 | |
| |
TechnologyDaily Mobile
Siebel Arrives Packing Dollars
by Bara Vaida
Siebel Systems founder and CEO Tom Siebel is spending this week in Washington to demonstrate to the media, lawmakers and Bush administration staff the ability of his company's technology to boost homeland security.
Siebel is one of the newest lobbying entrants but has quickly adapted to the Washington world of politics. The company filed papers with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) last week showing it has built a $2 million political action committee (PAC), far surpassing the size of other high-tech PACs.
Previously, Microsoft had the largest PAC, which had about $930,000 in the bank as of Jan. 28. Most other high-tech firms, like Cisco Systems, Dell Computer, eBay, Intel, Motorola, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Texas Instruments and VeriSign, have much smaller PACs, with funding of less than $150,000, according to FEC filings.
The Siebel PAC, which is the largest corporate PAC behind UPS, already has started to donate funds to candidates, including $20,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee on Nov. 8. Siebel officials had no immediate comment on its political activities.
EBay's Bid Lands New Lobbying Chief
EBay has hired Amanda Pedigo to handle government affairs in its Washington office. Pedigo spent the past year-and-a-half as policy director at the House Rules Committee for Chairman David Dreier, R-Calif. Before that, she was deputy policy director of the committee.
As policy director for Dreier, she worked on several high-tech issues, including privacy, broadband and export controls. She joins Tod Cohen, who is eBay's top lobbyist.
In other industry news, Microsoft has hired Scott Charney to replace Howard Schmidt as the company's top computer-security strategist. During the Clinton administration, Charney was chief of the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. He is currently a principal for PricewaterhouseCoopers' Cybercrime Prevention and Response Practice and will start work at Microsoft on April 1.
At the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), Kent Crispin is the new technical systems manager. Over the past two decades, Crispin worked for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a computer scientist. He has worked on computer and network security, network protocols, and software design and development, among other things.
NetCoalition Expands Staff
NetCoalition, which represents six Internet companies, has hired several new staffers. Markham Erickson has been hired as director of congressional and regulatory affairs. Erickson is a partner at the law firm of McGuiness & Holch and has represented the NetCoalition for several years on Capitol Hill. The coalition's current executive director is Kevin McGuiness, also a partner at McGuiness & Holch.
Other new NetCoalition hires include Jennifer Baird, who will lobby on the Hill for the group, and Ginny Sciabbarrasi, who will oversee media coordination. Ann Delorme will handle the organization's administrative matters.
"These changes underscore NetCoalition's commitment to represent its members on Capitol Hill," McGuiness said in a statement. The NetCoalition has had a tough year-and-a-half, as the decline in the tech sector hurt its membership. The group now represents AOL Time Warner, DoubleClick, Inktomi, Terra Lycos, Verio and Yahoo.
Oh, What A Happy NetDay!
Irene Spero has joined the educational technology group NetDay as director of external relations and outreach services. Spero is also executive director of SchoolTone Alliance and will continue in that capacity while working to promote NetDay's interests and visibility in Washington.
In her capacity with NetDay, Spero will monitor the policy environment in Washington, advancing NetDay's goals, and represent the organization's interests to the educational technology community, Congress, executive agencies and the business community.
News From The Campaign Trail
New Mexico Republican Heather Wilson, the author of a key anti-spam bill in the House, looks poised to easily win re-election. According to the GOP polling firm Public Opinion Strategies, Wilson holds a lead of 27 points over her likely challenger, Democrat Richard Romero. Wilson is running in district with redrawn lines that remains about evenly divided between Republican and Democratic registered voters.
Meanwhile, Maryland Republican Constance Morella, a longtime House Science Committee member and former head of its Technology Subcommittee, is mulling retirement this year. Her seat has been slated for redistricting changes that would favor a Democratic candidate. Morella has been a member of Congress for eight terms.
On the Senate side, Democrat Tom Strickland, who is challenging incumbent Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said he has raised $1.3 million and had $878,648 on hand as of Dec. 31. Some of that money came from a few fundraising visits Strickland made to Silicon Valley last fall.
New To The New Democrats
The New Democrat Network (NDN), the political arm of moderate congressional Democrats, has hired Tom Ochs as its new political director. Ochs has worked on more than 70 races and played leadership roles in the Clinton/Gore presidential campaign and the campaigns of Sens. Bob Graham of Florida and Evan Bayh of Indiana, and former Rep. Vic Fazio of California.
Ochs was a senior adviser to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Joe Andrew, who also is an NDN Advisory Board member. Ochs was the political director and then a partner at the media consulting firm Squier, Knapp and Ochs from 1985 to 1998.
NDN also hired Cecily Cutbill as executive director. Cutbill leaves the legislative staff of Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware to join NDN. She previously worked as a Washington-based aide for then-Delaware Gov. Carper when he served as chairman of the National Governors Association, and she was the field director of Carper's gubernatorial re-election campaign. Cutbill is to manage the day-to-day operations of NDN.
At the DNC, meanwhile, VerticalNet Chairman Mark Walsh has been named to the full-time volunteer role of chief technology adviser. He said he would help the party make the best use of technology in an effort to win elections.
Walsh previously served as CEO of VerticalNet, a Pennsylvania-based provider of software and Internet services for businesses, and as senior vice president of America Online. DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe called the addition of Walsh "tremendous" because the party is attempting to introduce "more sophisticated technology tactics."
Booking Technology
Larry Weber, the founder of Weber Shandwick Worldwide, recently wrote a book, "The Provocateur," about the management styles of tech industry leaders and how they represent a future model for running successful global businesses.
Weber cites the management styles of Mitch Kapor, the founder of Lotus Development, and Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, and he likens their leadership to that of leaders of creative organizations like rock bands and theater groups. Weber said most of the ideas for the book grew out of a journal his grandmother suggested that he keep.
Learning On The Job
The Northern Virginia Technology Council hosted "Job Shadow Day" last Thursday to help dozens of northern Virginia high-school students learn about the technology workplace. The council's program enabled 173 students to shadow executives and technology workers at local companies during a normal day on the job, providing an up-close look at how the skills learned in school are implemented in the workplace.
NEW FEATURE
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
-Advertisement-
