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TechNet's Day Inside The Beltway
by Bara Vaida
James Barksdale, a partner at Barksdale Management Group, and Silicon Valley venture capitalists John Doerr and Floyd Kvamme are scheduled on March 5 to host a couple of dozen high-tech executives and CEOs at the annual TechNet lobbying day in Washington.
Some of the CEOs who plan to attend include Barry Bycoff of Netegrity, Art Coviello of RSA Security, Dwight Decker of Conexant Systems, Paul Deninger of Broadview International, Tom St. Dennis of Wind River Systems and Jozef Straus of JDS Uniphase. Executives from AOL Time Warner, Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Xilenx also are expected to attend.
The events will include a set of meetings with White House officials and Democratic and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, and a dinner for individuals and companies that have donated funds to the bipartisan group's political action committee.
In the 2002 election cycle, the TechNet PAC's political contributions totaled $137,475, of which $72,096 went to Democrats and $65,379 to Republicans, according to TechNet. Overall, the group helped raise $2.5 million for both parties in the 2002 cycle through events it hosted for individual candidates and the political parties, said Donnie Fowler, vice president at TechNet.
'Speaking Freely' About Money, Tech Policy
Larry Makinson, a senior fellow at the Center for Responsive Politics, interviewed 24 Washington powerbrokers for a book on the effects of money in politics. One of the interviews in the book, "Speaking Freely," is with Rodney Smith, director of the political action committee for SBC Communications, one of the regional Bell telephone firms.
"We always prefer to give money directly to the guy, or the woman, that you're going to support," Smith said in his interview with Makinson. "You like to walk in, you like to give them the check, you like to look in their eye and say, 'I'm here to help you.' You always do."
Makinson also interviewed Steve Kirsch, chief executive of the software firm Propel Inc., who was the largest Democratic donor from the tech sector in the 2002 election cycle. "I'm one of those guys who's made a fortune at a young age and had the foresight to figure out that it's just a lot smarter to spend that money on ensuring the world is a better place than spending it on vacations, jets, homes and expensive toys," Kirsch said.
ITAA Officials Open Nasdaq Market
Harris Miller and members of the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which Miller heads, were in New York City last week to open the Nasdaq stock market -- part of an effort to highlight opportunities for the high-tech sector.
Representatives from AlphaNet Solutions, Computer Generated Solutions, Dell Plural Professional Services, IMC, Oracle and Tata Consultancy Services joined Miller. "While IT-producing industries represent only 7 percent of all businesses, they accounted for roughly 28 percent of overall real economic growth between 1996 and 2000," Miller said.
At the Institute for International Economics, meanwhile, Nicholas Lardy has been hired as a senior fellow. Lardy is an expert on China and its role in the world economy, and on the economic policies of the United States and other countries toward China. Previously, he was a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and taught at Yale University and the University of Washington. He recently authored a book, "Integrating China Into the Global Economy."
Tidbits From The Tech Sector
SAP AG has appointed Steve Peck as president and general manager of SAP Public Services, where he will oversee the company's sales, marketing and partner operations for the public sector in North America. Peck most recently was vice president of sales at Adaytum and before that was vice president of sales at PeopleSoft. He replaces Tom Shirk, who was tapped to lead SAP's global public-service organization.
In other industry news, Stratton Sclavos, the chairman and CEO of VeriSign, has been named the co-chairman of the Global Business Dialogue on Electronic Commerce (GBDe). The Global Business Dialogue is a worldwide, CEO-led initiative established in January 1999 to assist in the creation of a policy framework for the development of a global online economy. Sclavos replaces Steve Case, the recent chairman of AOL Time Warner, as a GBDe co-chairman.
In 1995, Sclavos joined VeriSign, and as one of the company's first employees, he has helped VeriSign establish itself as a global e-commerce company. Cyber security has become a growing policy focus for the company.
The Science Subcommittee Shuffle
Eric Webster has been promoted to staff director of the House Science Environment, Technology and Standards Subcommittee, where he has been a professional staffer since February 2001.
Before joining the committee, Webster was the legislative director for Rep. Wayne Gilchrest, R-Md., from 1997 to 2001. Webster began his career on Capitol Hill as an intern for House Science Committee Chairman Sherwood Boehlert, R-N.Y.
Webster replaces Peter Rooney, who has moved from the subcommittee to become staff director for the Science Research Subcommittee. At that panel, Rooney replaces Sharon Hayes, who left last year to join the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
FCC Wireline Chief Names Counsel
Narda Jones has been named legal counsel to the chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau. She will provide advice on policies aimed at making sure all Americans have access to telecommunications service and other issues.
Since Jan. l, 2001, Jones has been a senior attorney adviser in the bureau's division that focuses on telecom access policy, and she has worked on various "universal service" matters. She also served as team leader of the FCC's implementation of a 2001 law that conditions federal funding of public libraries on those institutions having Internet filters to curtail access to pornography. A federal district court has ruled that law unconstitutional, and the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in the case March 5.
Before joining the FCC, Jones served as an assistant attorney general in Minnesota and advised that state's Public Utilities Commission on telecommunications and energy policy.
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