Fiona M. Alexander is the Associate Administrator (Head of Office) for the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (NTIA) Office of International Affairs (OIA). Alexander oversees and manages NTIA’s activities related to the Internet’s domain name system (DNS) as well as NTIA’s involvement in international ICT bilateral and multilateral discussions in venues such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Telecommunications Working Group (APEC TEL), the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (CITEL), the International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (ITSO), and, the International Mobile Satellite Organization (IMSO). She is also a key member of the Department’s Internet Policy Task Force. Alexander was NTIA’s lead negotiator for issues related to Internet Governance in the context of the UN World Summit on the Information Society as well as the Affirmation of Commitments with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In addition, she was a key member of the U.S. team that worked on the OECD’s Internet Policy Making Principles. Prior joining NTIA, Alexander was a Senior Consultant at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. She has a Masters Degree in International Relations from American University, Washington, D.C.
Rebecca Arbogast serves as Vice President for Global Public Policy for Comcast Corporation. In this role she is responsible for the development and coordination of the company’s public policy efforts across the corporation. Prior to joining Comcast in 2011, Ms. Arbogast served as Managing Director at Stifel Financial where she provided advice to institutional investors on legal issues affecting communications, media, and technology industries. She joined Stifel from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) where she was Chief of the International Bureau Telecommunications Division, leading an office of attorneys, economists, and engineers shaping the agency’s policies for international communications services. Prior to joining the FCC, Ms. Arbogast served in the Office of Legal Counsel of the U.S. Department of Justice, and she began her legal career as a corporate attorney with Wilmer Cutler practicing international and communications law. Ms. Arbogast holds a law degree from Yale Law School and a Masters Degree from the University of Iowa. She has taught Constitutional Law at Johns Hopkins School of Public Policy and Global Communications at American University. She clerked for Judge Fletcher on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and was a Fulbright Fellow in European Community Law.
James M. Assey currently holds the position of Executive Vice President of the National Cable and Telecommunications Association. Assey is also a current adjunct faculty member at Georgetown University Law School. Prior to his position at NCTA, Assey was a long time staff member on the U.S Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation chaired by U.S Senator Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI). Most recently, he was Senior Democratic Counsel to the committee, and earlier was Senior Democratic Counsel on Communications and Media Issues. Mr. Assey also served as Telecommunications Counsel for U.S Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC). Assey has also held positions as Communications Associate in the Washington, D.C office of Willkie, Farr and 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 Senator Hollings. In April of 2009, Assey was chosen to be on the Federal Communications Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity for Communications in the Digital Age chaired by Acting FCC Chairman Michael Copps. He is a graduate of Stanford University and earned his JD from Georgetown University Law School.
Susan Athey is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Her current research focuses on auction theory, the design of auction-based markets, the statistical analysis of auction data, and internet economics. She currently serves as a consultant to Microsoft Corporation in the role of Chief Economist. She has also taught at MIT and Stanford. In 2007, Professor Athey was named the first female recipient of the American Economic Association’s prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, awarded every other year to the most accomplished American economist under the age of 40. She is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Econometric Society, and she has served as an elected member of the Council of the Econometric Society, the Executive Committee of the American Economics Association, and the Game Theory Society. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. in Economics from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business.
Meredith A. Baker joined NBCUniversal in September 2011 as Senior Vice President of the Government Relations Office. Her responsibilities include coordinating the development of NBCUniversal’s policy positions on legislative and regulatory issues and representing those positions before the Congress, the Administration and Government agencies. Ms. Baker most recently served as a Federal Communications Commissioner from July 2009 until June 2011. Prior to her service at the FCC, she was Acting Assistant Secretary of Commerce for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). While at NTIA, she administered the coupon program to help facilitate the nation’s historic transition to digital television, promoted market-based policies that encouraged innovation, served on delegations representing the United States at major international telecommunications conferences and engaged in bilateral discussions with senior level officials from countries around the world. Before joining NTIA, Ms. Baker was Vice President at the firm of Williams Mullen Strategies. She worked at Covad Communications as Senior Counsel and from 1998 to 2000 as Director of Congressional Affairs at the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association (CTIA). Ms. Baker earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington & Lee University and a law degree from the University of Houston. Ms. Baker and her husband reside in McLean, Virginia.
Renato Opice Blum is a partner with the law firm of Opice Blum Advogados Associados in São Paulo, Brazil, where he practices electronic, computer, and technology law. He is also an economist. Renato is the coordinator of the MBA course on Information Technology Law at São Paulo Law School, and is also a Professor at Mackenzie University, the University of São Paulo, and Fundação Getulio Vargas (Getulio Vargas Foundation). He is an international lecturer on topics in technology law and he co-authored the treatise “Electronic and Internet Law Manual.” Renato is the President of the Superior Council of Information Technology (Commerce Federation of São Paulo) and the Law Technology Committee of the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce, and he is the former Chairman of the Committee on Electronic Crimes of the Brazilian Bar Association.
Timothy Bresnahan is Landau Professor in Technology and the Economy at Stanford University and, by courtesy, a Professor of Economics for the Graduate School of Business. 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.
Julie Brill was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission April 6, 2010, to a term that expires on September 25, 2016. Since joining the Commission, Ms. Brill has worked actively on issues most affecting today’s consumers, including protecting consumers’ privacy, encouraging appropriate advertising substantiation, guarding consumers from financial fraud, and maintaining competition in industries involving high tech and health care. Before she became a Commissioner, Ms. Brill was the Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice, a position she held from February 2009 to April 2010. Commissioner Brill has also been a Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia University’s School of Law. Prior to her move to the North Carolina Department of Justice, Commissioner Brill was an Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for over 20 years, from 1988 to 2009. Commissioner Brill has also served as a Vice-Chair of the Consumer Protection Committee of the Antitrust Section of the American Bar Association. 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.
Erik Brynjolfsson is the Director of the MIT Center for Digital Business, a Professor at the MIT Sloan School, and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. His research examines the effects of information technologies on business strategy, productivity and employment. His recent work studies data-driven decision-making, the pricing implications of Internet commerce and the role intangible assets. Prof. Brynjolfsson has received numerous awards for his research and lectures worldwide on technology and strategy. BusinessWeek has profiled him as an “ebusiness visionary” and he is a director or advisor for several technology-intensive firms. His recent books include Wired for Innovation: How IT is Reshaping the Economy and Race Against the Machine: How theDigital Revolution is Accelerating Innovation, Driving Productivity and Irreversibly Transforming Employment and the Economy. He received his A.B. and S.M. degrees from Harvard and his Ph.D. from MIT.
Pablo Chavez is Director of Public Policy for Google. Chavez leads the company’s U.S. federal policy team and advises on, develops, and advocates in favor of a range of public policy issues including privacy, content regulation, and online free expression. Prior to joining Google, Chavez served as a Legal and Legislative Counsel to the Senate Commerce Committee and to Senator John McCain. As a senior Senate staffer, Chavez managed a broad portfolio of issues and responsibilities including several Internet-focused matters such as spyware, content regulation, online free expression, Internet taxation, oversight of ICANN, and privacy. Before his time as a Senate staffer, Chavez was an attorney at the law firm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. Chavez received his law degree from Stanford Law School and his bachelor’s degree in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.
Tom Corcoran has been the Chairman’s Senior Policy Advisor on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence since January 2011. He was a professional staffer and Senior Policy Advisor on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence from 2001 to 2011. Corcoran served as an intelligence officer from 1992 to 1999 for the Defense Intelligence Agency, with service in Somalia in 1993, and Korea in 1994 and 1996. He is also a Navy Reserve intelligence officer with active duty service in Bosnia from 2000-2001, Guantanamo Bay in 2002, and Afghanistan in 2008-2009. Corcoran has a B.A. in International Affairs and China Studies from George Washington University, and an M.A. in American Foreign Policy and International Economics from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Stephen D. Crocker is Chair of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Board and CEO and co-founder of Shinkuro, Inc. He previously served as Chair of ICANN’s Security and Stability Advisory Committee (SSAC) and as Vice Chair of the Board. Dr. Crocker has been involved in the Internet since its inception. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, while he was a graduate student at UCLA, he was part of the team that developed the protocols for the Arpanet and laid the foundation for today’s Internet. He organized the Network Working Group, which was the forerunner of the modern Internet Engineering Task Force and initiated the Request for Comment (RFC) series of notes through which protocol designs are documented and shared. For this work, Dr. Crocker was awarded the 2002 IEEE Internet Award. Dr. Crocker’s experience includes research management at DARPA, USC/ISI and The Aerospace Corporation, Vice President of Trusted Information Systems, and co-founder of CyberCash, Inc. and Longitude Systems, Inc. His prior public service includes serving as the first Area Director for Security in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the IETF Administrative Support Activity Oversight Committee (IAOC), and service on the Board of the Internet Society. Dr. Crocker earned his B.A. in mathematics and Ph.D. in computer science at UCLA, and he studied artificial intelligence at MIT. Dr. Crocker also holds an honorary doctorate in mathematics from the University of San Martin de Porres in Lima, Perú.
Gordon Crovitz is a media and information industry adviser and executive, including former Publisher of The Wall Street Journal, Executive Vice President of Dow Jones and President of its Consumer Media Group. He is also Co-Founder of Press + and is currently a columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He has been active in digital media since the early 1990s, overseeing the growth of The Wall Street Journal Online to more than one million paying subscribers, making WSJ.com the largest paid news site on the Web. He launched the Factiva business-search service and led the acquisition for Dow Jones of the MarketWatch Web site, VentureOne database, Private Equity Analyst newsletter and online news services VentureWire (Silicon Valley), e-Financial News (London) and VWD (Frankfurt). He is a member of the board of directors of ProQuest and Blurb and is on the board of advisors of several early-stage companies, including SocialMedian (sold to XING), UpCompany, Halogen Guides, YouNoodle, Peer39, SkyGrid, ExpertCEO and Clickability. He is an investor in Betaworks, a New York incubator for startups, and in Business Insider. Earlier in his career, Gordon wrote the “Rule of Law” column for the Journal and won several awards including the Gerald Loeb Award for business commentary. He was editor and publisher of the Far Eastern Economic Review in Hong Kong and editorial-page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe in Brussels. He graduated from the University of Chicago and has law degrees from Wadham College, Oxford University, which he attended as a Rhodes scholar, and Yale Law School.
Philip A. Falcone is Chief Executive Officer and Chief Investment Officer of Harbinger Capital Partners. He formed Harbinger Capital Partners in 2001, and oversees all of its investment and business functions. Mr. Falcone serves on the board of directors of LightSquared, Inc. He also has served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Harbinger Group Inc. since its formation in July 2009. Mr. Falcone has over two decades of experience in leveraged finance, distressed debt and special situations. Before joining the predecessor of Harbinger Capital, Mr. Falcone served as Head of High Yield trading for Barclays Capital. From 1998 to 2000, he managed the Barclays High Yield and Distressed trading operations. Mr. Falcone held a similar position with Gleacher Natwest, Inc., from 1997 to 1998. Mr. Falcone began his career in 1985, trading high yield and distressed securities at Kidder, Peabody & Co. Mr. Falcone received an A.B. in Economics in 1984 from Harvard University.
Harold Feld is Senior Vice President at Public Knowledge. He is responsible for managing and mentoring PK’s growing legal team and acting as lead attorney for issues before the Federal Communications Commission and the courts. Before serving as Legal Director at Public Knowledge, Feld worked as Senior Vice President of Media Access Project, advocating for the public interest in media, telecommunications and technology policy for almost 10 years. Prior to joining MAP, Feld was an associate at Covington & Burling, worked on Freedom of Information Act, Privacy Act, and accountability issues at the Department of Energy, and clerked for the D.C. Court of Appeals. Feld also writes Tales of the Sausage Factory, a progressive blog on media and telecom policy. In 2007, Illinois Senator Dick Durbin praised him and his blog for “[doing] a lot of great work helping people understand how FCC decisions affect people and communities on the ground.” Feld received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his J.D. from Boston University Law School.
Brett Feldman joined Deutsche Bank in 2009 as our Senior Equity Research analyst covering the US Telecom Services industry. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Feldman was at Barclays Capital/Lehman Brothers, where he was the Senior Wireless Services Analyst covering the Towers and Emerging US Carriers. Feldman initially joined Lehman in 2003 as a senior associate on the firm’s Institutional Investor ranked US Telecom Services team supporting coverage on all companies in all verticals of the sector. Before starting his Wall Street career, Feldman spent six years in the telecom services industry in both a finance capacity and in investor relations with roles at GoAmerica and AT&T. Feldman graduated with a BBA in Finance from the University of Michigan Business School.
Luigi Gambardella is Chairman of the Executive Board of ETNO, the European Telecommunications Network Operators’ Association. In 1999 he joined the Telecom Italia Group, in charge of relations with the National Regulatory Authority, and he is currently their Vice President Relations with International Institutions and Organizations. He is also the BIAC Vice Chair to the OECD ICCP Committee, President of EUBrasil – the Association for the development of the relationship between Europe and Brazil, and a member of the Advisory and Support Group of BUSINESSEUROPE. In addition, Gambardella is a member of the board of the European American Business Council, a member of the board of the European Internet Foundation, a member of the Competitiveness Working Group of the European Round Table of Industrialists, President of Puntoit– the Italian Association for the development of the digital economy and a member of Comitato Europa of CONFINDUSTRIA. From 1996-99 Luigi Gambardella ran the regulatory and Institutional affairs for Olivetti. Mr. Gambardella graduated in economics from Bocconi University in Milan, Italy.
Shane Greenstein is the Kellogg Chair of Information Technology and Professor of Management and Strategy at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. He is a leading researcher in the business economics of computing, communications and Internet infrastructure. Prior to Northwestern, he was Assistant and then Associate Professor with the Department of Economics and the Institute of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign. Greenstein was also a Visiting Scholar with the Computer Industry Project at Stanford University and a Research Associate with the Institute for Management, Innovation and Organizations in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. Greenstein received his B.A. from University of California, Berkeley in 1983, and his Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1989, both in economics.
Ambassador David A. Gross is a Partner in Wiley Rein’s Communications Practice and former U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the U.S. Department of State. He has addressed the United Nations (UN) 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. Ambassador Gross received his J.D. from Columbia Law School and his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.
Tony Hadley is Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy for Experian, where he leads the legislative and political programs relating to e-commerce and privacy for the Experian group of companies. Hadley also leads Experian’s public policy efforts with a number of trade groups and alliances. These include the Direct Marketing Association’s (DMA), the Consumer Data Industry Association, the Internet Advertising Bureau, the Internet Alliance, the US Chamber of Commerce, the American Financial Services Association and a number State Chambers of Commerce. He is Chairman of the National Business Coalition on E-commerce and Privacy. Hadley previously led the Government Affairs program for a national trade association, and worked as a press secretary and legislative assistant on Capitol Hill.
Kathleen O’Brien Ham is Vice President, Federal Regulatory Affairs for T-Mobile USA, Inc. In her current capacity, she oversees the company’s work before the FCC and other governmental bodies. For the last two years, FierceWireless, has named her one of the most influential women in wireless. Prior to joining T-Mobile, she worked for fourteen years at the FCC 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. She 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. A graduate of Catholic University Law School, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Colorado, with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism.
Stuart Ingis co-leads Venable’s privacy practice, which won the Chambers USA Award for Excellence for the top privacy practice and top advertising practice in the United States. He is nationally recognized as a leading attorney and thought leader on privacy, marketing, advertising, and E-Commerce and Internet law. Ingis has also been repeatedly listed in the first tier of privacy attorney’s in Chambers USA, Legal 500 and ComputerWorld magazine. Ingis regularly represents companies in the media, communications, information services, advertising, and retail industries before the US Congress and the Federal Trade Commission as well as before other Federal and state agencies. Ingis regularly defends companies in investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and State Consumer Protection Authorities. He also represents clients in Congressional investigations and is well-known for representing clients in crisis management situations, in particular with Congressional relations. Ingis serves as the Partner in Charge of the Washington, DC office and is a member of the Venable Board.
Andrew Keen is an Internet entrepreneur who founded Audiocafe.com in 1995 and built it into a popular first generation Internet company. He is currently the host of “Keen On” show, the popular Techcrunch chat show, a columnist for CNN and a regular commentator for many other newspapers, radio and television networks around the world. He is also an acclaimed speaker, regularly addressing the impact of digital technologies on 21st century business, education and society. He is the author of the international hit “CULT OF THE AMATEUR: How The Internet Is Killing Our Culture” which has been published in 17 different languages and “DIGITAL VERTIGO: How Today’s Social Revolution Is Dividing, Diminishing and Disorienting Us”, his controversial critique of contemporary social media.
Carlos Kirjner is Vice President and Senior Analyst, Internet at Alliance Bernstein. Prior to joining Alliance Bernstein he was a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. In this role he led the development of the policies behind the National Broadband Plan. Before joining the FCC, he was VP of business development for Telegent Systems, a fabless semiconductor manufacturer in Silicon Valley developing mobile video chips, and the Director of Global Enterprise Business Development for Vodafone Group, in Newbury, UK. Prior to that he was a partner with McKinsey & Co, in New York, where he led the Firm’s work for clients in the technology, telecommunications and private equity industries. Dr. Kirjner holds a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
William Kovacic is the Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy at the George Washington Law School. Before joining the Law School in 1999, Professor Kovacic was the George Mason University Foundation Professor at the George Mason University School of Law. Kovacic was an FTC Commissioner from January 2006 to October 2011, and served as Chairman of the agency from March 2008 to March 2009. Kovacic previously was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through 2004, and also worked for the agency from 1979 until 1983, initially as a staff attorney in the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas. He is a recognized expert in the fields of antitrust law and government contracts law. Since 1992, Professor Kovacic has served as an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.
Fernando Laguarda is Vice President, External Affairs and Policy Counselor for Time Warner Cable. In this role, Fernando helps the company develop and advance its policy positions and oversees its relationships with civil society policy stakeholders, such as foundations, think tanks, academic instutitions, and civil and human rights organizations. Fernando launched and directs the Time Warner Cable Research Program on Digital Communications, which seeks to expand scholarship of relevance to the industry. Prior to Time Warner Cable, Fernando was a partner at two prominent communications law firms. He received his A.B. from Harvard and his J.D. from Georgetown. He is an appointed member of the Federal Communications Commission’s Consumer Advisory Committee and serves on numerous non-profit boards, including the program committee for TPRC, the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Corporate Alliance, the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI), the Friends of the National Museum of the American Latino and the Harvard Alumni Association. He resides in Washington, DC, with his wife and four children.
Stan Liebowitz is Ashbel Smith Professor of Economics in the Management School at the University of Texas at Dallas and is head of the Center for the Analysis of Property Rights and Innovation (CAPRI). Professor Liebowitz’ research interests include the economic impact of new technologies, intellectual property, the economics of networks and standards, pricing issues, and antitrust. He has consulted and testified internationally on issues related to technology, antitrust, and intellectual property. Liebowitz received his B.A. from John Hopkins University and his Ph.D. in Economics from UCLA.
Jill Lesser serves as the Executive Director of the Center for Copyright Information, a non-profit organization established to implement the Copyright Alert System. Lesser is also a strategic policy consultant advising non-profit and corporate clients on media and communications policy issues. Since 2007, Lesser has worked in collaboration with The Glover Park Group, offering strategic communications and government relations advice to the firm’s many clients in her areas of expertise. She became a Managing Director at GPG in 2010. Until 2002, Lesser served as Senior Vice President, Domestic Public Policy for AOL Time Warner, Inc., where she lead the company’s domestic public policy, regulatory and industry relations activities, and the Washington, D.C. office and managed a team of ten professionals and their support staff. From 2002 to 2005, Lesser was Senior Policy Advisor for Time Warner, Inc. She joined America Online in September 1996 and managing domestic policy for AOL until its merger with Time Warner. Lesser also sat on the boards of several industry-related organizations, including TRUSTe and the Internet Education Foundation. Prior to joining AOL, Lesser was Deputy Director of Public Policy and Director of the Civic Media Project at People for the American Way, a Washington, D.C. based civil liberties organization. Lesser was also a litigation associate in New York with the Law firm Debevoise & Plimpton from 1990 to 1993 and graduated with honors from the University of Michigan where she majored in political science. She received her J.D. cum laude from Boston University School of Law.
Declan McCullagh is the chief political correspondent for CNET, which is part of CBS Corporation. Previously he was a senior correspondent for CBS News’ Web site. He became the chief political correspondent for CNET News in 2002 and lives in the San Francisco area after spending over a decade in Washington, DC. An award-winning journalist, McCullagh writes and speaks frequently about technology, law, and politics. From 1998 to 2002, he was Wired’s Washington bureau chief. Previously he was a reporter for Time Magazine, Time Digital Daily, and The Netly News, as well as a correspondent for HotWired. McCullagh previously wrote for the Taking Liberties section of CBS News’ Web site, the successor to a weekly column he started in October 2008 titled Other People’s Money. McCullagh’s articles have appeared in scores of publications including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times Magazine, Communications of the ACM, and the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy. McCullagh moderates Politech, a well-known mailing list looking broadly at politics and technology that he founded in 1994, and has been online since 1988. He was the first online reporter to join the National Press Club; he participated in the first White House dot com press pool; and was one of the first online journalists to receive credentials from the press gallery of the U.S. Congress. He has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He also has been a lecturer at American University in Washington, DC where he has taught a graduate journalism class.
Bernard McKay is Intuit’s Chief Public Policy Officer and Vice President for Corporate Affairs. In this role, McKay is Intuit’s senior officer responsible for government affairs, industry relations, global public policy, and national corporate philanthropy. Prior to that time, he served in a variety of capacities in both the private and public sectors. A former Vice President for AT&T, McKay served in government relations positions there in the corporate Public Affairs department, and later led the Emerging Global Markets business development group in AT&T Federal Systems. He also previously served as deputy director of Hewlett-Packard’s Washington Government Affairs office. Prior to joining the private sector, McKay served in positions in the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, and also previously served in the Rhode Island State Department of Health. Before joining government, he served in a number of staff and management positions in Presidential, Senatorial and Gubernatorial election campaigns. McKay holds a BA in Political Science from Providence College, and a Masters in Business and Public Administration from Southeastern University. He studied business, government and international affairs at the University College of North Wales (UK), the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, and at the Indiana University School of Business.
Kyle McSlarrow is the President of Comcast/NBCUniversal, Washington D.C. for Comcast Corporation. In this role, he has dual responsibilities in business operations and public policy. Prior to joining Comcast, McSlarrow served as President & CEO of the National Cable Telecommunications Association (NCTA), the primary trade association of the cable television industry. McSlarrow served on the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee from 2007 – 2010. He previously served as the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy and as Vice President of Political and Government Affairs for Grassroots.com. McSlarrow has also held numerous political positions, including National Chairman for the Quayle 2000 Presidential Campaign and was the Republican nominee in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District in 1994 and 1992. Before becoming involved in politics, McSlarrow was an associate at the Washington, D.C. law firm Hunton & Williams and served as Assistant to the General Counsel of the Army in the Secretary of the Army’s Office. McSlarrow holds degrees from Cornell University and the University of Virginia Law School.
Maureen Ohlhausen was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 4, 2012, to a term that expires in September 2018. 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 from 2004 to 2008, where she led the FTC’s Internet Access Task Force. She was also Deputy Director of that office. From 1998 to 2001, Ohlhausen was an attorney advisor for former FTC Commissioner Orson Swindle, advising him on competition and consumer protection matters. She started at the FTC General Counsel’s Office in 1997. 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 also clerked for Judge Robert Yock of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims from 1991 to 1992. Ohlhausen graduated with distinction from George Mason University School of Law in 1991 and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia in 1984. Ohlhausen was on the adjunct faculty at George Mason University School of Law, where she taught privacy law and unfair trade practices. She 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. She has authored a variety of articles on competition law, privacy, and technology matters.
Daniel Raimer is Chief Legal Officer at RapidShare. In 2005 he founded his own chancellery and started working for RapidShare. Since 2010, he has been RapidShare’s chief spokesperson, shaping its Responsible Practices to curb copyright infringement and articulating RapidShare’s commitment to provide industry leadership and protect customer privacy. Raimer is also member of the board of directors of several IT-companies. He completed his legal clerkship in Düsseldorf, Germany and worked as an employee in a chancellery specialized in IT. Raimer studied law and holds a state examination from the University of Münster, Germany and a Master of Law from California Western School of Law of San Diego, California.
Edith Ramirez was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission on April 5, 2010, to a term that expires on September 25, 2015. Prior to joining the Commission, 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 successfully representing clients in intellectual property, antitrust, unfair competition, and Lanham Act matters. She also has extensive appellate litigation experience. From 1993-1996, Ramirez was an associate at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP in Los Angeles. She clerked for the Hon. Alfred T. Goodwin in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from 1992-1993. Throughout her career, 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. Ramirez graduated from Harvard Law School cum laude (1992), where she served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and holds an A.B. in History magna cum laude from Harvard University (1989).
Alan Charles Raul is the lead Global Coordinator of Sidley’s Privacy, Data Security and Information Law practice. He has a broad litigation and counselling 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 L. Rosston is Deputy Director of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research and Deputy Director of the Public Policy program at Stanford University. 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. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee. Dr. 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 focusing on economic agency review and energy policy. He has 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. Dr. 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.
Russell Schrader is Associate General Counsel, Global Enterprise Risk and Chief Privacy Officer at Visa Inc. He is responsible for privacy and payment systems policies and issues at Visa and a principal legal liaison for Visa financial institutions attorneys on regulatory issues. Schrader is a Fellow of the American College of Consumer Financial Services Attorneys, chairman of the American Bar Association Consumer Financial Services Committee on electronic payments, co-chair of the Payment Card Institute, a member of the Board of Advisors to the Future of Privacy Forum, and a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals. He is a Director of the Council of Better Business Bureaus and a member of its Audit Committee, where he works closely in their electronic commerce and consumer trust initiatives. He is also a former member of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Committee. Prior to Visa, Schrader headed the National Consumer group in the Legal Department of Chase in New York City. He was responsible for legal services to the mortgage, auto, home equity, and unsecured lending businesses. He was also general counsel to one of Chase’s regional banks as well as providing legal services to the Eastern Caribbean, Panama, and South American consumer banks. Schrader holds a J.D. from Duke University, an M.B.A. in Finance from New York University, and a B.A. from Wake Forest University.
Adam Segal is the Maurice R. Greenberg Senior Fellow for China Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). An expert on security issues, technology development, and Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Dr. Segal currently leads the Cyberconflict and Cybersecurity Initiative. His recent book Advantage: How American Innovation Can Overcome the Asian Challenge (W.W. Norton, 2011) looks at the technological rise of Asia. He is a research associate of the National Asia Research Program and was the project director for a CFR-sponsored independent task force on Chinese military modernization. Before coming to CFR, Segal was an arms control analyst for the China Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. There, he wrote about missile defense, nuclear weapons, and Asian security issues. He has been a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for International Studies, the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, and Tsinghua University in Beijing. He has taught at Vassar College and Columbia University. Dr. Segal is the author of Digital Dragon: High-Technology Enterprises in China (Cornell University Press, 2003), as well as several articles and book chapters on Chinese technology policy. His work has appeared in the Financial Times, the Economist, Foreign Policy, The Wall Steet Journal, and Foreign Affairs, among others. Segal has a BA and PhD in government from Cornell University, and an MA in international relations from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
Michael D. Smith is a Professor of Information Systems and Marketing and Co-Director of the Center for Digital Media Research 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. He 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.
Suzanne E. Spaulding serves as Deputy Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate (NPPD) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Spaulding has spent nearly 25 years working on national security issues for both Republican and Democratic Administrations and on both sides of the aisle of Congress. She was most recently a principal in the Bingham Consulting Group and of Counsel for Bingham McCutchen LLP. Prior to joining the private sector, she served as the minority staff director for the U.S. House of Representatives Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and as general counsel for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. She also spent six years at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and served as senior counsel and legislative director for U.S. Senator Arlen Specter (PA). In 2002, she was appointed by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to the Secure Commonwealth Panel. Spaulding also worked with key critical infrastructure sectors and served as Security Counsel for the Business Roundtable. In addition, Spaulding served as the executive director of the National Commission on Terrorism and the Commission to Assess the Organization of the Federal Government to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction. She was assistant general counsel at CIA, including a position as legal adviser to the Nonproliferation Center, and also spent several years in private practice. Spaulding was a Senior Fellow at the Homeland Security Policy Institute, George Washington University. She is the former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security; and founder of the Cybersecurity Legal Task Force. Spaulding earned both her law degree and undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia.
Chris Sprigman teaches intellectual property law, antitrust law, competition policy and comparative constitutional law at the University of Virginia School of Law. His scholarship focuses on how legal rules affect innovation and the deployment of new technologies. He is author (along with Kal Raustiala) of a new book, “The Knockoff Economy: How Imitation Sparks Innovation”, which will be published in August by Oxford University Press. Sprigman received his B.A. with honors from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. He attended the University of Chicago Law School, serving as a comment editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and graduating with honors in 1993. Following graduation, Sprigman clerked for Judge Stephen Reinhardt of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for Justice Lourens H. W. Ackermann of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Sprigman also taught at the law school of the University of the Witwatersrand, in Johannesburg, South Africa. From 1999 to 2001, Sprigman served as appellate counsel in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, where he worked on U.S. v. Microsoft, among other matters. Sprigman then joined the Washington, D.C., office of King & Spalding, where he was elected a partner. In 2003, he left law practice to become a Residential Fellow at the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School. He joined the Virginia faculty in 2005.
Jon Summers is Senior Vice President – Applications and Service Infrastructure at AT&T. Summers is responsible for development of AT&T’s applications portfolio, cloud service capabilities, and supporting platforms and infrastructure. He leads a team of engineering, development and testing professionals located in Redmond, WA, Atlanta, New Jersey and Dallas. Summers has worked within the communications industry since beginning his career with AT&T in 1989. He has held numerous leadership positions in operations, product management, technology development and sales. Prior to his current role, Summers led Product and Technology development for wireless voice, data and messaging services. He holds B.A. and M.A. degrees from Stanford University
Thomas J. Tauke is Executive Vice President – Public Affairs, Policy and Communications at Verizon and serves as a member of Verizon’s Leadership Council. Before joining NYNEX (predecessor of Verizon), Tauke was a member of Congress, representing Iowa’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. During his congressional service, he was a member of the Telecommunications Subcommittee and the Energy and Commerce, Education and Labor, and Small Business Committees. Tauke also served as a member of the Iowa General Assembly. Tauke is a past chairman of the U.S. Telecom Association, where he is currently on the Board of Directors. He is chair of the Board of the Business Industry Political Action Committee; serves as chair of the Executive Committee of the Board of Jobs for America’s Graduates; and sits on the board of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Tauke received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loras College and a Juris Doctorate from the University of Iowa College of Law.
Shane Tews is the Vice President for Global Public Policy and Government Relations for VeriSign, Inc. VeriSign operates intelligent infrastructure that enables and protects billions of interactions every day across the world’s Internet Infrastructure. VeriSign operates the constellation of servers that run the .com and .net domain name systems. Shane represents VeriSign on e-Commerce, Internet Governance, Security and Communications issues both domestically and internationally. She works closely with the Administration, Congress, State & Local Government Officials and International policy makers who work on International communications and technology. She is Vice-Chair of the board of the Internet Caucus Advisory Council, and sits on the boards of the Information Technology Industry Council, The Information Technology Industry Foundation, the Internet Alliance, and The United States Telecommunications Training Institute. Prior to being at VeriSign Shane represented the Distilled Spirits industry at the Distilled Industry Council as their lead Federal lobbyist for four years working on tax, advertising, and regulation issues. Shane has also worked for an economic think tank, Citizens for a Sound Economy working on tax, federal budget, telecommunications, appropriations, electricity deregulation, regulatory reform, labor, health care, FDA reform and legal reform. Shane worked in Congress from 1992 to 1995 as Legislative Director to Congressman Gary Franks from Connecticut on Energy and Commerce issues. Shane graduated from American University in 1988. She is originally from Lincoln, Nebraska.
Catherine Tucker is the Douglas Drane Career Development Professor in IT and Management and Associate Professor of Marketing at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She specializes in understanding how the huge amounts of data generated by the ICT revolution can better guide marketing and advertising decisions. She also thinks about the privacy concerns that such data raises and how firms and policy makers can best address these privacy concerns. She has also done substantial research into how healthcare IT is transforming the healthcare sector. She received the NSF CAREER award for her work on digital privacy. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and is an Associate Editor at Management Science. Tucker received her PhD in Economics from Stanford University.
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 in 1969 and his M.A. in Mathematics and Ph.D. in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1973. Varian holds honorary doctorates from the University of Oulu, Finland and the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
Kent Walker is Senior Vice President & General Counsel at Google. He is responsible for managing Google’s global legal team and advising the company’s board and management on legal issues and corporate governance matters. Before joining Google, Walker held senior legal positions at a number of leading technology companies. Most recently he was Deputy General Counsel of eBay Inc., where he managed corporate legal affairs, litigation, and legal operations. Previously, he was executive vice president of Liberate Technologies, a provider of interactive services software founded by Oracle and Netscape Communications. He also served as Associate General Counsel for Netscape and America Online and Senior Counsel for AirTouch Communications, which was later acquired by Vodaphone. Earlier in his career, Walker was an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the United States Department of Justice, where he specialized in the prosecution of technology crimes and advised the Attorney General on management and technology issues. Walker has served on the boards of a number of technology industry trade associations. He graduated from Harvard College and Stanford Law School.
Philip Weiser is the Dean of the Law School, Thompson Professor of Law, and Executive Director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado. Prior to his return to the University of Colorado, Weiser served as the Senior Advisor for Technology and Innovation to the National Economic Council Director at the White House and as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Since joining the CU faculty in 1999, Weiser founded the Journal on Telecommunications & High Technology Law and the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship. He co-chairs the Colorado Innovation Council, and served as the lead agency reviewer for the Federal Trade Commission as part of the 2008 Presidential Transition. Prior to joining the Colorado Law faculty, Dean Weiser served as senior counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Antitrust Division at the United States Department of Justice. Weiser served as a law clerk to Justices Byron R. White and Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the United States Supreme Court and to Judge David Ebel at the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. Weiser graduated with high honors from both the New York University School of Law and Swarthmore College.
Tim Westergren is Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Pandora. Westergren started the popular personalized radio service in 2000 with the Music Genome Project. He is an award-winning composer and accomplished musician with 20 years of experience in the music industry – spanning production, audio engineering, film scoring and live performance. Trained as a jazz pianist, his musical background spans such genres as rock, blues, jazz and classical music. A musician’s musician, he is dedicated to helping talented emerging artists find an audience. In addition to guiding Pandora’s overall strategy and vision, Westergren now spends most of his time as Pandora’s chief evangelist – traveling the country to connect with some of the tens of millions of people who listen to Pandora. He also works extensively with technology partners, distribution partners, advertisers and investors to help shape the future of Pandora and personalized radio. Tim received his B.A. from Stanford University, where he studied computer acoustics and recording technology.
