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The Tech Bust Hits Washington ...
by Bara Vaida
The slump in the high-tech sector has started to impact high-tech policy jobs in Washington. Dianne Sullivan, the manager of international trade policy at Hewlett-Packard, was one of 6,000 employees recently let go as part of a company-wide cost-cutting measure, a spokesman said.
The company remains committed to Washington and is still planning to replace Phil Bond, who was the director of federal public policy and the Washington office, the spokesman said. Bond left HP this summer to join the Bush administration.
Other people in public affairs arena who have been laid off include: Leslie Dunlap, the director of government affairs at Cable & Wireless' U.S. division; and Jon Englund, who was vice president of policy and government affairs at ExciteAtHome.
... But Not All The News Is Bad
Some folks have landed plum Washington assignments, however. Malcolm Lee, a former senior National Economic Council staffer in the Clinton White House and most recently a key U.S. telecommunication and Internet policy negotiator as deputy assistant secretary of State, has joined Cisco Systems in Washington. He will lead its public policy strategy in the Asia-Pacific region and direct the company's global trade policy.
Malcolm was a Washington trade lawyer and staffer to Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa. He will relocate to Cisco's corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley early next year to continue his work trying to advance pro-competitive policies designed to foster Internet growth and broadband deployment.
In other industry news, David Lane, a former chief of staff at the Commerce Department, will open the Washington office of the $24.2 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on Oct. 15, The Washington Post reported. One of Lane's focuses will be improving education. Lane also served as an executive director of the White House National Economic Council.
Taryn Lynds will become the public communications director at the electronics trade group AeA. Currently, Lynds is working in AeA's San Jose office, but she will be moving to Washington later this year to fill the communications job left open when Marc Brailov took a job at MicroStrategy.
And TRUSTe announced the appointment of Fran Maier as its new executive director. Maier joins the San Jose-based nonprofit after establishing herself as a Web entrepreneur with such brands as BlueLight.com, Women.com, and Match.com, which she described as a "clean, well-lighted" online dating service.
A Little Advice About Intelligence, Tech Policy
President Bush announced his intent to appoint Jim Barksdale to a two-year term on the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. The board provides advice about the quality and adequacy of intelligence collection, of counterintelligence and of other intelligence activities. Barksdale is the former CEO of Netscape Communications.
In other administration news, Paula Dobriansky, the State Department's undersecretary for global affairs, has named Robert Manning as her senior counselor for energy, technology and science policy. Manning, the director of Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, is well known throughout Asia as a former journalist for the Far Eastern Economic Review and more recently for his council activities and many publications.
Among other administration connections, Manning has been a key player on "Team Armitage," the informal group of Asian experts assembled by Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
FCC's Wireless Bureau Hires Three
The FCC's Wireless Bureau has announced three new hires, including the naming of Roger Noel as the deputy chief with responsibility for engineering and technology matters. Most recently, Noel headed the division's licensing and technical analysis branch.
The bureau also tapped two legal advisers: Scott Delacourt and Barry Ohlson. Delacourt previously worked at Wiley, Rein, Fielding, and Ohlson was the senior director of federal regulatory affairs at Winstar Communications.
Meanwhile, former FCC Chairman Newton Minow and former PBS President Lawrence Grossman are hosting an Oct. 18 breakfast in New York to promote the idea of a Digital Opportunity Investment Trust. The trust would be a nonprofit, non-governmental agency intended to support research to help cultural and educational institutions have greater access to the Internet and other new information technologies for learning.
Minow and Grossman suggest that support for the trust be patterned after funding for the National Science Foundation. Legislation to earmark revenue from FCC auctions of the airwaves for the trust is being considered, and the President's Information Technology Advisory Committee is may advocate that Bush support the effort.
The Local Telecom Board
The Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS) said Roscoe Young, president and chief operating officer of KMC Telecom, has been elected the first vice chairman of the group's executive committee. Dan Moffat, president and CEO of New Edge Networks, has been elected second vice chairman.
Robert Taylor, president and CEO of Focal Communications, will remain chairman of ALTS until his term expires at the end of the year.
Also joining ALTS' executive committee are: Steve Dubnik, Choice One's chairman, CEO and president; Arunas Chesonis, PaeTec Communications' chairman and CEO; Aaron Cowell, the president and CEO of US LEC, a telecom carrier in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic; and Network Telephone Chairman and CEO Ray Russenberger.
Ehlers Organizes R&D PAC
Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., has created SciPAC, a political action committee that is aimed at supporting lawmakers and candidates who support robust federal investment in research and development.
"As the first research physicist ever elected to Congress," Ehlers wrote in a letter soliciting contributions, "I have used my unique perspective on science and technology to impress upon our elected leaders the importance of robust investment in R&D. ... While we have had many successes and have many supporters, America's scientific community has not taken the steps necessary to support elected officials who have supported science. That is why I have taken the initiative to start SciPAC."
Copyright On Their Minds
The Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force is hosting a briefing on Thursday to discuss how to protect copyrighted material on the Internet. Executives from AOL Time Warner, Walt Disney Co., Panasonic and Listen.com are expected to attend the briefing. The task force also will discuss the impact of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the importance of digital distribution of copyrighted material over high-speed Internet services, or broadband.
Elsewhere on the tech industry calendar, TechNet and affiliates of the Silicon Valley lobbying group have several events scheduled over the next month.
TechNet Massachusetts is scheduled to host an Oct. 24 breakfast discussion with Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift at the law firm Ropes & Gray. And on Oct. 29-30, the group also is sponsoring a forum on partnering and investing in Ireland. The two-day event is designed to provide U.S. investors and corporate development specialists with access to a list of Irish technology firms.
On. Nov. 5-6, TechNet in Silicon Valley is planning to host a meeting with Kenneth Juster, who heads the Bureau of Export Administration. On Nov. 28, TechNet also plans to host a dinner in California for National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Bill Frist, R-Tenn.
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