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Obama tech appointments seen coming soon
Wed Jan 7, 2009 6:05pm GMT
By Kim Dixon
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President-elect Barack Obama, whose campaign used text messaging and the Internet to raise millions of dollars, is expected to announce key technology appointments as early as this week.
Industry lobbyists, consumers groups and other advocates are waiting for Obama to pick someone to head the Federal Communications Commission and to fill a new job of chief technology officer for the federal government.
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Top candidates for FCC chairman include Julius Genachowski, a classmate of Obama's at Harvard Law School, and Blair Levin, most recently an investment advisor. Both were high-level staff at the FCC under Clinton, and both are now advising Obama.
Julius Genachowski -
- Genachowski received his B.A. from Columbia College, Columbia University in 1985. He received his J.D. in 1991 from Harvard Law School, where he was a notes editor at the Harvard Law Review when it was headed by Barack Obama, who graduated in the same year. After graduation, Genachowski clerked for the Honorable Abner J. Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and then at the U.S. Supreme Court for two years, for Justices William J. Brennan and David Souter.
He was formerly a senior official at the Federal Communications Commission.
Genachowski currently co-leads the Technology, Innovation, and Government Reform Group for president-elect Barack Obama's presidential transition team.
Blair Levin -
Blair Levin joined Stifel Nicolaus in 2005, having joined the predecessor firm of Legg Mason Capital Markets in January 2001. He serves as a Managing Director and the firm's principal telecom, media and tech regulatory and strategy analyst. As Barron's Magazine has noted, Levin "has always been on top of developing trends and policy shifts in media and telecommunicationsand has proved visionary in getting out in front of many of today's headline making events".
Prior to his work as an analyst, Mr. Levin served as Chief of Staff to Chairman Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission from December 1993 through October 1997. Mr. Levin's time at the Commission included the most productive and important period in the Commission's history.
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Whoever winds up getting the job, they'll be MUCH better than Kevin Martin!!From WSJ last month:
Report Findings
Among the findings of the report:
Mr. Martin manipulated the findings of an FCC inquiry into the potential consumer benefits of requiring cable companies to sell channels on an individual -- or "a la carte" -- basis. The House investigation concludes that Mr. Martin undermined the integrity of the FCC staff and may have improperly influenced the Congressional debate on the matter by ordering agency employees to rewrite a report to conclude that a la carte mandates would benefit consumers.
Mr. Martin tried to manipulate the findings of an annual FCC report on the state of competition in the market for cable and other video services to show that the industry had a big enough market share to permit additional government regulation. When the full commission voted to reject that conclusion, Mr. Martin suppressed the report by withholding its release.
Under Mr. Martin's leadership, the FCC's oversight of the Telecommunications Relay Service Fund, which pays for special telecommunications services for people with hearing or speech disabilities, was overly lax. This resulted in overcompensation of the companies that provide these services by as much as $100 million a year -- costs that were ultimately passed along to phone company customers.
http://sec.online.wsj.com/article/SB122886216680592749.html I'll bet that Genachowski gets the FCC Chairman appointment..