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Mehlman Plans As Bush Taps Top Techies
by Bara Vaida
A top Commerce Department official last week outlined goals that include examining regulations hindering e-commerce, analyzing the growth of the high-tech sector when compared with growth in other nations and helping communities boost their own tech sectors.
Bruce Mehlman, the Commerce Department's newly confirmed assistant secretary of technology policy, sketched his agenda in an interview with National Journal's Technology Daily from his office. Specifically, he plans to study how to foster the deployment of the high-speed Internet and how to better prepare the workforce for high-tech jobs. He also will make recommendations on what the government can do to ensure the U.S. tech sector's global economic leadership.
"I plan to be an advocate for the high-tech industry in this administration," Mehlman said.
A former telecommunications policy analyst with Cisco Systems, Mehlman has the field much to himself for now because the Bush administration has yet to name a technology undersecretary. But he defended the administration's approach to filling key tech-related jobs at Commerce. "I don't think it's taking too terribly long," Mehlman said. "We'll have top-flight folks that the tech community will be thrilled with."
Just days after the interview, the Bush administration announced that it would nominate John Marburger as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy and Nancy Victory as a Commerce Department assistant secretary to head its National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Victory, a partner with the law firm of Wiley, Rein and Fielding, essentially has the job but cannot be formally nominated until all of the paperwork is completed and the nomination officially submitted to the Senate for confirmation. She was unable to comment on her pending nomination. Victory has been with the law firm since 1989.
In other administration news, President Bush last week officially nominated Jon Huntsman as the deputy United States Trade Representative. He is the vice chairman of the Huntsman Corp. in Salt Lake City and served as ambassador to Singapore from 1992 to 1993. He also worked at the Commerce Department from 1989 to 1992.
Privacy Council Hires Ex-Clinton Aide
Larry Irving, one of Victory's predecessors as NTIA's chief, has joined the Privacy Council as a principal. Irving's mission will be to expand the council's Washington presence, and he will serve as the group's global adviser on telecommunications privacy issues.
Former President Clinton appointed Irving to head NTIA in 1993. He played a key role in facilitating passage of the 1996 Telecommunications Act. "Privacy Council is clearly leading the way in helping business comply with privacy regulations and transforming privacy concerns into new business opportunities," the council's CEO Gary Clayton said.
Muris Fills The FTC's Gaps
FTC Chairman Timothy Muris has named three new staff members: Rafael Edward (Ted) Cruz, Sean Royall and Alden Francis Abbott.
Cruz, formerly a Justice Department associate deputy attorney general, will direct the office of policy and planning; Royall, most recently a partner at the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, will be the Bureau of Competition's deputy director; and Abbott, previously the acting general counsel at the Commerce Department, will be the FTC's new assistant director of policy and evaluation.
Two New Faces At TechNet
Margaret Lauderback has been named as TechNet's new Republican political director. She replaces Lezlee Westine, who now directs the White House Office of Public Liaison. Previously, Lauderback was the regional director to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, and before that the director of federal relations at Ameritech in Washington.
Lauderback opened TechNet's Austin, Texas, office and will remain in the Lone Star State, reflecting that "TechNet is a national organization, not just a Silicon Valley organization," said TechNet Executive Vice President Connie Correll.
TechNet also has hired Leslie Saul as its public policy director. Saul was the education industry manager at 3Com and before that was an Internet consultant to Siemens Business Services, a unit of Paris-based Groupe Siemens Nixdorf.
In other TechNet news, Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., will visit Silicon Valley on July 6 to talk with TechNet members about budget and appropriations issues. And on Sept. 12, the organization is planning a day for its members to meet with Bush administration aides and members of Congress in Washington. The reception will conclude with an event by TechNet's political action committee.
Making The Tech Sales Pitch
Elsewhere in the tech advocacy world, Thom Stohler has been promoted to vice president of workforce policy at the AeA, an electronics trade association. Previously Stohler was the director of human resources issues for AeA. Before joining the organization in April 1998, Stohler worked for the Associated General Contractors and the Textile Rental Services Association. He also worked on Capitol Hill for several years.
The Internet advocacy consulting firm e-advocates, meanwhile, has added three new staff members: Dan Bradfield as a principal, Cynthia Fowler as the creative director and Zachary Tindall as the marketing director.
Bradfield most recently was at Ketchum Public Relations, where he founded the grassroots practice. Fowler joins the company from iXL, where she was the lead designer and manager of Web sites for clients. And Tindall joins e-Advocates from Ketchum Washington, where he provided communication and government relations counsel to various corporate clients and worked to implement grassroots campaigns.
A New Domain For Swinehart
In the world of domain names, Theresa Swinehart, the global e-commerce director at WorldCom, is joining the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), as its counsel for international legal affairs.
While at WorldCom, she specialized in legal e-commerce issues, including data protection and liability issues for Internet service providers. Swinehart has been active in ICANN, and participated extensively in the discussion that led to the Internet governing body's founding. She joins the organization as it faces a critical period of expansion of the domain-name system.
High-Tech Humor At A GOP Event
At last Wednesday's unveiling of House Republicans' e-commerce agenda, Majority Leader Dick Armey of Texas had a little fun with instant messaging. As part of the press conference, Armey had an instant-messaging exchange with Commerce Secretary Donald Evans that prompted some jokes from House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman W.J. (Billy) Tauzin of Louisiana and from the press.
When it took Evans several minutes to respond to Armey's message, Tauzin joked, "I think you just tapped into NORAD, Mr. Armey." NORAD is the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a U.S.-Canadian aerospace defense partnership.
As everyone continued to wait for a response, one reporter asked if Armey's demonstration was an example of the great productivity information technology has brought to Capitol Hill. Armey warned that he had a delete button that could eliminate any reporters he did not want in the room.
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