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TechnologyDaily Mobile
Bentivoglio To Tackle E-commerce at Firm;
TechNet Names New Co-CEOs
Formerly the associate deputy attorney general, John Bentivoglio has joined the private sector to become counsel at Arnold & Porter, where he will specialize in e-commerce and health care issues. Having focused on cybercrime and cybersecurity at the Justice Department — as well as being the department's chief privacy officer — Bentivoglio said that besides "providing insight into the policy and regulatory process, [his experience in government] also provided a great deal of interaction with the technology community on Internet crime and security issues."
Cindy Cohn, the attorney who represented mathematician Daniel Bernstein in his successful legal effort to post cryptographic code on the Web is moving from the Silicon Valley firm of McGlashan & Sarrail to become director of legal services for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Many legal observers have said that the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal's decision in U.S. Department of State v. Bernstein was an important factor in causing the Clinton administration to shift course on encryption restrictions. Cohn will head up the EFF's expanding legal practice, which includes issues of free speech, civil liberties, and its legal campaign for audiovisual free expression that has increasingly been challenging the motion picture and recording industries' views of copyright laws. Cohn, who worked closely with EFF on the Bernstein case, said, "the opportunity to think and work about these cutting edge issues was just too good to pass up. We are only at the tip of the iceberg in terms of the Constitutional issues" posed by the digital age.
Attorney, writer and policy analyst James DeLong has joined the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Washington public policy group dedicated to free enterprise and limited government, where he'll be a senior fellow. For the past year, DeLong has been at the National Legal Center for the Public Interest, working on issues including high tech and the environment. He also has worked at the National Legal Center, Administrative Conference of the United States and the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission. DeLong will join CEI's newest venture: the Project on Technology & Innovations, which will focus on antitrust, intellectual property, the Internet and e-commerce, privacy, telecommunications and other high-tech issues.
TechNet, Silicon Valley's lobbying group, has named Lezlee Westine and Jeff Modisett as co-CEOs of the organization while it searches to replace former CEO Roberta Katz. Katz left in July to run a Web site focused on legal issues. Westine is TechNet's Republican lobbyist, while Modisett handles the Democrat side of the organization. Meanwhile, TechNet has gotten its Boston branch up and running and is likely in the fall to launch a New York office.
After four years, Brooks Stratmore, who handled technology policy issues for Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid, D-NV, has decided to move off the Hill and onto the presidential campaign of Vice President Al Gore in Nashville.
Michael O’Hara Garcia, chief information officer at the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency, is heading for the Hill to be senior technology adviser for the House Government Reform Committee’s Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources Subcommittee. Garcia, who starts his new job Tuesday, will be working on the Government Performance and Results Act and trade development issues.
The Universal Service Administrative Co. has named Irene Flannery as vice president of its High Cost and Low Income division, where she will oversee the day-to-day operations and administration of the division. Flannery is currently chief of accounting policy at the Federal Communications Commission's Common Carrier bureau. The USAC is a private, non-profit firm that provides every state and U.S. territory with access to affordable telecommunication services.
Netivation.com, which owns FEC Info and other political Web sites, announced that it has changed its name to Medinex Systems to reflect the company's focus on the medical application service provider market. Netivation also announced it sold its Votenet division to Politics.com, a political Web site.
Internet2, which is developing a second generation Internet, has named Gary Bachula as vice president for external relations where he will focus on strengthening and enhancing relationships with government and not-for-profit organizations working to advance Internet technology. Bachula previously served as Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce for Technology at the Commerce Department from 1993 to April of this year and was named as the acting undersecretary from June 1997 to October 1999 by then-Secretary William Daley. The undersecretary oversees the National Institute of Standards and Technology and advises the Secretary of Commerce on science and technology policies and program initiatives.
Kozmo.com's CEO Joseph Park has decided to step down as head of the one-hour delivery firm he co-founded three years ago with his college roommate. Chief Financial Officer Gerry Burdo, who joined Kozmo.com in November 1999, will take over as president and acting CEO. Park will remain chairman of the company. Kozmo.com has been expanding throughout the United States and filed to go public in March, but market conditions have delayed the IPO. Kozmo.com launched a splashy campaign in March on Capitol Hill to introduce themselves to staff members in Congress. The company ran into problems when the Equal Rights Center and two African-American plaintiffs filed suit against the firm charging that it only delivers to predominately white neighborhoods.
Minnesota Senate candidate Mike Ciresi, D, is rolling out a series of campaign "Webmercials" for broadcast exclusively on the Internet in an effort to take on Sen. Rod Grams, R, this fall. The ads can be found on his campaign Web site. The spots feature Ciresi speaking on issues as well as interviews with Minnesotans. The first two spots — which are in Realvideo format — feature Ciresi speaking on health care and the importance of education. They can be viewed by downloading free viewing software, available at www.real.com. "These webmercials will give a personal look and feel to my Web site and allow those who can't meet me in person to find out more about me and the issues that face Minnesota and this nation," Ciresi states on the site.
DoubleClick's CEO and founder Kevin O'Connor will be replaced by President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Ryan. O'Connor will remain as chairman of DoubleClick, and Ryan will also join the company's board of directors. In the past year, Ryan has been running DoubleClick's day-to-day operations while O'Connor has concentrated on long-term product development and strategy, the company and analysts said. DoubleClick got into hot water earlier this year with plans to link consumers' offline shopping habits with their online habits.
Amazon.com's President and COO Joe Galli has resigned to become president and CEO of VerticalNet, a leading business-to-business marketplace, the company announced last week. In recent months, Amazon has come under increased scrutiny from critics on Wall Street who have questioned the very viability of its business model. Galli said he decided to leave Amazon because of personal reasons. His ex-wife and two children live on the East Coast and living in Seattle turned out to be more difficult than he expected, Galli said. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said, in an e-mail to Amazon employees, that the two executives parted on good terms. At VerticalNet, based in Horsham, PA, Galli will succeed Mark Walsh, the company's current president and CEO, who will now become chairman.
The Business Software Alliance tapped Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, as the latest recipient of its Cyber Champion Award. BSA President Robert Holleyman presented Leahy with the award for his work as the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as participation in moving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, the No Theft Act and his efforts to revise and update copyright infringement penalities. "Sen. Leahy understands the issues affecting our industry and the high-tech sector," said BSA policy Chairman Paul Hughes. Leahy said Internet issues are forcing lawmakers to reexamine how they legislate, in contrast to the regulation of old economy companies in past years.
 | - by Bara Vaida and Liza Porteus |
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