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Climbing The Trade Association Ladder
by Bara Vaida
Several trade associations have filled key policy- and technology-related positions in recent days, and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) tops the news with its choice of a new manager for its public policy shop.
The NVCA has hired Ian Graves for that job. Graves previously worked on trade issues at the Democratic Leadership Council. At NVCA, he will be in charge of grassroots and congressional outreach efforts.
Tom McConnell, meanwhile, will become chairman at the association, replacing Rick Kroon. McConnell currently is a general partner at New Enterprise Associates.
At Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), Heidi Blumenthal is the new director of technology policy. She will lead ATR's efforts to extend the Internet tax moratorium, eliminate discriminatory taxes on telecommunications and repeal the 3 percent excise tax on phones. Previously, Blumenthal was a legislative assistant to Rep. Jennifer Dunn, R-Wash., where she was responsible for education, workforce, telecommunications and Judiciary Committee issues.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also has tapped a new director of technology policy: Raymond Kowalski. Previously, Kowalski was an FCC division chief and a partner with Keller and Heckman. He spent 19 years with the FCC, serving on U.S. delegations to international telecommunications bodies in London and Mexico City.
In other chamber news, Eric Wohlschlegel has been named media relations director. Wohlschlegel previously provided communications counsel on high-tech, finance, healthcare and international relations issues at Chlopak, Leonard, Schechter and Associates. Before that, he was a spokesman for the then-House Commerce Committee.
Elsewhere, the National Center for Technology & Law at George Mason University Law School has named Progress & Freedom Foundation President Jeffrey Eisenach as the newest member of its executive advisory board. Eisenach already serves as a member of the law school faculty. Virginia Gov. James Gilmore established the center, commonly known as "The Tech Center," in December 1999. It focuses on technology's impact on law and government regulation.
Tech News Inside The Administration
Commerce Secretary Donald Evans and the White House are looking for a candidate with ties to the high-tech community to become the director of Commerce's Office of Business Liaison, according to several high-tech Republicans and department staff. "We're looking for someone who Silicon Valley people can feel comfortable with," said one Commerce source.
Meanwhile, Roger Baker, Commerce's chief information officer (CIO), is leaving in mid-May to pursue other interests, according to department staff. Baker has yet to be replaced. In other CIO news, Jim Flyzik, vice chair of the federal Chief Information Officers Council, stepped down from his post but remains as CIO at the Treasury department.
In other administration news, Floyd Kvamme, the newly named co-chairman of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), was in Washington last Tuesday to meet with White House staff on organizing high-tech policy within the administration. PCAST is to be staffed with a mix of scientists and private-sector tech leaders, and is expected to play a higher profile role than the group did under President Clinton.
In addition, administration staff said an informal e-commerce working group involving the various agencies is being formed to begin to coordinate policy. Under Clinton, an official e-commerce working group was established by executive order to coordinate high-tech policy, and the Bush administration is considering repeating that executive order.
The Nomination Game
President Bush announced more nominations this past week. The list includes Anne Krueger to be a member of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. She currently is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institute, a professor in Stanford University's economics department and the director of the Center for Research and Economic Development and Policy Reform.
Bush also announced that he would nominate Russ Whitehurst to be assistant Education secretary for educational research and improvement. He serves as the lead professor and chairman of the Psychology Department at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he has taught since 1970.
Bush also officially sent the following nominations to Congress: Timothy Muris to become FTC chairman; Robert Glenn Hubbard to be a member of the Council of Economic Advisers; Edward Aldridge of Virginia to be the Defense undersecretary for acquisition and technology; Peter Allgeier to be a deputy U.S. trade representative; William Hansen to be a deputy Education secretary; and Angela Styles to be the administrator for federal procurement policy.
FTC Names New Competition Chief
At the FTC, Molly Boast has been named director of the Bureau of Competition, which enforces antitrust laws. She was senior deputy director of the bureau from July 1999 through January 2001 and has been the acting director since then.
According to Tech Law Journal, Commissioner Orson Swindle recently wrote a dissent in which he praised Boast but questioned the decision to name her director. "Even if Chairman Pitofsky's appointment of Molly Boast as bureau director was not intended to frustrate a smooth transition at the FTC, it surely could have that result," he wrote. "It is no secret that Ms. Boast has informed the commission and the staff of her intention to leave the agency soon. Second, the president recently announced his intention to nominate Timothy Muris as FTC chairman."
The Man Behind Moore's Law Retires
Gordon Moore, the chairman emeritus of Intel, is retiring from the company. Moore is the namesake of Moore's law, the guiding technology rule that theorizes that computer-processing power will double every 18 months even as computer prices decline by half. In 1956, Moore joined Silicon Valley's first chipmaker, Shockley Semiconductor, and then he founded Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel. Moore relinquished his duties as Intel's CEO to Andy Grove in 1987.
Another technology leader, meanwhile, will be rewarded for his groundbreaking work in wireless communications. Vahid Tarokh, a 34-year-old associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a leader in the wireless research field, will receive the National Science Foundation's highest honor for young scientists and engineers -- the Alan T. Waterman Award.
Toward A 'Digital Italy'
Italian opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi says he will name a former IBM executive to be "minister for digital Italy" if he wins the country's May 13 election, Politics Online reported. "The government will be able to deliver about 100 public and administrative services via the Internet," Berlusconi said, "and the citizens will be able to transact with the central and local administrations from their home or office PC. In 10 years, we want 75 percent of Italians to be able to interact and transact with the government via the Internet."
Entrepreneurial Kings
As it turns out, Josiah Wedgwood, a maker of 18th-century British china and pottery, and Michael Dell, founder of Dell Computer, have something in common. Both are entrepreneurs who built brand names like one that never existed before.
In her book Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers' Trust from Wedgwood to Dell, Harvard business professor Nancy Koehn profiles their stories and others. Koehn concludes that Wedgwood, Dell and other entrepreneurs saw the importance of demand, and how consumers' tastes and preferences ultimately drive business success.
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