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Yahoo Expands Washington Office
by Bara Vaida
Though the Internet industry has had a tough year and some companies are curtailing their presence in the nation's capital, Washington remains important to at least one firm. Yahoo added Leslie Dunlap to its Washington staff this week.
Dunlap was named deputy director of government relations and joins John Scheibel, the director of government relations for Yahoo. Dunlap had been the director of congressional affairs at Cable & Wireless, where she handled telecom and e-commerce issues before being laid off.
Before that job, she was a legislative assistant to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and the legislative director to former Rep. Rick White, R-Wash. White is now CEO of the bipartisan lobbying group TechNet.
Yahoo has been active on several e-commerce issues, such as database protection.
Compaq Hires Lobbyist To Tout Merger
Compaq Computer has hired James Christian, a partner at Patton Boggs, to lobby lawmakers in support of the company's proposed merger with Hewlett-Packard. Though facing tough criticism from Wall Street, Compaq and HP have moved forward with their agreement, which is not likely to close until spring 2002, if approved by regulators.
The impact a merger might have on the two companies' Washington offices is unclear, as both firms share policy goals in Congress. Compaq currently has four staffers, while HP has about six. Those who are close to both companies are betting that Gary Fazzino, HP's vice president of government and public affairs, will head the merged companies' lobbying shop.
Both companies share membership in several high-tech associations including the Computer Systems Policy Project and the Information Technology Industry Council. "This is likely to be yet another pressure on high-tech association membership dues," said one industry observer.
McDuffie's New Marching Orders
Global Crossing has named retired Army General John McDuffie as vice president of federal programs for its government markets unit.
A former director for logistics for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Defense Department, McDuffie has spent 31 years in senior military command positions. He served as the principal adviser and confidant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs from 1998 to 2001. He made long-term budget decisions on critical logistics issues and oversaw a wide range of programs on force readiness, strategic planning and other issues.
Life After Capitol Hill
Vincent Randazzo, the majority staff director at the House Rules Committee, is leaving the Hill after more than 17 years to become the public policy director at the Business Roundtable. He will work on health, retirement, fiscal policy and civil-justice issues there.
Randazzo became the staff director at Rules in 1999, when Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., became chairman. Previously, Randazzo was the staff director for the Rules and Organization of the House Subcommittee, and he helped Dreier and then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich in their efforts to overhaul House operations.
The Business Roundtable has been active on several high-tech issues, including trade and privacy.
Elsewhere, Matt Frankel, the previous press secretary for the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), has joined Rainbow Media Holdings as media relations director in New York. Rainbow owns the Bravo cable channel, the Independent Film Channel, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall, American Movie Classics and other entertainment assets.
When he was at DLC, Frankel handled communications on high-tech issues such as e-commerce and trade.
FASB's Newest Bean Counter
Richard Swift, the former chairman, president and chief financial office of Foster Wheeler, has been named chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Council. He begins work Jan. 1.
The council advises the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) on technical issues relating to the board's agenda, project priorities and other timely and topical matters. FASB sets accounting policy, which affects the high-tech sector.
Changes at the FCC
The FCC's Common Carrier Bureau has promoted Tamara Preiss to be chief of the competitive pricing division. Since July 1999, Preiss has served as deputy chief of the division, where she has worked on issues related to reforming access charges and providing pricing flexibility.
Deena Shetler will replace Preiss as deputy chief. Shetler most recently served as a legal adviser to FCC Commissioner Gloria Tristani and was responsible for common-carrier issues in that role.
In other FCC news, Jack Zinman was named deputy chief of the pricing division. He most recently served as legal counsel to the Common Carrier Bureau's chief, providing counsel on universal service, pricing and broadband issues. And Eric Einhorn has been appointed deputy division chief of the bureau's accounting policy division. Einhorn has been acting deputy chief of the division since April.
AOL Time Warner Shuffles Staff
AOL Time Warner has named Chief Financial Officer Michael Kelly as chief operating officer of the America Online division of the company. There he will focus on managing America Online's day-to-day operations. Wayne Pace, vice chairman and chief financial office of AOL's Turner Broadcasting System, will become chief financial officer of the parent company.
In other personnel news at AOL, Iris Knobloch has been tapped as the senior vice president for international relations and strategic policy in Europe. Knobloch will report to Robert Kimmitt, AOL's executive vice president for global and strategic policy, who is based in Washington. Since 1999, Knobloch has been based in London as vice president of business and legal affairs of the company's Warner Home Video unit.
AeA's Newest Board Face
The electronics trade group AeA announced that it has elected Richard Cook as vice chairman of its board. Cook is the president and CEO of Mapics, a software company.
As vice chairman, Cook will advise the current board chairman and the president and CEO on all major policy matters affecting AeA and the high-tech industry. In keeping with longstanding AeA tradition, Cook will become the AeA chairman in October 2002. Before becoming vice chairman, he was the chairman of the AeA Southeast Council, which is based in Atlanta.
TechNet Gathers Republican, Democratic Dollars
TechNet is hosting a National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) fundraiser on Nov. 8 at the Silicon Valley home of Dan Cooperman, senior vice president and general counsel at Oracle. House members who are expected to attend include: NRCC Chairman Tom Davis of Virginia; Gerald Weller of Illinois; Lee Terry of Nebraska; Chris Cannon of Utah; Lamar Smith of Texas; and Darrell Issa, Richard Pombo, Randy (Duke) Cunningham and Howard (Buck) McKeon, all of California.
This past weekend, TechNet also helped host a $1,000-a-head brunch fundraiser for Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore. Nancy Pfund, a venture capitalist with Hambrecht & Quist, sponsored the brunch.
In other news, Virginia's Davis toured In-Q-Tel, the CIA's technology accelerator company, in Rosslyn, Va., last week. In-Q-Tel is the CIA's unclassified venture capital fund, with headquarters in both Virginia and Silicon Valley, and acts as a portal for bringing the latest technologies into the CIA.
Seventy-five percent of the companies that In-Q-Tel works with have never contracted with the government, often because of concerns over how standard procurement contracting treats intellectual property.
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