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Microsoft Lobbyist On Familiar Ground
by Bara Vaida
Lori Otto, a former staffer of the Senate Republican Policy Committee and Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force, has been hired by Microsoft to be a government relations manager, with a principal lobbying focus on Senate Republicans. She replaces Kent Knutson, who left Microsoft last year to open the lobbying office of Home Depot.
Previously, Otto was a legislative assistant to former policy committee Chairman Larry Craig, R-Idaho. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., since has assumed leadership of that committee and eliminated its high-tech policy job. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., now solely staffs the tech task force.
During her two years with the task force, Otto was a chief liaison between Senate Republicans and the high-tech sector.
Rep. Hoyer Taps Tech Specialist
Gina Mahony has joined the office of Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., as a senior policy adviser in charge of domestic policy issues, including education, business and high tech policy.
Mahony was previously senior policy adviser for Californian Calvin Dooley, the former co-chair and co-founder of the New Democrat Coalition, a moderate Democrat group that has reached out to the high-tech sector. She also once worked for Rep. Tim Roemer, D-Ind., as a legislative assistant and Rep. Harold Ford, D-Tenn., as legislative director.
"Gina will be handling outreach to the New Democrats for Hoyer ... and she has solid working relationships with the education, business and high-tech communities," a Hoyer spokeswoman said.
IRS Nominee Has Tech Background
President Bush picked Mark Everson, deputy director of the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), to head the Internal Revenue Service, replacing Charles Rossotti, who left the job in November. Everson is also chairman of the President's Management Council, which has been charged with implementing Bush's government reform agenda.
Everson played a key role in transition planning for the new Homeland Security Department at OMB. He also served as the federal chief information officer and oversaw coordination of information technology spending within the government.
Before joining OMB, Everson was group vice president for finance for Sky Chefs in Arlington, Texas. He also has held positions with the Pechiney Group, a producer of aluminum and silicon, and the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Bush tapped Clay Johnson, the White House personnel director, to replace Everson at OMB.
Bush Moves To Fill Array Of Jobs
In other administration news, the president intends to nominate Charles McQueary of North Carolina to be undersecretary for science and technology at Homeland Security. McQueary is the retired president of General Dynamics Advanced Technology Systems. He also is a former board member of the National Defense Industrial Association. He was with AT&T/Lucent Technologies from 1987-1997 as president and vice president, and with AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1971-1987 as director and department head.
"McQueary is exactly the kind of individual we hoped would fill this critical position," said House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y. "He has a strong technical background, broad management experience, familiarity with both academia and industry, and is highly regarded in the scientific community."
Bush also announced his intent to nominate Christopher Henry to be deputy undersecretary of Defense for policy. Henry currently is the corporate vice president for strategic assessment and development at Science Applications International Corp. Before that, he was a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he worked on the information-based warfare initiative and a project about conflict in the digital age.
Bush also nominated seven people to be members of the National Science Foundation's National Science Board: Barry Barish, Steven Beering, Kenneth Ford, Daniel Hastings, Elizabeth Hoffman, Douglas Randall and Jo Anne Vasquez.
Acting Chairman Named For Accounting Board
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has designated Charles Niemeier as the acting chairman of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which was established last year.
The board oversees the audits of public companies through registration, standard setting, inspection and disciplinary programs. The SEC previously had selected William Webster for the position. Before taking the job, Niemeier was the chief accountant in the SEC's Division of Enforcement and co-chairman of the SEC's Financial Fraud Task Force.
Schwab-ing The Deck At AOL
Though its bigger news in the past week was the resignation of chairman Steve Case, AOL Time Warner also announced other staff moves. It appointed Leonard Short, formerly the executive vice president of advertising and brand management at Charles Schwab & Co., as the executive vice president of brand marketing.
Short will oversee AOL's domestic and international brand advertising and media, promotional marketing, and overall brand management. At Charles Schwab, he oversaw the launch of Schwab's Mutual Fund OneSource and Schwab.com.
In other industry news, Jim Leonard became president of Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers-USA (IEEE-USA) on Jan. 1, succeeding LeEarl Bryant. Leonard is a technical fellow with Boeing Military Aircraft & Missile Systems in St. Charles, Mo., and will serve for one year. John Steadman of Laramie, Wyo., will become IEEE-USA president in 2004.
A registered engineer in Ohio and Missouri, Leonard has worked at Boeing A&M for 39 years. He is currently responsible for the aircraft integration of a Navy missile into Navy, Air Force and foreign aircraft. In 1991, he received the McDonnell-Douglas/U.S. Navy Reliability, Maintainability and Quality Assurance Award (Salty Dog). He and two Boeing colleagues recently received a Boeing award for their patent on an air-launch system interface.
Bill Clinton As 'Internet Growth Specialist'
Former President Clinton was in office during one of the longest economic growth periods in U.S. history, including the global expansion of the Internet. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, Clinton also appeared as an Internet pundit of sorts.
Microsoft poked fun at itself during company Chairman Bill Gates' opening convention speech with a parody of VH-1's "Behind the Music" that included various celebrities talking about the Internet and Microsoft. Clinton, briefly featured as "Bill Clinton, Internet growth specialist," jokingly noted that there were 50 Web sites when he took office in January 1992 and that the total had climbed to 53 by the end of that month.
Later at the convention, several celebrities joined the 95,000 others milling around the giant convention hall and checking out new consumer technologies. The celebrities included singer Alanis Morrisette, model Cheryl Tiegs and actress Drew Barrymore.
Five members of Congress also made the trip, including House Republicans Joe Barton of Texas, John Doolittle of California and Gerald Weller of Illinois, and House Democrats Rick Boucher of Virginia and Donald Payne of New Jersey. "One of the most surprising things to me is the number of people here," Payne said. "Evidently this has more magnitude than you'd think. ... The broad interest is a real eye opener."
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