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TechNet Loses Democratic Point Man
The Democratic political director for TechNet is changing roles at the Silicon Valley lobbying group. Jeff Modisett is moving permanently to Los Angeles to be with his family and will become a consultant to the Palo Alto-based organization.
Modisett said he will ease out of his job next few months as he helps TechNet find a replacement for outreach to Democrats and for helping plan the New Democrat Network's summer retreat in Silicon Valley. In Los Angeles, Modisett will maintain his connection with TechNet by focusing exclusively on state technology policy. Modisett was in Washington, DC, last week, to introduce TechNet's new CEO, former Rep. Rick White, R-WA, to Democratic lawmakers.
Bush Fills Commerce Gaps
President Bush nominated more people to jobs in his administration on Monday. Bush tapped Kenneth Juster to be undersecretary of Commerce for the Bureau of Export Administration, which has been instrumental in setting computer export regulations. Juster currently is a senior partner with the law firm of Arnold and Porter. During the administration of Bush's father, former President George Bush, Juster was both a State Department counselor and a deputy and senior adviser to Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger.
Bush tapped Theodore William Kassinger to be Commerce's general counsel. Kassinger is a partner with the Vinson and Elkins law firm. In the past he served as the international trade counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and as a State Department adviser.
In other nomination news, Bush chose Thelma Askey as a commissioner for the U.S. International Trade Commission, a post she held under former President Clinton until her term expired last December. Faryar Shirzad, most recently the international trade counsel to the Senate Finance Committee, has been nominated to be assistant secretary of Commerce for Import Administration. And Laurie Fenton, who was chief of staff to Sen. Jon Kyl, R-AZ, has left to become chief of staff at Commerce.
Former Commerce Secretary William Daley, meanwhile, has been elected to the board of EDS. Daley was Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign manager last year and previously served as a special counsel to Clinton on the North American Free Trade Agreement.
Fighting Napster ... And Protecting Privacy
The Recording Industry Association of America has hired Charles Cooper to provide legal services in connection with any Supreme Court review of the Napster case. He also will provide counsel on legislative strategy. Cooper is the senior partner of the Washington law firm of Cooper Carvin and Rosenthal. He is a former law clerk to Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and a former assistant attorney general for the Office of Legal Counsel.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has hired Will Doherty as the organization's online activist to spearhead online outreach and grassroots organizing on the EFF's work to protect Internet free speech and privacy rights. Doherty will cultivate strategic partnerships and coordinate educational and advocacy campaigns online. He also will develop and coordinate relationships with media that cover Internet policy.
Goodlatte Promotes Top Aides
Virginia GOP Rep. Bob Goodlatte, co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus, has tapped Ben Cline to be his new chief of staff and Shelley Hanger to be his legislative director and counsel.
Cline currently serves as legislative director to Goodlatte. He replaces David Lehman, who left for the private sector. He has served on Goodlatte's staff for more than six years and has focused on technology, telecommunications and intellectual property issues, among others. Hanger, who currently serves as legislative counsel to Goodlatte, takes over Cline's previous duties.
In other Hill staff news, Paula Nowakowski has been named staff director for the Education and the Workforce Committee, which will be key to pushing Bush's education proposals through Congress. Nowakowski previously served as senior vice president for public affairs for the American Insurance Association and as a communications director for the House Republican Conference. David Schnittger has been named communications director of the committee.
And on the political front, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) has named former Commerce Committee Communications Director Steve Schmidt as the NRCC's communications director. Schmidt replaces Jim Wilkinson, who left the NRCC in January to take a position with the White House as deputy communications director for planning.
Life Off The Hill
Former Sens. Dennis DeConcini, D-AZ, and Steve Symms, R-ID, are joining forces to form a bipartisan legislative consulting firm. The new firm, which merges the long-established Washington firm Parry, Romani and DeConcini with Symms and Haddow Associates, will be named Parry, Romani, DeConcini and Symms. DeConcini also has been hired by the Project to Promote Competition and Innovation in the Digital Age (ProComp) to lobby in support of the Justice Department's antitrust suit against Microsoft.
Elsewhere, after four years as communications director for Sen. Conrad Burns, R-MT, Ben O'Connell is packing up to head to C-SPAN to become a producer. Current Deputy Communications Director Jon Lindgren will be taking his spot as of next week.
Brooks Stratmore, the former senior science and technology adviser to Senate Whip Harry Reid, D-NV, has landed a job at CM Realty in his hometown of San Francisco. Stratmore left Reid's office last summer and after a brief stint at Firetalk Communications took some time off to "play a lot of golf." Though CM Realty is not a high-tech firm per se, many of its clients are high-tech companies like Pacific Bell and Qwest Communications.
Christine O'Connor has joined the government relations firm Cassidy and Associates to work on securing appropriations for clients in the science and education fields. O'Connor is a former legislative director for retired Rep. William Goodling, R-PA, who had chaired the House Education and the Workforce Committee during his last years in Congress.
Climbing The Corporate Ladder
Public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard has named Martha Boudreau as general manager of the Washington office nearly 15 years after she began her career at the firm as an account executive.
Boudreau, a senior vice president and senior partner, succeeds Paul Johnson, the general manager since 1996. Johnson, a senior partner, will remain in Washington and continue as the firm's regional president. Senior vice president and partner Barbara Shipley, meanwhile, was appointed to the newly created position of deputy general manager. She will continue to develop communications and branding strategies for various clients across the operation and the region.
On The Lecture Circuit
Clinton will be delivering the keynote address next Monday at Oracle's AppsWorld conference in New Orleans. "Oracle is honored that Mr. Clinton, the first high-tech president, will share his unique perspective and insight on this rapidly changing landscape," Oracle Chief Marketing Officer Mark Jarvis said in a statement. Former White House press secretary Joe Lockhart joined Oracle last year as a public affairs strategist.
Meanwhile, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers partner Floyd Kvamme will be speaking this week at Utah Republican Sen. Bob Bennett's Financial Services and Technology Conference in Salt Lake City. Kvamme, a member of Bush's high-tech advisory team during the campaign, will be discussing technology challenges for the new administration.
Other speakers at the conference will include: Geoff Gray and Steve Harris, respectively a senior professional staff member and the minority staff director to the Senate Banking Committee; and Jeanne Roslanowick, minority staff director of the House Financial Services Committee.
The Social Scene
Sen. Tom Carper, D-DE, and Rep. Jane Harmon, D-CA, attended the first "meet and greet" policy forums of the year with high-tech members of CapNet last week. Carper attended the event held at the law offices of Manatt, Phelps and Phillips. Guests included representatives from Hewlett-Packard, SAIC, the Washington DC Tech Council, Visa USA, IBM, Dittus Communications, Intuit, Intel, EDS, Dyer Ellis and Joseph, and Clark and Weinstock.
CapNet Chairmen Vic Fazio, of Clark and Weinstock, and George Vradenburg, an AOL Time Warner executive, co-hosted Harman at AOL Time Warner's downtown office. Companies represented at that event included: AT&T, DataSource, Hewlett-Packard, Cable and Wireless, Kidz Online, Intel, Dittus Communications, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Computer Associates International and The Wexler Group.
McNealy Unplugged
From the beginning of his lunch speech to the National Press Club last Wednesday, Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy laced his sober policy discussion about free trade, nuclear energy and antitrust law with wit. As club President Richard Ryan introduced McNealy by noting his efforts to get the Justice Department to scrutinize Microsoft's business practices, the audience suddenly cheered, prompting McNealy to joke that "shareholders" obviously were present.
When discussion turned to his solution to the energy crisis, McNealy said "rolling blackouts are a bad thing — especially if you're getting ... laser eye surgery at that moment." And in commenting on the collapse of dot-com companies, McNealy said people should not be surprised. "You think the bubble burst. Nah. A lot of bad business models burst."
He said investors were fantasizing to think they could "buy some stock at a hundred times revenues" and make a profit. "Have you ever, like, figured out the math on the ... the payback period on a stock that's a hundred times revenues? ... It's like, never. And so people are finally figuring that out."
 | - by Bara Vaida |
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