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Back in 2007, when Barack was a long shot and most "liberals" were backing Clinton, 40 tech leaders committed themselves to Obama. When h e was elected, he reached out to many of the same extremely able people for guidance. Obama staffer Larry Strickling worked on this, and is expected to soon be nominated the "Broadband Czar" as I write in early March. Julius Genachowski is now the FCC nominee. Don Gips, Reed Hundt, Blair Levin, Beth Noveck, Phil Weiser, Andrew McLaughlin, and Kevin Werbach played key roles in the transition, and Bill Kennard is thought a key advisor.
There's no reason to think this is any more than Obama and team looking to people who had earned their confidence. I know many of them quite well, and they are exceptional in skill and dedication and superb choices for leadership. If I were asked, I would have been honored to be among them. Several are friends. Nearly all have little opportunity to seek favors from government, the usual reason for campaign contributions. It's an interesting list, however. I've used it for guidance on the direction the administration will take.
Tim Wu, Deborah Lathen, Larry Lessig, Jeff Pulver, and Rob Glaser are also well known to us in telecom. Tim is a Columbia Law Professor and probably won't move to D.C., although would surely be exceptional in any policy role. Jeff Pulver, an entrepreneur and technologist, would be an inspired choice as an FCC commissioner. Government at that level desperately needs people who understand technology and the industry. Susan Crawford, a Michigan professor who also served on the transition, would also be an exceptional choice for any policy position. Here's the 2007 endorsement list:
Stuart Benjamin, Professor of Law, Duke University
Robert Blackwell, Founder and CEO, Electronic Knowledge Interchange Consulting
Joseph Farrell, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley; Chief Economist, Federal Communications Commission (1996-97); Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics (chief economist), Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice (2000-02)
Lloyd Frink, President and Co-Founder, Zillow
Julius Genachowski, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Rock Creek Ventures; former Chief of Business Operations & General Counsel, IAC/InterActiveCorp; former Chief Counsel to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt
Don Gips, Executive Vice President, Corporate Development, Level 3 Communications; former Chief Domestic Policy Advisor to Vice President Gore
Rob Glaser, Founder and CEO, Real Networks
Mark Gorenberg, Managing Director, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners
Nick Hanauer, Partner, Second Avenue Partners; Founder, aQuantive
Adam Hanft, Founder and CEO, Hanft Unlimited
Reed Hundt, Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (1993-97)
Mitch Kapor, President, Kapor Enterprises; Founder, Lotus Development Corp.
Jed Katz, Managing Director, DFJ Gotham Ventures
Michael Katz, Professor, NYU and UC Berkeley; former Chief Economist, FCC; former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics (chief economist), Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice
William Kennard, Former Chairman, Federal Communications Commission (1997-2001)
Deborah Lathen, President, Lathen Consulting; former Chief, Cable Bureau, FCC
Steve Lerner, Managing Partner, Blue Hill Group
Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law, Stanford University
Blair Levin, Managing Director, Stifel Nicholas; former Chief of Staff, FCC
Andrew McLaughlin, Director, Global Public Policy and Government Affairs, Google
Ted Meisel, Elevation Partners
Jon Miller, Former Chairman and CEO, American Online, Inc.
Glenn Neland, Retired Senior Vice President, Dell
Robert Nelsen, Managing Director and Co-Founder, ARCH Venture Partners
Craig Newmark, Founder, Craigslist
Beth Noveck, Professor of Law, New York Law School
Chamath Palihapitiya, Executive Vice President, Product and Operations, Facebook
Deven Parekh, Partner, Insight Venture Partners
Sunil Paul, Founding Partner, Spring Ventures; Co-Founder, Brightmail
John Place, Retired General Counsel, Yahoo!, Inc.
Jeff Pulver, Founder, pulver.com
Arti Rai, Professor of Law, Duke University
John Roos, CEO, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Alec Ross, Senior Vice President, One Economy
Kim Scott, AdSense Director of Online Sales and Operations, Google
Carl Shapiro, Professor of Business Strategy, UC Berkeley; Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics (chief economist), Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice (1995-96)
Howard Shelanski, Professor of Law, UC Berkeley; former Chief Economist, FCC
Steven Spinner, Executive, Danoo
Phil Weiser, Professor of Law and Telecommunications, University of Colorado
Kevin Werbach, Asst. Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Tom Wheeler, Managing Director, Core Capital Partners
Tim Wu, Professor of Law, Columbia University
Ed Zander, CEO, Motorola
For the record, I've done three conferences with Jeff Pulver and Jennie was Managing Director of Pulver TV. Several of the others are friends whom I've invited to conferences, interviewed, etc. Telecom policy is a small field where most of us know each other, for better or worse. |
