PhD in economics from Brown University.
Geoffrey A. Manne is the founder and Executive Director of the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE). In 2015 he was also appointed to the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Commission, where he co-chairs the Broadband Working Group. Prior to founding ICLE, Manne was a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School where he taught law & economics, corporations, wills & trusts, and international economic regulation. From 2006-2009, he took a leave from teaching to develop Microsoft’s legal and economics academic outreach program. Manne has also served as a lecturer in law at the University of Chicago Law School and the University of Virginia School of Law. He practiced antitrust law and appellate litigation at Latham & Watkins, clerked for Hon. Morris S. Arnold on the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, and worked as a research assistant for Judge Richard Posner. He was also once (very briefly) employed by the FTC. Manne received an A.B. and J.D. from the University of Chicago.
Jennifer Manner is Senior Vice President for Regulatory Affairs at Echostar. She is also Cahir of the Satellite Industry Association. Previously, she was the Deputy Chief of the Federal Communications Commission’s Office of Engineering and Technology and Deputy Chief of its Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. She also served as Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Skyterra Communications; as Senior Counsel to FCC Commissioner Kathleen Q. Abernathy and as Director of International Alliances at WorldCom, Inc., and in other high profile executive positions. Manner is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.
Joan Marsh is Vice President of Federal Regulatory for AT&T. In her current role, Marsh is responsible for managing AT&T’s wireless and public safety/national security interests before federal regulatory authorities, including the Federal Communications Commission. Previously, Marsh served as Senior Regional Attorney for AT&T in its Chicago offices representing AT&T before various state public utilities commissions in the Midwest. Prior to joining AT&T, Marsh spent five years as a trial litigator with the Chicago firm of Kirkland & Ellis. Prior to that position, Marsh was a law clerk for the Honorable Edward Rafeedie of the US District Court for Central District of California, Los Angeles. She received a J.D. with Honors from the University of Southern California Law Center in Los Angeles in 1990 and a Bachelors of Arts in Philosophy from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1986.
Laura Martin is Senior Analyst for Entertainment, Cable and Media at Needham & Company LLC, where she publishes research on the largest Internet, entertainment and cable companies. Prior to joining Needham, she founded Media Metrics, LLC, publishing equity research on the largest entertainment, cable and Internet stocks in the U.S., where she was nationally ranked as “Best of the Independent Research Boutiques” by Institutional Investor. She also joined Capital Knowledge, LLC to provide expert witness testimony and valuation consulting. Before founding Media Metrics, LLC, Martin was Executive Vice President of Financial Strategy and Investor Relations for Vivendi Universal in Paris. Martin was also a Senior Media Analyst at Credit Suisse First Boston and a Media Analyst at Capital Research & Management. She began her career at Drexel Burnham Lambert in media investment banking. Martin received her BA from Stanford and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She also holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
Giulia McHenry is Chief Economist at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). She is an expert in the economics of the Internet, telecommunications, and media. She advises on a range of issues including broadband policy and adoption, the digital economy, and the economics of spectrum and spectrum management. Prior to joining NTIA, McHenry was a Senior Associate at The Brattle Group, where she focused on telecommunication matters, prepared expert reports and coauthored papers related to spectrum management and valuation, broadband deployment, regulatory proceedings, Universal Service Fund, and competition policy. Prior to joining Brattle, she was a senior economist at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she conducted economic analysis related to U.S. international policy, including trade and trade promotion, global financial linkages, and international development. McHenry received her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Maryland.
Susan Ness, former Federal Communications Commissioner, is Senior Fellow at SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (Johns Hopkins University) and founder of Susan Ness Strategies, a communications policy consulting firm. At the SAIS Center, she works on transatlantic tech policy, privacy, trade, and e-commerce issues. Commissioner Ness served on the Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 2001, where she played a key role on spectrum policy and spectrum auctions, championed competition, promoted new technologies, and often represented the FCC at international meetings. Ness is a board member of TEGNA, Inc (formerly Gannett Co, a multimedia and digital services company) and Vital Voices Global Partnership, an NGO that identifies and assists women leaders worldwide. She serves on the U.S. State Department International Communications & Information Policy Advisory Committee.
Katherine Oyama is Senior Policy Counsel for Google, where she focuses on copyright, creativity, and trademark law and policy. Previously, she worked in the Office of the Vice President as Associate Counsel and Deputy Counsel to Vice President Joseph R. Biden. Prior to her government service, Oyama was a litigation associate at Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale & Dorr’s Washington office, where she worked on intellectual property cases, government and regulatory litigation, and pro bono matters. She previously worked for a New York-based strategy consulting firm, a Silicon Valley-based Internet start-up, and a Washington-based public interest research organization. Oyama is a graduate of Smith College, where she graduated with high honors in Government, and the University of California, Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), where she served as senior articles editor of the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.
Matt Perault is the head of global policy development at Facebook, where he helps to develop the company’s positions on global public policy issues. Prior to joining Facebook, Matt was Counsel at the Congressional Oversight Panel. He previously worked as a consultant at the World Bank and served as a law clerk for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Matt holds a law degree from Harvard Law School, a Master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy, and a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Brown University.
Shira Perlmutter is the Chief Policy Officer and Director for International Affairs at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Before joining the USPTO, Perlmutter was Executive Vice President for Global Legal Policy at the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Prior to that, she held the position of Vice President and Associate General Counsel for Intellectual Property Policy at Time Warner. Perlmutter previously worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva as a consultant on the copyright issues involved in electronic commerce. She was also the first Associate Register for Policy and International Affairs at the U.S. Copyright Office and a copyright consultant to the Clinton Administration’s Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. Perlmutter is a Research Fellow at the Oxford Intellectual Property Research Centre at Oxford University, and a lecturer at King’s College, University of London. She taught law at The Catholic University of America, and practiced in New York City, specializing in copyright and trademark counseling and litigation. Perlmutter received her A.B. from Harvard University and her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Katie Peters is the head of Public Policy for Pandora Media and the company’s lead advocate on music licensing issues for Congress and the Administration. Katie works to ensure Pandora’s 79 million monthly listeners have access to the music they love. Katie started her career on Capitol Hill with a California Member of the Appropriations Committee. After leaving the Hill, Katie spent 10 years with Motorola, turned Motorola Mobility, and subsequently purchased by Google. Katie joined the Pandora team in September 2014 and lives in Washington DC with her family. She received her BA from Pepperdine University, MA from the Naval War College, and JD from The Catholic University, Columbus School of Law.
Staci Pies is Senior Public Policy and Government Relations Counsel at Google. Previously, she was director of Government and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft, which she joined after three years at Skype, when Microsoft purchased the company at the end of 2011. Before joining Skype, Pies was Vice President of Governmental and Regulatory Affairs for PointOne and Director of Federal Regulatory Affairs for Level 3 Communications. She also held a number of positions at the FCC including Deputy Division Chief, Network Services and senior attorney in the FCC’s former Common Carrier Bureau, where she served in leadership roles on proceedings promoting the deployment of broadband and other information services. Pies also serves as President and is a former Chair of the Board of the VON Coalition. Pies graduated from the Washington College of Law at the American University and received a B.A. from Pepperdine University.
Peter Pitsch is Associate General Counsel and Executive Director of Communications Policy for Intel Corporation. He manages Intel’s global spectrum and telecom policy team. Prior to joining Intel, Pitsch was the president of Pitsch Communications, which represented telecommunications clients before the Federal Communication Commission and Congress. Previously, he served at the FCC as Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC. Pitsch was a staff member of the Reagan Administration Transition Team which developed recommendations for reforming the Federal Trade Commission with special focus on antitrust issues. He also worked as a senior attorney at Montgomery Ward, Inc. and served as an attorney at the FTC from. While at the FTC he was an attorney-advisor to Commissioner Calvin Collier. Pitsch received a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago and his J.D. from Georgetown University Law Center.
Jules Polonetsky is Chief Executive Officer of the Future of Privacy Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that seeks to advance responsible data practices. FPF is supported by the chief privacy officers of more than 110 leading companies, several foundations, as well as by an advisory board comprised of the country’s leading academics and advocates. FPF’s current projects focus on Big Data, Mobile, Location, Apps, the Internet of Things, Wearables, De-Identification, Connected Cars and Student Privacy. Polonetsky’s previous roles have included serving as Chief Privacy Officer at AOL and before that at DoubleClick, as Consumer Affairs Commissioner for New York City, as an elected New York State Legislator and as a congressional staffer, and as an attorney. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Center for Copyright Information. Polonetsky has served on the boards of a number of privacy and consumer protection organizations including TRUSTe, the International Association of Privacy Professionals, the Network Advertising Initiative, and the Department of Homeland Security Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee. Polonetsky also practiced law in the New York office of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Yeshiva University.
David Quinalty is Policy Director for Communications and Technology on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. He joined the Republican staff of the Senate Commerce Committee in 2009. On behalf of Ranking Member John Thune (R-SD), Quinalty leads the Committee’s efforts on telecommunications, technology, Internet, and media issues. He also served as Deputy Staff Director for Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), the Committee’s previous Ranking Member, assisting in the management of the Republican staff. Prior to joining the Committee, Quinalty spent more than five years working for Senator John Ensign (R-NV), handling similar issues as well as banking, financial services, and transportation issues. Quinalty held a number of positions in the entertainment industry prior to coming to Washington, D.C. He is graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Honorable Edith Ramirez was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 5, 2010, and was designated to serve as Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission effective March 4, 2013, by President Barack H. Obama. Prior to joining the Commission, Commissioner Ramirez was a partner in the Los Angeles office of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, where she handled a broad range of complex business litigation, including intellectual property, antitrust, unfair competition, and Lanham Act matters. She also has extensive appellate litigation experience. Commissioner Ramirez was also an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP in Los Angeles. Throughout her career, Commissioner Ramirez has been active in a variety of professional and community activities. Most recently, she served as the Vice President on the Board of Commissioners for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the nation’s largest municipal utility. Commissioner Ramirez clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude, where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and holds an A.B. in History magna cum laude from Harvard University.
The Honorable Alan Charles Raul is the lead Global Coordinator of Sidley’s Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice. He has a broad litigation and counseling practice that covers government regulation, enforcement and administrative law, corporate compliance, data protection and information governance law. Raul’s practice in this area involves federal, state and international privacy issues, including regulatory compliance, privacy and consumer protection litigation, FTC, State Attorney General and congressional investigations, international data transfers, information security, cybersecurity, cloud computing, and representation in connection with data breaches. He also represents clients with respect to Internet Law, E-Commerce, marketing, advertising and other consumer issues. He has previously served as Vice Chairman of the White House Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, as General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget and as Associate Counsel to the President. Raul received his law degree from Yale Law School.
Gregory Rosston is Director of the Public Policy Program at Stanford University and the Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. He is also a Lecturer in Economics and Public Policy at Stanford University where he teaches courses on competition policy and strategy, intellectual property, and writing and rhetoric. Rosston served as Deputy Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission working on the implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and he helped to design and implement the first ever spectrum auctions in the United States. He co-chaired the Economy, Globalization and Trade committee for the Obama campaign and was a member of the Obama transition team. He has served as a consultant to various organizations including the World Bank and the FCC, and as a board member and advisor to high technology, financial, and startup companies. Rosston received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University specializing in the fields of Industrial Organization and Public Finance and his A.B. with Honors in Economics from University of California at Berkeley.
Evan Shapiro is Executive Vice President, Digital Enterprises at NBCUniversal. Shapiro spearheaded the launch of Seeso, the company’s ad-free streaming comedy channel, and works on the company-wide strategic development of digital opportunities to reach emerging audiences, including alternative platforms and direct to consumer distribution models. Before joining NBCUniversal, Shapiro was President of Participant Media’s Pivot where he launched the channel in 2013. Previously, Shapiro served as President of IFC TV and Sundance Channel, where he steered both networks to new business and programming models that garnered each network their first Primetime Emmy nominations, as well as a Golden Globe Award win for Sundance Channel. He also has executive produced numerous acclaimed original documentaries and series, including This Film Is Not Yet Rated; the Peabody Award-winning Brick City; Emmy Award-winning HitRecord On TV; and most recently, the two-time Peabody Award-winning hit series Portlandia. Shapiro is Chairman of the Board of The Ghetto Film School and on the Board of Arts Nova. Shapiro is an Adjunct Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business where he teaches TV Management.
Cary Sherman is Chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the organization representing the nation’s major music labels. The trade group’s member companies are responsible for creating, manufacturing, or distributing approximately 85 percent of all legitimate sound recordings sold in the United States. He previously served as President at RIAA and was elevated to Chairman and CEO in 2011. Most recently, Sherman was widely credited with coordinating the anti-piracy agreement between many of the nation’s largest ISPs and the music and film industries. He also helped negotiate a deal between music publishers and digital music services that simplifies licensing rules and enables a series of new cutting-edge business models. Before joining the RIAA as General Counsel, Sherman was a senior partner at the Washington, D.C. firm of Arnold & Porter, where he was outside counsel to the RIAA and the head of the firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group. Sherman graduated from Cornell University and Harvard Law School.
Michael Smith is an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. He is also a Professor of Information Systems and Marketing and the Co-Director of IDEA, the Initiative for Digital Entertainment Analytics at Carnegie Mellon University. He holds academic appointments at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Information Systems and Management and the Tepper School of Business. Smith has received several notable awards including the National Science Foundation’s prestigious CAREER Research Award, and he was recently selected as one of the top 100 “emerging engineering leaders in the United States” by the National Academy of Engineering. Smith received a Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering (summa cum laude) and a Masters of Science in Telecommunications Science from the University of Maryland, and received a Ph.D. in Management Science from the Sloan School of Management at MIT.
Ann Sweeney is Senior Vice President of Global Policy and International for BMI, where she is responsible for the company’s Government Relations and International efforts. She also leads the company’s efforts to maximize the collection of global royalties on behalf of BMI’s affiliates and oversees the company’s relationships with foreign performing rights societies. Sweeney joined BMI from Warner Chappell, where she held a number of senior level roles, most recently as Executive Vice President, Digital Strategy and Policy. Prior to Warner Chappell, Sweeney was SVP, Legal and Business Affairs for Sony/ATV Music Publishing, and before that, VP and Senior Counsel for Sony Music Entertainment. Earlier roles included legal positions at Chrysalis Music and SBK Entertainment. She earned her B.A. from the University of Vermont and a J.D. from New York University Law School.
Chad Syverson is the J. Baum Harris Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. His research has been published in several top journals and has earned multiple National Science Foundation Awards. He also coauthored (with Austan Goolsbee and Steve Levitt) an intermediate-level text, Microeconomics. Syverson serves as an editor of the RAND Journal of Economics and is on the editorial board of several other journals. He is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research and has recently served on National Academies committees and as the chair of the Chicago Census Research Data Center Board. Prior to his appointment at the University of Chicago, Syverson was a mechanical engineer co-op for Loral Defense Systems and Unisys Corporation. He earned two bachelor’s degrees from the University of North Dakota, one in economics and one in mechanical engineering. He earned his PhD in economics from the University of Maryland.
Nicol Turner-Lee is Vice President and Chief Research and Policy Officer for the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council. In this senior role, Turner-Lee designs and implements a research and policy agenda that supports MMTC’s mission, and advocates for telecom and Internet policy reform through legislation, rulemaking, executive orders, public-private partnerships, and best practices. In 2011, she was appointed to the Federal Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age by former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski of the Federal Communications Commission, where she chairs the subcommittee on the use of unlicensed devices to increase minority innovation and entrepreneurship. Turner-Lee graduated with honors from Colgate University and has a doctorate in Sociology from Northwestern University and a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Hal R. Varian is the Chief Economist at Google. Varian has been involved in many aspects of the company, including auction design, econometric analysis, finance, corporate strategy and public policy. He is also an Emeritus Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in three departments: business, economics, and information management, and a Fellow of the Guggenheim Foundation, the Econometric Society, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Varian has published numerous papers in economic theory, industrial organization, financial economics, econometrics and information economics. He is the co-author of a bestselling book on business strategy, Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. He was Co-Editor of the American Economic Review and has taught at MIT, Stanford, Oxford, Michigan and other universities around the world. He received his S.B. degree from MIT and his M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley. Varian holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu, Finland and the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Scott Wallsten is vice president for research and senior fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. He is an economist with expertise in industrial organization and public policy. His research focuses on telecommunications, regulation, competition, and technology policy. His research has been published in numerous academic journals and his commentaries have appeared in newspapers and news magazines around the world. He holds a PhD in economics from Stanford University. He is also a senior fellow at the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy. He was the economics director for the FCC’s National Broadband Plan and has been a lecturer in Stanford University’s public policy program, director of communications policy studies and senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation, a senior fellow at the AEI – Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, an economist at The World Bank, a scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and a staff economist at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers.
Lawrence White is the Robert Kavesh Professor of Economics and Deputy Chair, Economics, at the Leonard N. Stern School of Business, New York University. His primary research areas of interest include financial regulation, antitrust, network industries, international banking and applied microeconomics. White has published numerous articles in the Journal of Business, Journal of Economic Perspectives, Journal of Economic Literature, Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, Review of Economics and Statistics, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and other leading journals in economics, finance, and law. He is the author of The S&L Debacle: Public Policy Lessons for Bank and Thrift Regulation, among other books, and he is the co-editor (with John Kwoka) of the 6th of edition of The Antitrust Revolution. He contributed chapters to both of the NYU Stern books on the financial crisis -Restoring Financial Stability and Regulating Wall Street. He is the co-author of Guaranteed to Fail: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the Debacle of Mortgage Finance. He received his B.A. of Economics from Harvard University, Ph.D. of Economics from Harvard University and M.Sc. of Economics from London School of Economics.
Matt Zinn is Senior Vice President, General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Chief Privacy Officer at TiVo, where he has overall responsibility for the Company’s legal, government relations and privacy matters. Prior to joining TiVo, Zinn was Senior Attorney, Broadband Law and Policy for MediaOne. During his tenure there, he developed strategies and advocacy positions on video and high-speed data issues, negotiated carriage deals with television programmers, and provided legal support to MediaOne’s corporate marketing, operations, engineering, commercial sales and regional counsel. Before joining MediaOne, Zinn served as Corporate Counsel for Continental Cablevision’s Western Region. Prior to that, he was an associate with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Cole, Raywid & Braverman, where he represented cable operators before the FCC. Zinn holds a juris doctorate from the George Washington University National Law Center and a Bachelor’s of Arts degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont.
