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It’s Party Time In Washington And Silicon Valley
Wondering where high-tech folks in Silicon Valley will be spending their election evening? A number will be at a Palo Alto, CA, bar called Gorden Biersch, where lobbying group TechNet has rented space to watch election results. Cisco Systems Chief Executive Officer John Chambers and venture capitalist John Doerr, TechNet’s co-founders, are expected to attend, as are members of the National Venture Capital Association.
In Washington, DC, only the Business Software Alliance is likely to have a gathering of high-tech folks because several of its international members will be in the city for the association’s annual meeting on Election Day. Most high-tech executives said they are attending political-party gatherings — like one at the Capitol Hill Club, to be hosted by the National Republican Congressional Committee, or another one at the Mayflower, where Democratic National Committee staff and others will be partying or drowning their sorrows.
Let the tech debate begin
Once the election results are known, the president-elect is expected to attend a half-day Internet Policy Institute briefing in Washington, DC on Dec. 15 to discuss high-tech policy for the next four years. The non-partisan, non-profit think tank said either Texas Gov. George W. Bush or Vice President Al Gore would be the key luncheon speaker at the event, where a year of research on high-tech issues will be discussed.
"It will be eight issues the American people have identified as important for the next administration to focus on," said Maura Colleton, a spokeswoman for the IPI. Netscape Communications co-founder and IPI Board member Jim Barksdale said in a CNBC interview two weeks ago that the IPI had conducted eight town hall meetings specifically on Internet policy issues over the past year and that the findings from those travels will serve as the basis of discussion with the president-elect.
Fundraising and lobbying: They’re Intuit
Financial software company Intuit will be the new kid on the high-tech political block next election cycle. The San Diego company filed to create a political action committee (PAC) in September, but it was too late to build the PAC for this election cycle.
"It was time for us to become more politically active, to exercise the same voice in the political process as other people do," said Michael Runzler, senior corporate communications manager for Intuit, when asked why the company decided to create a PAC. Intuit will track all e-commerce issues before Congress next year, including taxation, financial services and the government's role in electronic bill-paying.
Intuit ranked sixth among the biggest software-company contributor this election cycle as of Oct. 1, according to Federal Election Commission data analyzed by the Center for Responsive Politics. Intuit employees donated $206,705, with 80 percent going to Democrats and 20 percent to Republicans.
Intuit has not been a high-profile company in lobbying on high-tech issues, but its voice may get louder as it lobbies to fight efforts by the Internal Revenue Service to encourage tax-software companies to offer free tax-preparation services. The company has hired two lobbying firms — Washington Resource Association and Manatt Phelps & Phillips — to work on its behalf, and it has a Washington representative, Bernie McKay.
Podesta’s dreams of fun in the sun
White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, perhaps among the most influential members of President Clinton's team on high-tech issues, said a beach is in his future when Clinton leaves office next year. In an interview with K. Daniel Glover, managing editor of National Journal's Technology Daily, Podesta said he is not sure what beach will beckon him — but he does plan to make his break from the Washington policy scene as technologically free as possible. "I assure you that I will not have a tan line that will be the result of having a laptop on my belly,” he said.
When asked whether he might rejoin forces with his high-tech lobbyist brother, Tony, at Podesta.com, John Podesta said the business has flourished without him. "I was the techie. ... [But] I must have been a weight on my brother's entrepreneurial ability because he really grew the business" while Podesta was otherwise occupied. Podesta said he probably would not make any final decisions about his future until January.
Senate staff departures
Jennifer Greeson, former communications director and speechwriter to Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-LA, has been hired as the new communications manager for the Computer Systems Policy Project (CSPP) and the Computer Coalition for Responsible Exports.
Greeson will be responsible for outreach to policymakers on issues such as trade, export controls, privacy and e-commerce. Before joining Lincoln’s staff, Greeson worked on the re-election campaign of Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-CT. CSPP also hired Philip Maggi, former legislative counsel to Rep. Nancy Johnson, R-CT, as its new policy director.
The Senate Finance Committee's minority chief international trade counselor, Linda Menghetti, will be leaving her job in December to join the Emergency Committee for American Trade as a vice president, Inside U.S. Trade reported.
Menghetti had only been chief international trade counselor since September, following the departure of Deborah Lamb, who went to the Distilled Spirits Council to become vice president for international issues. Menghetti had been with the Senate Finance Committee since 1996 and before that was trade counsel for former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-NJ. At press time, a replacement had not been named.
A shake-up at Bertelsmann
The top two executives at BMG Entertainment, the music division of German media conglomerate Bertelsmann, which last week announced an online music-distribution partnership with music-swapping site Napster, are resigning in the wake of a major realignment of the company's online strategy. But BMG spokesman Keith Estabrook on Sunday denied that the two departures and the announcement were related.
Chairman Michael Dornemann will relinquish his position by mid-2001 and will resign from the board of management at Bertelsmann. President and Chief Executive Officer Strauss Zelnick will leave Bertelsmann on Dec. 31. Dornemann, who has been with Bertelsmann for 18 years, is credited with founding BMG, which was created in 1987 by combining the company's existing music operations with RCA. He was also instrumental in the company's acquisition of RCA.
Also on Sunday, Bertelsmann said Arnold Bahlmann, head of corporate development, and Rudi Gassner, who controlled BMG's international music business before being fired by Zelnick earlier in the year, will take seats on the company's board.
New faces at CSIS
The Center for Strategic and International Studies has named four new staff members. James Lewis, former director of the Office of Strategic Trade and Foreign Policy Controls at the Commerce Department, will direct the CSIS Council on Technology and Public Policy; Anne Solomon will focus on issues of international science, technology and public policy; Anne Witkowsky will be the director of the CSIS Commission on Science and Security; and Charles Duelfer, former deputy chairman of the UN Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM), will be a resident visiting scholar in the CSIS Middle East Program.
Before joining Commerce in 1996, Lewis was a foreign-service officer for 12 years at the State Department, where he was responsible for issues involving Central America, and the National Security Council. Solomon previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of State for science, technology and health in the Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs.
Witkowsky comes to CSIS from the National Security Council, where she handled arms-control negotiations and agreements in the conventional military area and European security. And before joining UNSCOM, Duelfer was deputy assistant secretary of state for arms control and multilateral defense matters.
More upheaval at Priceline
Priceline, the Internet-based, name-your-own-price system for travel and other services, has said that chief financial officer Heidi Miller is leaving after only eight months on the job. The company, which has experienced recent financial trouble, also is laying off 16 percent of its workers.
The company said Miller was leaving to "pursue opportunities and apply her talents in a more established business environment." Bob Mylod, the senior vice president of finance, will replace her. Miller joined the company earlier this year, leaving his job as chief financial officer at banking giant Citigroup.
Good news for Microsoft ... and Hill techies
Two Microsoft researchers, Tom Barclay and Jim Gray, are receiving the John Wesley Powell Award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for their work on the TerraServer Project. The project began in 1977 as a collaborative effort between USGS, Microsoft and others to build the largest database on the Internet. The database stores topographic, aerial and satellite images of the earth on an SQL server database for the public via the Internet. It receives more than 50,000 visitors a day.
And finally, for all the staffers on Capitol Hill who might be looking for jobs after this election, Dell Computer and Palm Computing are reportedly looking to fill jobs in their Washington, DC, offices.
 | - by Bara Vaida |
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