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Allen Will Head Senate GOP Task Force
The Senate Republican leadership is expected to name freshman Sen. George Allen, R-VA, as the new chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, according to several Republican and industry sources. The task force is generally charged with outreach to the high-tech community, as well as helping the leadership with its fundraising goals. Over the past two years, Sen. Bob Bennett, R-UT, and Sen. Spencer Abraham, R-MI, co-chaired the task force.
The Senate GOP leadership also has named two staff members that will work on the task force, as well as help the Senate GOP leadership develop policy positions on industry issues. The two are Stewart Verdery, who is general counsel to Senate GOP Whip Don Nickles, R-OK, and Kevin Kolevar, who handled tech policy for Abraham, according to industry sources.
Meanwhile, Allen has hired several new personal staffers, including Mike Thomas as his state director. Most recently, Thomas was director of the Virginia Department of Information Technology under Republican Gov. James Gilmore. Before that, he served as Virginia's first deputy secretary of technology, a position now held by Don Upson. Thomas served as communications director during Allen's term in the U.S. House before Allen tapped him to manage his 1993 gubernatorial campaign.
Allen also named Jay Timmons as his chief of staff. Most recently Timmons worked as a government and public relations consultant for his own firm, New Century Strategies. Timmons was the deputy campaign manager for Allen's gubernatorial race.
The Capitol Shuffle
Another freshman senator, Maria Cantwell, D-WA, also has been rounding out her staff. She has hired Caroline Fredrickson as her chief of staff and Kurt Beckett as her deputy chief of staff and state director. Fredrickson most recently was deputy chief of staff to Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-SD, and Beckett previously was state director for Rep. Norm Dicks, D-WA. Cantwell's acting press secretary is David DiMartino, who also is the press secretary for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts of Oklahoma has promoted deputy communications director Christine Iverson to head of the conference's media operation after the departure of Ron Bonjean to Senate Minority Leader Trent Lott's staff. Before joining the GOP conference office, Iverson served as communications director for Rep. John Thune, R-SD.
Watts also announced the promotion of media relations director Kevin Schweers to the post of press secretary. Schweers replaces James Smith, who was named a special assistant to Watts in charge of coordinating GOP themes over the Internet with the GOP Senate and the White House.
Jessica Wallace has been named the new telecommunications counsel for the House Commerce Committee She previously worked as a legislative assistant to Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-LA, who is now chairman of the committee. Before that, Wallace was a lobbyist for the law office of Verner Liipfert and a legislative assistant to Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-FL. Justin Lilley was the telecom counsel under previous chairman Tom Bliley, R-VA. He is now at News Corp.
Speaking For The Second Lady
Margita Thompson has been named the press secretary to Lynne Cheney, the wife of Vice President Richard Cheney. Thompson currently is the director of California operations for the National Venture Capital Association, and previously served as California press secretary and communications coordinator for the Bush for President campaign from June 1999 until March 2000. Before working for Bush, Thompson was director of Republican external affairs at TechNet, Silicon Valley's lobbying organization.
No More Acronyms, Please
Chris Clough, who handled press for Network Solutions Inc., now a unit of VeriSign, is leaving to pursue other interests. "After four years of domain-name disputes and lawsuits; coining [the term] 'cyber squatting;' DOC and DOC; IAHC, ISOC, IAB, IETF, IFWP, UDRP, WIPO and ICANN; congressional hearings; inadvertent deletions; stock-market ups and downs; Kaspureff to Postel; product launches and disappearances; leaks and rumors, well, it's time for me to move on," Clough wrote in an e-mail.
Elsewhere, Dell Computer's chief policy counsel, Gina Keeney, has left to join the law firm Lawler, Metzger and Milkman as a partner. Keeney's practice will focus on telecommunications, legislative and regulatory issues. Before joining Dell, Keeney was chief of three bureaus at the Federal Communications Commission. And before that, she served as Republican counsel and senior counsel for communications to the Senate Commerce Committee.
Take It To The Bank
The Mortgage Bankers Association of America (MBA) has hired Gabe Minton as senior director of industry technology and staff representative to the MBA's Technology Steering Committee. Minton has a master's degree in software engineering from the University of Maryland and will be responsible for overseeing MBA's role in establishing technology standards for the real estate finance industry.
Juniper Bank, an online and wireless financial services company, has appointed Jeff Chittenden to the position of chief information officer (CIO). As CIO, Chittenden will direct Juniper's overall technology strategy, investments and partnerships.
With more than 32 years in the field, Chittenden's experience extends from software consulting and managing regional telecommunications networks to designing and implementing global technology networks. Previously, Chittenden served in various senior executive positions at First USA, JP Morgan, Citibank and Walker Digital.
The FCC After AOL-Time Warner
Helgi Walker, chief of staff to Federal Communications Commissioner Harold Furchtgott-Roth, is joining the White House counsel's office as associate White House counsel and special assistant to President-elect George W. Bush. Ben Golant of the Cable Services Bureau, will assume Walker's mass media and cable responsibilities in the short term.
Trading Places
The staff of the U.S. trade representative (USTR) under President Clinton gathered at an informal off-the-record farewell party last week with reporters. USTR Charlene Barshefsky said she will take a fellowship at Woodrow Wilson Center, plus visiting scholarships at Yale Law School and Harvard Law School, which involve a couple of speeches this spring.
She said she has tried to limit discussing her future while still in her job but said she has received interesting offers, such as to become a university president. Barshefsky also is contemplating writing a book. She said she would not stay in her job past noon on Jan. 20. Barshefsky then regaled reporters with anecdotes from her years at USTR and made a point of mentioning that Clinton's Cabinet has been the most loyal since Thomas Jefferson's.
Meanwhile, Deputy USTR Susan Esserman said she will become a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law School this spring and wants to focus on women and trade issues. USTR General Counsel Robert Novick said he has is not sure yet what he will be doing in his post-USTR life. Press Secretary Brendan Daly, who came from the Peace Corps, is currently looking at jobs in public relations firms or nonprofit groups but has not made any decisions while, deputy press secretary Amy Stilwell said she will stay at USTR for now.
Plenty Of Fish In The Sea
Scott Rayder, senior policy analyst for technology at the Heritage Foundation, is leaving to become director of government affairs at the Consortium for Oceanographic Research and Education. Previously, Rayder worked on policy for the House Science Committee. "Having spent a summer doing research in the Galapagos Islands, my love has always been the ocean, and I felt like I am going back to my roots," Rayder said of why he is leaving the technology policy world.
The Business Software Alliance (BSA), meanwhile, has appointed Julian McMenamin as its new chairman, replacing Conor Molloy of Corel, who stepped down after completing a year in the post. McMenamin is the Irish country manager with Symantec. He is responsible for sales, marketing and commercial strategy in Ireland. Before working at Symantec, he worked at Gateway Computers and Cable and Wireless. As BSA chairman, McMenamin said he would focus on eradicating software piracy in Ireland, which stood at 51 percent in 1999.
Finally, Robb Watters has left Jefferson Government Relations, where he built an e-commerce practice, and has moved to Manatt, Phelps and Phillips as a senior adviser. Luke Rose also is leaving Jefferson to join Manatt.
 | - by Bara Vaida |
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