Rob Alderfer is Vice President of Technology Policy at CableLabs, the global innovation and R&D consortium of the cable industry. Rob brings sound science to bear in policy decisions by harnessing CableLabs’ technology expertise. His focus is empowering the industry to address technology policy matters of substantial strategic consequence. Rob joined CableLabs 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. Rob 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. He is now responsible for CableLabs’ multinational technology policy and standards work, and he regularly provides guidance to board-level audiences across a range of strategic issues. Rob serves as vice chair of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (TPRC) program committee, the world’s foremost communications policy research conference. He is also a partner with Social Venture Partners of Boulder County, helping promising non-profits in Colorado deliver stronger results.
Samuel Arbesman is a Scientist in Residence at Lux Capital. A complexity scientist, he is passionate about bringing together seemingly unrelated ideas from science and technology. Arbesman’s scientific research examines such areas as scientific discovery and network science. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic, and he was a contributing writer for Wired. Arbesman is the author of the new book Overcomplicated: Technology at the Limits of Comprehension. He is also the author of the award-winning The Half-Life of Facts, which explores how knowledge changes over time. Arbesman is also a Senior Fellow of The Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at The University of Colorado; Research Fellow at The Long Now Foundation; and Visiting Scholar in Philosophy at The University of Kansas. He is an advisor to Authorea, collaborative writing software for academia. Previously, Arbesman was a Senior Scholar in Research and Policy at The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and a Research Fellow in the Department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School. He completed a PhD in computational biology at Cornell University and earned a BA in computer science and biology at Brandeis University.
James M. Assey, Jr. began his tenure as Executive Vice President for NCTA – The Internet & Television Association on February 1, 2008. As NCTA’s second most senior executive, Assey is involved in all aspects of NCTA’s work on behalf of the cable industry. Before coming to NCTA, Mr. 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 U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI) and Telecommunications Counsel for former U. S. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC). 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. Assey is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University Law School. 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.
Diane E. Bailey is Associate Professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies technology and work in information and technical occupations. Her current research interests include engineering product design, remote occupational socialization, big data in healthcare, and ICT4D. With an expertise in organizational ethnography, Professor Bailey conducts primarily large-scale empirical studies, often involving multiple occupations, countries, and researchers. She publishes her research in organization studies, engineering, information studies, and communications journals. She is the author, with Paul Leonardi, ofTechnology Choices, Why Occupations Differ in Their Embrace of New Technology. Professor Bailey has won teaching awards at UT Austin, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California. Her research has won best paper awards, a dissertation award, and an NSF CAREER award. She is founding director of the Information Institute, the professional development resource of the School of Information. She holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley.
Yoram Bauman, “the world’s first and only stand-up economist”, performs regularly at colleges and events, sharing the stage with everyone from the late Robin Williams to Paul Krugman. He has appeared in TIME Magazine and on PBS and NPR, and is the co-author of the Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change and the two-volume Cartoon Introduction to Economics, which is now available in Mandarin, Mongolian, and a dozen other languages. He is also the organizer of the humor session at the annual meeting of the American Economic Association. Bauman was the founder of both Non-Profit Comedy, a series of benefit shows that raised almost $100,000 for worthy non-profits, and Carbon Washington, which in 2016 placed the first-ever carbon tax measure on the ballot in the United States. He has a BA in mathematics from Reed College and a PhD in economics from the University of Washington.
James Bessen, an economist, is Executive Director of the Technology & Policy Research Initiative at the Boston University School of Law. Bessen has done research on whether patents promote innovation, why innovators share new knowledge, and how technology affects jobs, skills, and wages. His research first documented the large economic damage caused by patent trolls and showed the link between information technology and job growth. His latest book, Learning by Doing: The Real Connection Between Innovation, Wages, and Wealth (Yale 2015), looks at history to understand how new technologies affect wages and skills today. Bessen’s work has been widely cited in the press as well as by the White House, the US Supreme Court, judges at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and the Federal Trade Commission. In 1983, Bessen developed the first commercially successful “what-you-see-is-what-you-get” PC publishing program, founding a company that delivered PC-based publishing systems to high-end commercial publishers.
The Honorable Julie Brill was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 6, 2010, and served through March 31, 2016. Commissioner Brill worked actively on issues of critical importance to today’s consumers, including protecting consumers’ privacy, encouraging appropriate advertising substantiation, guarding consumers from financial fraud, and maintaining competition in industries involving health care and high-tech. Upon leaving the Commission, Commissioner Brill became the Co-Director of the Global Privacy and Cybersecurity Practice of Hogan Lovells. On August 14, 2017, Commissioner Brill becomes Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel for Global Privacy and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft. Commissioner Brill has received numerous additional national awards for her work, including the New York University School of Law Alumna of the Year Award and the Privacy Leader of the Year Award from the International Association of Privacy Professionals. Prior to becoming a Commissioner, Ms. Brill was the Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice. Commissioner Brill has also been a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia University’s School of Law. Before serving as Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust in North Carolina, Commissioner Brill served as an Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for over 20 years. Prior to coming to the Vermont Attorney General’s office, Commissioner Brill was an associate at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in New York. She clerked for Vermont Federal District Court Judge Franklin S. Billings, Jr. Commissioner Brill graduated, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden Scholarship for her commitment to public service.
The Honorable Meredith Broadbent is a Commissioner at the United States International Trade Commission. She was sworn in as a Commissioner on September 10, 2012, and served as Chairman for the term June 17, 2014, to June 16, 2016. Prior to joining the Commission, Commissioner Broadbent held the William M. Scholl Chair in International Business at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously, she served as Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Industry, Market Access, and Telecommunications. She led the U.S. negotiating team for the Doha Round negotiations to reduce tariff and nontariff barriers on industrial goods and successfully concluded an innovative plurilateral trade agreement with the European Union, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Broadbent also served as Trade Advisor at the Global Business Dialogue, a multinational business association. Earlier in her career, Broadbent served as a senior professional staff member on the Republican staff of the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives. She drafted and managed major portions of the Trade and Development Act of 2000 and the Trade Act of 2002. Prior to that, she served as professional staff for the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee. Commissioner Broadbent holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Middlebury College and a Master of Business Administration degree from the George Washington University School of Business and Public Management.
Cort Bush is a Republican Professional Staff Member on the Senate Commerce Committee, where he advises Chairman John Thune (R-SD) on tech and telecommunications policy. Before his time on the Senate Commerce Committee, Bush served as Senior Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), the Chairman of the Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Data Security. Prior to his time in the Senate, Mr. Bush served as Legislative Director to former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) where he played a significant role in advancing legislation from each of the committees in the House of Representatives and oversaw the legislative operation in the personal office of Representative Cantor. Bush also served as Senior Policy Advisor to former Representative Mary Bono (R-CA), the Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade. In this capacity he worked to draft and advance legislation pertaining to telecommunications, data security, breach notification, Internet governance, and cybersecurity. Bush began his career in the office of US Senator Gordon H. Smith (R-OR). He has also served at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a private consultant to the tech and telecommunications industry. He received his B.A. in Political Science from Washington State University.
Giovanni Buttarelli was appointed European Data Protection Supervisor on 4 December 2014 by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council for a term of five years. Before joining the EDPS, he worked as Secretary General to the Italian Data Protection Authority, a position he occupied between 1997 and 2009. A member of the Italian judiciary with the rank of Cassation judge, he has attended to many initiatives and committees on data protection and related issues at international level. The experience on data protection includes the participation in many bodies at European Union level (including Art. 31 Committee of Directive n. 95/46/EC and Taiex programs), and at the Council of Europe (in particular, also as a consultant, T‐PD; CJ‐PD, DH‐S‐Ac, Venice Commission), as well as the contribution to many hearings, meetings and workshops held also by Parliaments and to specialized book journals and papers. He currently teaches on privacy at the Luiss University, Rome.
Michael Calabrese is director of the Wireless Future Project, which is part of New America’s Open Technology Institute. He also serves as a senior research fellow affiliated with the Asset Building Program. Mr. Calabrese focuses on developing policies that promote pervasive connectivity, including spectrum policy reform, mobile market competition, wireless broadband deployment, and IT investment and innovation more broadly. Calabrese currently serves as an appointed member of the U.S. Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) since 2009. He also served as an invited expert on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) spectrum reform working group during 2011-2012. Calabrese also served as vice president (2003-2010) and was instrumental in establishing the organization’s programs in areas including retirement security, health policy, asset building, education, and the Next Social Contract Initiative. Previously, Calabrese served as general counsel of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, as director of Domestic Policy Programs at the Center for National Policy, and as pension and employee benefits counsel at the national AFL-CIO. He has co-authored three books and published opinion articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic Monthly, Slate, and other leading outlets. As an attorney and graduate of both Stanford Business and Law Schools, Calabrese speaks and writes frequently on issues related to spectrum, wireless broadband, and internet policy, as well as on pension policy and retirement security.
Neil Chilson was appointed Acting Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission in July 2017. Prior to his appointment as Acting Chief Technologist, Chilson was an attorney advisor to Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen. In that capacity, he advised the Chairman on the FTC’s major technology-related reports, workshops, advocacies, and cases. Before he joined the FTC, Chilson was an attorney at the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where he handled a wide variety of telecommunications and privacy matters. He received his law degree from the George Washington University Law School, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Harding 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.
Laura DeNardis is Professor and Associate Dean in the School of Communication at American University. With a background in information engineering and a doctorate in Science and Technology Studies (STS), her research studies the social and political implications of Internet technical architecture and governance. She is an affiliated fellow of the Yale Law School Information Society Project and previously served as its Executive Director. She is a Senior Fellow of the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). She has previously taught at New York University and Yale Law School. DeNardis currently holds an international appointment as the Director of Research for the Global Commission on Internet Governance. Domestically, she is an appointed member of the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP). She has more than two decades of experience as an expert consultant in Internet governance to Fortune 500 companies, foundations, and government agencies. She holds an AB in Engineering Science from Dartmouth College, an MEng from Cornell University, a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from Virginia Tech, and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship from Yale Law School.
Ashley Durmer is Senior Vice President of Government Relations and Public Affairs for Ligado Networks. She is responsible for the company’s relationship with government agencies as well as press and media outlets in advocacy of the company’s vision to provide next-generation connectivity using its mid-band spectrum. Durmer is a former Capitol Hill staffer, with experience in political organization, government relations, and corporate communications. Prior to joining Ligado Networks in 2016, Durmer founded and served as President of the public affairs firm, Durmer Solutions. Durmer’s political experience includes her work for U.S. Senator Chris Dodd, as well as roles in the 2004 re-elect effort for U.S. Senator Tom Daschle and in the 2008 election of President Barack Obama. Her business experience includes a variety of roles for Citizens Energy Corporation, leading the wind development business as well as media and government relations, and for Citigroup, where she managed state and local government outreach. She holds a Bachelor of Science from Sacred Heart University.
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, Everett 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.
Gary Epstein was Chair of the FCC Incentive Auction Task Force from April 2012 until April 2017. He led the Task Force and the Commission’s implementation of the world’s first ever broadcast incentive spectrum. Epstein was the founder and Global Chair of the Communications Practice Group of Latham & Watkins. For 25 years he was Chair of the Practice Group and led the firm’s Telecommunications Law Practice. In previous roles at the FCC, he served as the Digital Television Coordinator during the digital television transition and as Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau when the Bureau had jurisdiction over telecommunications, commercial wireless, satellite and international communications matters. Directly before rejoining the FCC in 2012, Epstein was the Managing Director and General Counsel of the Aspen Institute International Digital Economy Accords (IDEA) Project, a year-long project designed to identify ways to promote innovation, market access opportunities and promote the free flow of communications across borders on an open Internet. Epstein also was Executive Vice President Law and Regulation of SkyTerra Communications. Epstein graduated from Lehigh University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, with highest honors. He graduated from Harvard Law School with a JD, with honors.
Gerald R. Faulhaber is Professor Emeritus of Business Economics and Public Policy, and of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He previously served as Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission. Faulhaber’s current research includes the wireless market, broadband public policy and markets, spectrum policy, public safety radio, file sharing and music copyright, and network neutrality. He has served on numerous scholarly boards and review committees and was Vice-President of the Board of Directors of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, an Associate Editor of the Journal of Industrial Economics, and serves on the Board of Editors of Information Economics and Policy. He has served on the National Research Council’s Committee for the Study on Issues in the Transborder Flow of Data and was the founding director of Wharton’s Fishman-Davidson Center for the Study of the Service Sector. Prior to his academic career, Faulhaber was Director of Strategic Planning and Financial Management at AT&T, after holding the position of Head, Economics Research at Bell Laboratories. Faulhaber was a Visiting Scholar at INSEAD and at the Institut Analisi Economica. He held an appointment at Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, Beijing, China as a Visiting Professor, where he lectured on technology management and policy. Faulhaber received his PhD and MA from Princeton University, his MS from New York University and AB, Haverford College.
Mitch Glazier is President, Recording Industry Association of America. Glazier guides the industry’s strategic policy initiatives and helps coordinate the activities of the association. In his more than 10-year tenure at the RIAA, Glazier has helped manage a variety of initiatives that have played a vital role in the music industry’s transition to the digital age. This includes the 2008 PRO-IP Act, which established the country’s first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator in the Executive Office of the President, and the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, which provided colleges and universities with meaningful tools to reduce the illegal downloading of copyrighted works on college campuses. Before joining RIAA, Glazier served as Chief Counsel for intellectual property to the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. A native of Illinois, Glazier served as law clerk to the Honorable Judge Wayne R. Andersen, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, and practiced law at the Chicago firm Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg as an associate in commercial litigation. He graduated from Northwestern University and Vanderbilt Law School. Glazier serves on the boards of Musicians on Call, the American Association of People with Disabilities, and the Internet Education Foundation.
David Goldman is Chief Counsel for the Communication and Technology Subcommittee. Before that he served as the Senior Legal Advisor for FCC Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, and 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 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.
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.
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.
Jeffrey Herbst is President and Chief Executive Office of the Newseum and the Newseum Institute. From 2010 to 2015, he was President of Colgate University. Previously, he served as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio. For 18 years he taught at Princeton University, where he also earned his bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in 1983. Dr. Herbst has been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and many other outlets across the world. Herbst earned a master’s degree and a doctorate from Yale University.
Christopher Hooton is Chief Economist at the Internet Association. He is an economist and policy expert specializing in economic development, spatial analysis, and evaluation. In his role at the IA, he leads economic analysis and research on a wide array of topics related to the internet including sector identification methodologies, the sector’s economic contributions, and more, while also supporting policy efforts through data and figures. Prior to joining the IA he served as a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank as well as other leading organizations and was formerly a Lecturer at the Social Science Research Methods at the University of Cambridge. His work has been featured in several international news organizations including the Financial Times, Reuters, the Financial Post, the Huffington Post, and more. Born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri, Chris holds degrees from the University of Miami, the London School of Economics, and his doctorate from the University of Cambridge.
John B. Horrigan is a Senior Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. Previously, he was a Senior Researcher at Pew Research Center, where he focused on libraries, technology, and communities as well as open data and open government. Prior to rejoining Pew Research Center in 2015, he served as research director for the development of the National Broadband Plan at the Federal Communications Commission. He is a nationally recognized expert on research into barriers to home broadband adoption and use, expertise cultivated as a consultant and in his first stint at Pew Research Center from 2000-2009. He has a PhD in public policy from the University of Texas at Austin and a B.A. in economics and government from the University of Virginia.
Will Hudson is Senior Advisor for International Policy at Google, where his work focuses on international policy issues relating to the free, open, and secure Internet. Before joining Google, Hudson was Director for International Cyber Policy at the National Security Council. There, he was responsible for coordinating the government’s implementation of a range of technology policies, including those relating to Internet governance, Internet freedom, human rights issues associated with data privacy and online surveillance, governmental responses to state-sponsored and -directed malicious cyber activities, and cyber capacity building. Prior to his time in the White House, Hudson served in a variety of positions in the federal government, culminating in his service as Senior Associate General Counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. There he was responsible for advising clients on the legal and policy issues associated with cybersecurity and cyber operations, norms of state and non-state behavior online, and emerging technologies. He is a board member of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute and the Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare, and is a Corporate Leader at the Council on Foreign Relations. Hudson is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University Law Center.
Congressman Darrell Issa represents the people of California’s 49th Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives, a seat he has held since 2001. As the holder of 37 patents, Issa has been vigilant about protecting the intellectual property rights of artists and other entrepreneurs to help protect America’s position at the forefront of innovation and creativity in the entertainment and technology industries. Issa has championed the cause of smart, efficient government, and has pushed legislation to balance the federal budget and promote transparency across the federal bureaucracy. Issa currently is a member of the House Judiciary Committee — where he serves as Chairman of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet — as well as the House Foreign Affairs and House Oversight and Government Reform Committees. He served as the Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee during the 112th and 113th Congresses. Previously, Issa served on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the Energy & Commerce Committee, and the Small Business Committee. In the 111th Congress, served as the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Prior to his service in Congress, Issa served as CEO of California-based Directed Electronics, a company that Issa founded and built to become the nation’s largest manufacturer of vehicle anti-theft devices. During his leadership of Directed Electronics, Issa served as chairman of the Consumer Electronics Association. Issa enlisted in the United States Army, received an ROTC scholarship and graduated with a degree in business from Sienna Heights University.
Mark Jamison is the Director and Gunter Professor of the Public Utility Research Center (PURC) at the University of Florida and also serves as its Director of Telecommunications Studies. He provides international training and research on business and government policy, focusing primarily on utilities and network industries. Jamison’s current research topics include leadership and institutional development in regulation, competition in telecommunications, and regulation for next generation networks. He is also a Research Associate with the UF Center for Public Policy Research. Jamison served on the US Presidential Transition Team in 2015-2016, focusing on the Federal Communications Commission. He is the former associate director of Business and Economic Studies for the UF Center for International Business Education and Research and has served as special academic advisor to the chair of the Florida Governor’s Internet task force and as president of the Transportation and Public Utilities Group. Previously, Jamison was Manager of Regulatory Policy at Sprint, head of research for the Iowa Utilities Board, and communications economist for the Kansas Corporation Commission. He has served as chairperson of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Staff Subcommittee on Communications, chairperson of the State Staff for the Federal/State Joint Conference on Open Network Architecture, and member of the State Staff for the Federal/State Joint Board on Separations. Jamison was also on the faculty of the NARUC Annual Regulatory Studies Program and other education programs. Jamison serves on the editorial board of Utilities Policy. He is also a referee/reviewer for the International Journal of Industrial Organization, The Information Society, Telecommunications Policy, and Utilities Policy.
Dina Kallay is Head of Competition (IPR, Americas and Asia-Pacific) at Ericsson, a world-leading provider of telecommunications equipment and services. She is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School. Prior to joining Ericsson in 2013, Kallay served over six years as Counsel for Intellectual Property and International Antitrust at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, where she focused on worldwide antitrust-intellectual property matters as well as on Asian and multilateral competition matters. Prior to joining the FTC, Kallay practiced antitrust and intellectual property law at a number of law firms, most recently with the Washington DC office of Howrey LLP. She also worked as in-house antitrust counsel for Microelectrónica Española. Before that, she clerked at the European Commission Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP) unit for Information Industries and Consumer Electronics, where she worked on antitrust investigations and policy matters involving intellectual property. Kallay has taught both antitrust and intellectual property as an adjunct professor at the Hebrew University and Bar Ilan University. She is vice chair of the ABA Section of Antitrust Law I.P. Committee and a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network. She received degrees from Tel Aviv University and the University of Michigan.
Ece Kamar is a Researcher at the Adaptive Systems and Interaction group at Microsoft Research Redmond. Kamar works on several subfields of AI; including planning, machine learning, multi-agent systems and human-computer teamwork. She particularly focus on real-world applications that can benefit from the complementary abilities of humans and machines. Kamar served as a member of the first study panel of AI 100. She received a M.S. from Harvard University, a B.S. from Sabanci University in Turkey and received a Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard University. Her thesis focused on reasoning under uncertainty for successful human-computer teamwork.
Michael Katz is Sarin Professor Emeritus in Strategy and Leadership and Professor Emeritus, Department of Economics, Haas School of Business at the University of California Berkeley. 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.
Jeff Kohler co-founded JAB Broadband (Rise Broadband’s parent company) in 2005, serves on the Board of Directors and is the company’s Chief Development Officer. He is responsible for all mergers and acquisitions, spectrum development and governmental affairs activities. Under his leadership, more than 100 broadband service providers have been acquired since the company was formed. With 20+ years of wireless industry experience, Kohler previously served as Director of Corporate Finance and M&A with GVC Capital LLC, where he focused on mergers, acquisitions and capital formation within the wireless industry. Kohler was also CEO and Founder of Reason, Inc., a wireless management services company which was acquired by InPhonic. He held senior positions with AT&T Wireless and McCaw Cellular Communications. He currently serves as a Voting Member in the Wireless Communications Association International, the FCC Committee for the Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, Co-Founder and Director of WISP PAC and is active in advocacy efforts with both the Federal Communications Commission as well as the U.S. Congress. Kohler received his MBA from Regis University (Denver) and BS/BA from the University of Denver.
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.
Evan Kwerel has been a senior economist in the Office of Plans and Policy at the Federal Communications Commission since 1983. He has worked on broad range of spectrum policy issues and has been a proponent of market-based approaches to spectrum management. After Congress granted the FCC auction authority in 1993, he had primary responsibility for developing the FCC’s innovative simultaneous multiple round auction methodology. He has also been involved in a variety of common carrier matters, including the development of price cap regulation. From 1976 to 1982, he was an assistant professor of economics at Yale University. In 1981 he was a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow, and from 1982 to 1983, he was a senior economist with the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Kwerel received a Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Wayne A. Leighton is Chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis at the Federal Communications Commission. He also leads a working group advising FCC Chairman Ajit Pai on the creation of a new Office of Economics and Analytics, with the goal of ensuring consistently high-quality economic analysis across the Commission’s work. He previously served as Senior Adviser to former FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, as a Senior Economist in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, and as a Senior Economist with the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. In addition, Wayne is affiliated with Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala where he’s served as Professor of Economics and CEO of the Antigua Forum, an annual gathering of entrepreneurs, political leaders, and experts in communications and strategy from around the world. He earned undergraduate degrees in business and economics from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University.
Thomas Lenard is Senior Fellow and President Emeritus 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 the Technology Policy Institute, 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.
Garrett Levin serves as Deputy General Counsel for Intellectual Law and Policy in the Legal and Regulatory Affairs department at the National Association of Broadcasters. Before joining NAB, Levin was senior counsel to Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he provided policy advice on IP, telecommunications, antitrust and consumer protection issues. He previously was an international and domestic copyright policy attorney at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, where he was one of two lead authors of the Department of Commerce’s Green Paper on Copyright Policy, Creativity, and Innovation in the Digital Economy. Before joining the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, Levin was a litigator at Jenner & Block, where he specialized in digital copyright issues, including extensive practice before the Copyright Royalty Board. He also served as a law clerk for Judge Ronald Lee Gilman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and for Judge Orinda Evans of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. Garrett graduated with a B.F.A. in Film and Television Production from New York University. He holds a J.D. from Duke University School of Law, as well as an M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Duke.
Jonathan Make is Executive Editor of newsletter publishing company Warren Communications News, with titles including Communications Daily. Past employers include Bloomberg News. He has a MA in media and public affairs from George Washington University, where he wrote a thesis on media coverage of media mergers, and a BA in international studies from Reed College. He is incoming president of the Society of Professional Journalists D.C. Pro Chapter, on the steering committee of the Reed College D.C.-area alumni group and active in various other journalism and volunteer efforts, and enjoys moderating panels on the media and on tech and telecom.
Joan Marsh is Vice President of Federal Regulatory for AT&T. She 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 B.A. from Stanford and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She also holds a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.
David McCabe covers the collision of tech with politics and policy for Axios. He’s broken news recently about the growing public voice of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the changing contours of the net neutrality debate and the ways in which policymakers are grappling with the rise of AI. He previously covered tech policy for The Hill and graduated from Kenyon College.
Deirdre McCloskey has been since 2000 Distinguished Professor of Economics, History, English, and Communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and emerita since 2016. Author of seventeen books and 400 scholarly articles ranging from technical economics to gender and literary criticism, she has held tenured appointments at the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa, and visiting appointments worldwide. She brought historical economics to Britain, saw economics as rhetorical, undermined statistical significance, and showed the modern economy to be a product of ethical change.
Peter S. Menell is Koret Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) and a Director and Co-Founder of the Berkeley Center for Law & Technology. Menell joined the law faculty at the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, where his research and teaching have focused on the fields of intellectual property, environmental law and policy, property law, and law and economics. He has advised the U.S. Congress, federal agencies, state Attorneys General, and major technology and entertainment companies on a wide range of intellectual property and antitrust matters. He recently served as one of the inaugural Thomas Alva Edison Visiting Professionals at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and as Vice-Chair of the National Academies of Sciences project on copyright and innovation. Menell has authored or co-authored more than 50 articles and eight books. He founded and supervises the Annual Review of Law and Technology, published by the Berkeley Technology Law Journal. Menell has organized more than 50 intellectual property education programs for the Federal Judicial Center, including an annual multi-day program on “Intellectual Property in the Digital Age” since 1998. Menell earned his S.B. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, his Ph.D. (economics) from Stanford University, and J.D. from Harvard Law School, where he served as a member of the Harvard Law Review. After graduating from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Jon O. Newman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Roger Noll is Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, where he directs the Program in Regulatory Policy. Noll also is a Senior Fellow and member of the Advisory Board at the American Antitrust Institute, and a member of the Advisory Board of the AEI-Brookings Joint Center on Regulation. Noll’s primary research interests include technology policy; antitrust, regulation and privatization policies in both advanced and developing economies; the economic approach to public law; and the economics of sports and entertainment. Prior to coming to Stanford, Noll was a Senior Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Institute Professor of Social Science and Chair of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. Noll has been a member of the advisory boards of the U.S. Department of Energy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and National Science Foundation. He also has been a member of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sciences and the Board on Science, Technology and Economic Policy of the National Research Council, and of the California Council on Science and Technology. Noll received a B.S. with honors in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology and a Ph. D. in economics from Harvard University.
Sarah Oh is a Research Fellow at the Technology Policy Institute. She was previously the Operations and Research Director for the Information Economy Project at George Mason School of Law. Her research interests include law and economics, regulatory analysis, and technology policy. Oh holds a PhD in Economics and a JD from George Mason University and a BS in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford University.
The Honorable Maureen K. Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 4, 2012, and was designated to serve as Acting FTC Chairman by President Donald Trump in January 2017. Prior to joining the Commission, Ohlhausen was a partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, where she focused on FTC issues, including privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity. Ohlhausen previously served at the Commission for 11 years, most recently as Director of the Office of Policy Planning, where she led the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force. She was also Deputy Director of that office. Ohlhausen was also an attorney advisor for former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle and served in the FTC General Counsel’s Office. Before coming to the FTC, Ohlhausen spent five years at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, serving as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle and as a staff attorney. Ohlhausen was on the adjunct faculty at George Mason University School of Law, where she taught privacy law and unfair trade practices, served as a Senior Editor of the Antitrust Law Journal and a member of the American Bar Association Task Force on Competition and Public Policy. Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from George Mason University School of Law and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia.
The Honorable Michael O’Rielly is a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission, a position for which he was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate. In January 2015, he was sworn into office for a new term, following his re-nomination by the President and confirmation by the United States Senate. Prior to joining the agency, O’Rielly served as a Policy Advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip, led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn. He also worked in the Republican Whip’s Office as an Advisor and as Deputy Chief of Staff and Policy Director for U.S. Senator Jon Kyl. He previously worked for the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate as a Policy Analyst for Banking, Technology, Transportation, Trade, and Commerce issues. Prior to this, O’Rielly worked in the Office of U.S. Senator John Sununu as Legislative Director and Senior Legislative Assistant. Before his tenure as a Senate staffer, he served as a Professional Staff Member and Telecommunications Policy Analyst on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives. He began his career as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley. O’Rielly received his B.A. from the University of Rochester.
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.
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.
Gregory Rosston is Director of the Public Policy program at Stanford University, the Gordon Cain Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, and Professor of Economics (by courtesy). He teaches Economics and Public Policy 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 helped to design and implement the first ever spectrum auctions in the United States. In 2011, he was Senior Economist for Transactions for the Federal Communications Commission for the proposed AT&T – T-Mobile transaction. He co-chaired the Economy, Globalization and Trade committee for the 2008 Obama campaign and was a member of the Obama transition team on economic agency review and energy policy. He served as a member and co-chair of the Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee from 2010 – 2014. Rosston has written extensively on the application of economics to telecommunications issues. He has advised companies and governments regarding auctions in the United States and other countries and served as a consultant to various organizations including the World Bank and the Federal Communications Commission, and as a board member and advisor to high technology, financial, and startup companies in the areas of auctions, business strategy, antitrust and regulation. Rosston received his Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University and his A.B. with Honors in Economics from University of California at Berkeley.
Hal Singer is a Principal at Economists Incorporated. He is also a Senior Fellow at the George Washington’s Institute for Public Policy, and an adjunct professor at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Singer is co-author of the e-book The Need for Speed: A New Framework for Telecommunications Policy for the 21st Century (Brookings Press 2013), and co-author of the book Broadband in Europe: How Brussels Can Wire the Information Society (Kluwer/Springer Press 2005). He has testified before Congress on the interplay between antitrust and sector-specific regulation and his scholarship and testimony has been widely cited by courts and regulatory agencies. Singer recently advised the Canadian Competition Bureau on a large vertical merger in the cable television industry. He has served as consultant or testifying expert for several media companies, including Apple, AT&T, Bell Canada, Google, Mid-Atlantic Sports Network, NFL Network, Tennis Channel, and Verizon. Singer earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in economics from the Johns Hopkins University and a B.S. magna cum laude in economics from Tulane University.
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.
Berin Szoka is the President of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Center for Internet Freedom at The Progress & Freedom Foundation. Before joining PFF, he was an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he advised clients on regulations affecting the Internet and telecommunications industries. Before joining Latham’s Communications Practice Group, Szoka practiced at Lawler Metzger Milkman & Keeney, LLC, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington, and clerked for the Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma. Szoka received his Bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University and his juris doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law and Technology. He is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia and California (inactive).
Bryan Tramont is a managing partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP, and offers strategic counsel to Fortune 100 companies and trade associations, as well as small and mid-sized telecommunications and media companies, on all aspects of communications law and regulation. He regularly advises companies as they develop and evaluate new business opportunities in the technology, media, and telecommunications sectors. Before joining WBK, Mr. Tramont served as Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission under Chairman Michael Powell. As Chief of Staff, he managed all aspects of the agency’s operations. Before being elevated to Chief of Staff, Mr. Tramont served as Chairman Powell’s Senior Legal Advisor, as well as prior stints as Senior Legal Advisor to Commissioners Kathleen Abernathy and Harold Furchtgott-Roth. He currently is an adjunct law professor in Catholic University of America’s Communications Law Institute and a senior adjunct fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Mr. Tramont has been recognized by leading publications like Legal 500, Chambers USA, and Washingtonian as one of the nation’s top communications lawyers. In 2017, he was named to the inaugural Legal 500 Hall of Fame List, which highlights individuals who have received constant praise by their clients and who have been recognized by the Legal 500 as an elite leading lawyer for six consecutive years. He has been awarded The Best Lawyers in America © 2017 “Lawyer of the Year” for Media Law and “Lawyer of the Year” in Communications Law in 2016. In 2016, he was also named one of the Top 10 Washington, DC Super Lawyers. Tramont serves on the Commerce Department Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and previously co-chaired the Committee for three years. He is on the Board of Trustees at William Woods University and has served in numerous leadership positions for the Federal Communications Bar Association, including President for 2010-2011.
Crystal Tully serves as Counsel for Technology and Telecommunications to Chairman John Thune (R-SD) of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. Prior to her current role, Tully served as senior advisor to Chairman Roger Wicker (R-MS) of the Commerce Subcommittee on Communications, Technology, Innovation and the Internet. Tully previously worked in the cable and mobile wireless industries advocating before Congress and Federal agencies. She also served as legislative aide to Senator John E. Sununu (R-NH) and as a law clerk at the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. Tully holds a JD from the George Washington University School of Law and a BA from the University of New Hampshire.
Nicol Turner-Lee is a Governance Studies Fellow, Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings and a contributor to TechTank. At the Center for Technology Innovation, Turner-Lee researches public policy designed to enable equitable access to technology across the U.S. and to harness its power to create change in communities across the world. Her research also explores global and domestic broadband deployment, regulatory, and internet governance issues. Turner-Lee is a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Gender Equity in Science and Technology at Arizona State University. She also serves on the U.S. State Department’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP). She comes to Brookings from the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), where she served as Vice President and Chief Research and policy Officer. Prior to joining MMTC, Turner-Lee was Vice President and the first Director of the Media and Technology Institute at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. Turner-Lee was a two-time Digital Research Program Scholar as part of Time Warner Cable’s Cable Research Program in Communications and recipient of countless recognitions, including the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and one of the Most Inspiring Women in Media from the Alliance of Women in Media. Turner-Lee graduated from Colgate University magna cum laude and has a M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University. She also holds 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.
Paul Vixie is the Founder and CEO of Farsight Security, Inc. In 2014, he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for his work related to DNS. He previously served as President, Chairman and Founder of Internet Systems Consortium (ISC), as President of MAPS, PAIX and MIBH, as CTO of Abovenet/MFN, and on the board of several for-profit and non-profit companies. He served on the ARIN Board of Trustees from 2005 to 2013, and as Chairman in 2008 and 2009. Vixie is a founding member of ICANN Root Server System Advisory Committee (RSSAC) and ICANN Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC). Vixie has been contributing to Internet protocols and UNIX systems as a protocol designer and software architect since 1980. He is considered the primary author and technical architect of BIND 8, and he hired many of the people who wrote BIND 9 and the people now working on BIND 10. He has authored or co-authored a dozen or so RFCs, mostly on DNS and related topics, and of Sendmail: Theory and Practice (Digital Press, 1994). He earned his PhD from Keio University for work related to the Internet Domain Name System (DNS and DNSSEC).
Scott Wallsten is President 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.
Madura Wijewardena is Vice President, Global Public Policy at Comcast Corporation. At Comcast, Madura focuses on broadband market structure and trends in competition, investment and adoption. Prior to joining Comcast in March 2013, Madura was the Director of Research at the National Urban League (NUL) in Washington, D.C. where he was responsible for macroeconomic research. He also managed NUL’s broadband policy and some public opinion campaigns. Prior to NUL, Madura worked for a consulting firm in Chicago where he used demographic data analysis to assist clients to target service delivery and influence public opinion. For the first eight years of his career, Madura was a transactions attorney in telecoms and technology based in Australia with clients in Australia and Asia. Madura holds a master’s degree from the University of Chicago focusing on quantitative analysis, and a law degree and a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Sydney, Australia.
David E. Young is Vice President for Public Policy at Verizon. Young is responsible for identifying and assessing emerging issues, developing corporate positions on Internet and Technology industry policy matters, and assessing key technology and communications industry trends. He is also responsible for developing relationships with high technology industry members, technology associations, research institutes, and think tanks. Previously, he was responsible for items before the FCC dealing with broadband and emerging issues. Prior to 2000, he spent six years working in Verizon’s Research and Development (R&D) group on many advanced technologies including VoIP, data network architectures, and audio, video and image compression. He has been awarded ten U.S. government patents for his R&D work. David is a member of the IEEE and IEEE Communications Society. Young holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology.
