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Cisco's Mehlman May Get Key Commerce Job
By Bara Vaida
Bruce Mehlman, Cisco System's telecommunications policy analyst, was nominated Tuesday to be assistant secretary for technology policy at the Commerce Department, according to a White House announcement.
The assistant secretary oversees the Office of Technology Policy.
Before joining Cisco, Mehlman was the general counsel and policy director for the House Republican Conference. He also had worked as the general counsel at the National Republican Congressional Committee.
The Bush administration, meanwhile, has continued to announce his plans for nominating individuals who could play a role in high-tech policy. This past week, Bush said he intended to nominate Mark McClellan to be a member of the Council of Economic Advisers. McClellan currently is an associate economics and medical professor at Stanford University. He served at the Treasury Department from 1998 to 1999 as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy.
Bush also has nominated Grant Aldonas to be undersecretary of commerce for international trade. Aldonas currently is the chief international trade counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and was a partner with Miller and Chevalier law firm from 1986 to 1997. Aldonas' nomination was sent to the Senate for confirmation last week.
A Business Investment?
The high-tech industry may be seeing signs of slow growth, but that has not stopped them from preparing for heavy lobbying this year. In the past two months, several companies and coalitions have hired outside consulting firms or have registered their own in-house lobbyists to augment their efforts.
Orbitz, an Internet travel site created by the parent companies of Northwest, United Airlines, Continental Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines, has registered general counsel Gary Doernhoefer to lobby on Internet travel policy issues. Orbitz has stirred some antitrust fears.
The Coalition Against Database Privacy, a group of more than 30 publishers and high-tech companies including eBay, has hired Bergner, Bockorny, Castagnetti and Hawkins, and Parry, Romani, DeConcini and Symms to lobby on database legislation. The Direct Marketing Association also hired Bergner, Bockorny to lobby on Internet tax issues.
Solectron, a Mipitas, an electronics manufacturer, has hired Dewey Ballantine to lobby on export controls, tax-depreciation legislation, customs automation, the Free Trade Area of the Americas initiative and trade-promotion authority ("fast track"). The company also registered Leslee Coleman, director of worldwide government and community relations, to lobby on policy issues.
The Interactive Digital Software Association has hired Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand to lobby on entertainment content regulation, copyright protection, intellectual property reform policy, privacy, software piracy, Internet gambling and antitrust issues.
Microsoft, meanwhile, has hired Quinn Gillespie to advise the company on a range of public policy and political issues affecting business objectives and strategies, according to lobbying documents. Compaq Computer has hired James Boland to lobby on education reform and tax issues affecting computer manufacturing and sales. And Cisco Systems has hired Washington Council Ernst and Young to lobby on general tax issues and regulatory and legislative issues of interest to the high-technology sector.
Finally, Sharon Ringley, most recently the deputy chief of staff for Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., joined Amazon.com's year-old Washington lobbying operation at the beginning of March as the senior manager of public policy. Ringley is expected to focus on privacy issues.
Bidding Farewell To Government
After a government career spanning nearly 25 years, Stephen Colgate is leaving his job as the Justice Department's chief information officer and assistant attorney general for administration, Federal Computer Week reported. Beginning this week, Colgate is to be the executive director of the law firm Piper, Marbury, Rudnick and Wolfe. Janis Sposato, the deputy assistant attorney general for law and policy, will replace Colgate in an acting capacity.
Elsewhere, Amy Stilwell, the acting assistant U.S. trade representative (USTR) for public and media affairs, will depart her job April 13 after more than two years of service. Stilwell, who is also the USTR office's director of media affairs, will join the communications team at Handgun Control. The change will reunite Stilwell with Brendan Daly, for whom she has filled in at USTR for the past two months. Stilwell starts work April 25.
Amanda DeBusk, meanwhile, has taken a job at Miller and Chavalier, where she will work on international issues. DeBusk was the former assistant secretary for export enforcement at the Commerce Department and has been a visiting counsel for trade policy at the World Bank since leaving Commerce two months ago.
Reaching Out To Advocates ... And Businessmen
Ron Reese will join the House Education and the Workforce Committee staff as the external affairs director, the committee announced. He will direct the committee's outreach operation and work with outside groups on issues such as education reform. Previously, Reese was the senior director of government relations for the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and the deputy director of communications for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Former govWorks chairman and CEO Kaleil Isaza Tuzman, who had been trying to create a TechNet lobbying node in New York City before his company went bankrupt, has landed at turnaround specialist Recognition Group as a managing director and co-CEO. There he plans to specialize in restructuring, reorganizing and wringing value out of distressed e-businesses.
New Names In The Consulting Game
On the consulting front, Maura Colleton has joined Qorvis Communications as managing director. She will oversee the firm's technology public affairs practice.
Colleton just finished a public policy and communications consulting position at the Internet Policy Institute. She previously worked at MCI WorldCom's law and public policy group and before that was vice president of information services and e-commerce for the Information Technology Association of America.
The Leslie Harris and Associates consulting group, meanwhile, has hired a new managing director and two other top aides. The firm tapped Jill Bond, whose past clients have included AOL Time Warner, to be managing director. Her previous jobs include stints at Podesta Associates and People for the American Way.
Jon Bernstein and David Evans also are joining Leslie Harris and Associates — Bernstein as the vice president for government affairs and policy, and Evans as a senior policy associate. Bernstein previously was an attorney adviser with the Federal Communications Commission and a senior lobbyist for the National Education Association. Evans most recently was an aide to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., on technology, intellectual property and trade issues.
The Powerhouses Of Online Politics
Politics Online readers have picked whom they see as the most influential players in the world of Internet politics. The top choices were: Kim Alexander, founder of the California Voter Foundation; Wes Boyd and Joan Blades, founders of Moveon.org; and Doug Bailey, founder of the Freedom Channel. Other names on the list included AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case and then-Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign webmaster Ben Green.
Simon Says, It's Time For A Name Change
Gregory Simon, the president of Simon Strategies who also was a high-tech adviser to Gore's presidential campaign, is in the process of renaming his three-year-old lobbying outfit to Mindbeam, Influence.com reported. "We're in the idea business," Simon says, explaining the futuristic name. "We try to get ideas from our minds to others."
Simon Strategies still will exist but primarily for revenue generated from speeches Simon gives. Simon also promoted vice president Kristan Van Hook to partner.
Meeting And Greeting Westine, Barrales
Dozens of high-tech industry lobbyists and friends stopped by the Hay Adams hotel in Washington last Wednesday evening to congratulate former TechNet Republican strategist Lezlee Westine and Ruben Barrales, former president and CEO of Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network, both of whom have joined the Bush administration. Westine is director of the White House Office of Public Liaison, while Barrales is director of intergovernmental affairs.
Also attending the reception was Floyd Kvamme, the newly appointed co-chairman of the President's Council on Science and Technology also attended the reception. When asked if the White House should appoint a privacy adviser to fill the role that Peter Swire held under the Clinton administration, Kvamme said "maybe."
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