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Lockhart Sees Future At Oracle
Former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart will be joining Oracle as a member of the software giant's senior management team. Lockhart will report directly to Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison and will focus on refining and communicating Oracle's business strategy. "Joe will help us clearly and broadly communicate the benefits of e-business and e-government," said Ellison, who is second wealthiest high-tech executive behind Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates. In a statement, Lockart said he looked forward to making Oracle a "household name." Under Lockhart's direction in the White House, Mark Kitchens was named the first White House director of Internet news. Lockhart is also the second former White House press secretary to enter the Internet industry. Two weeks ago, former press secretary Mike McCurry was named CEO of Grassroots.com, a political Internet tools company. Before Lockhart joined the White House in 1997, he was the national press secretary for President Clinton's re-election campaign in 1996. Prior to that, he was senior vice president of Robinson Lerer Sawyer Miller. Lockhardt will be based in DC but will spend one to two weeks a month in Silicon Valley.
Rep. Adam Smith's, D-WA, Chief of Staff Jeff Bjornstad is leaving to become the chief of staff to newly elected Rep Rick Larsen, D-WA. Bjornstad will be replaced by Ali Weise, who has been Smith's legislative and communications director. "This is an extremely exciting opportunity for me personally and want you to know how much I am going to miss you all," Bjornstad wrote to colleagues in an e-mail explaining his decision to leave. "Please know that after working for Adam for 10 years, this was a very difficult decision. Ultimately, I decided that having the chance to duplicate the Adam Smith efforts in the 2nd District and working for the people I grew up with in Everett was too good to pass up." Smith is the communications leader for the New Democrat Coalition, the moderate faction of more than 60 House Democrats. Larsen, a former Snohomish County councilman, won in a squeaker race against dairy farmer John Koster, and plans to be a member of the New Democrat Coalition.
Senator-elect George Allen, R-VA, stressed the need for a $1,000 per child education tax credit to families so they can purchase computers, educational software, or tutoring in his weekly Republican Radio Address on Saturday. "These are important ideas and priorities that can bring us together as Americans, to positively improve opportunities for all Americans," Allen said. A former Virginia governor, Allen ousted Democratic incumbent Sen. Chuck Robb in the 2000 election.
America Online and AOL Foundation founder Jim Kimsey was inducted into the Washington Business Hall of Fame on Nov. 15. The honor was a Greater Washington Board of Trade event that benefits Junior Achievement. The laureate must be someone who has made a major impact on the Washington, DC, area in the business field, as well as in the community, and must be in the "twilight" of their career or retired, said Junior Achievement Special Events Manager Beth Corcoran. "Jim Kimsey was chosen because he is no longer as active with AOL as he was and he did bring AOL to the community, which, in turn, helped the economy. They're very community-involved, as far as volunteering for different organizations and helping out in the community in that way," Corcoran said. Even though the laureate is required to attend the induction ceremony to be inducted, two days before the event, Kimsey — a Vietnam War veteran — was asked by President Clinton to accompany him on a state visit to that country. "He was very, very disappointed" that he couldn't attend the ceremony, Corcoran said, adding that Kimsey asked a camera crew to come to his office before he left for his overseas trip to tape a speech and apologize for not being able to attend. The event, however, had close to 1,000 people in attendance and raised about $500,000 for Junior Achievement — a program that puts volunteers in K-12 classrooms to teach students about business economics.
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) has promoted Rali Mileva to the position of director of public relations. Formerly a publicist for the MultiMedia Telecommunications Association (MMTA), a subsidiary of TIA, Mileva now will work on developing media outreach campaigns, directing press relations, advising and preparing product shows and a variety of other responsibilities. Mileva holds a Ph.D in sociolinguistics, with a specialization in advertising communication from Georgetown University.
In other TIA news, relationship marketing strategist for the Global Small Business group (GSB) at IBM, Anne-Rivers Forcke, has been appointed chairwoman of MMTA's media relations committee. At IBM, Forcke is responsible for managing the GSB e-relationship marketing program worldwide, including the development of e-contact strategy and e-communications templates based on industry's best practices. Forcke earned a bachelor's degree in international affairs and a master's in science, technology and public policy from George Washington University.
The National Association of Manufacturers announced last week that its Virtual University has received the "Best Technology Application" award from the American Society of Association Executives. The university enables workers to learn news skills in fiends ranging from chemical safety and ergonomics to business writing and customer service, at their own pace. The university now offers more than 700 courses in disciplines like information technology, supply chain management, customer service and safety and leadership. "The ASAE award only reinforces our conviction that the NAM VU is unequivocally the best manufacturing provider of e-learning on the Internet," said NAM President Jerry Jasinowski in a statement.
Editors of Spin magazine, dedicated to the music industry, have named the winner of this year's "album of the year" award — the hard drive, the US Internet Industry Association reported. The editors noted that the use of Napster challenged traditional concepts of an "album." The USIIA also reported that former Beatle Paul McCartney and rocker Elton John, the two wealthiest rock stars in the world (at $750 million and $250 million, respectively) this week urged young people to resist downloading music for free. McCartney and John noted that trading music did not just impact wealthy record companies but artists like themselves.
Vice President Al Gore's campaign Web site, algore2000.com has been mostly quiet, unlike the campaign Web site of Texas Gov. George W. Bush, which has stepped up its Web and online e-mail activity since Nov. 7. The Bush campaign has been actively sending e-mail to the media with updates of events and news articles that are positive to Bush's position, just as it did during the campaign. The lack of Gore Web site updates may have to do with the return of the campaign's Web master Ben Green, to DC from Gore's headquarters in Nashville, which ceased operations after the election.
Walter Spiegel, who recently left NCR for Standard Textiles, is stepping down as chairman of the committee that advises the assistant secretary for export administration on implementation of the Export Administration Regulations. Spiegel's last day is Dec. 12. On that day, the Regulations and Procedures Technical Advisory Committee will hold an open meeting to discuss pending regulations, export rules and host a roundtable discussion with Bureau of Export Administration officials. Additionally, industry members who attend the meeting will be able to nominate and elect the group's next chairman and vice chairman, according to a committee spokeswoman. Committee members include representatives from Microsoft, Qualcomm, IBM, Compaq Computer, Patton Boggs and Dewey Ballantine, among others.
David Fielder has been named counsel to Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt and will be responsible for advising Levitt on investment management and corporate finance issues. Fielder succeeds Estee Levine who was recently named director of the SEC's office of congressional and intergovernmental affairs.
 | - by Bara Vaida |
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