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Washington's Silicon Square
by Sarah Lai Stirland
California has its Silicon Valley, Boston has its Silicon Corridor and Scotland has its Silicon Glen. Now some lobbyists in Washington, D.C., are starting to refer to the downtown area around Franklin Square as Silicon Square.
Earlier this month, Hewlett-Packard's government affairs office moved to 1100 New York Avenue, a few blocks from Franklin Square. The square already is home to offices for other big-name technology companies like Dell, IBM and Microsoft.
Is it a coincidence? A spokesman for Microsoft said the company moved to the area about two years ago because its old lease was up and the new space fit its needs. And John Hassell, director of federal and state government affairs for HP, said his company's move was as much a move for the sake of convenience as anything. HP's old office was at 17th and I, and every time the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund held a meeting, protestors clogged the street traffic. So when HP's lease expired, it seemed like a perfect opportunity to escape, he said.
Hassell also said the new office space is a prime location because it is near the Commerce Department, which enforces the rules on export controls, an issue of strong interest to HP.
Still, Hassell said that "being close to Silicon Square has its benefits," such as bumping into other technology industry public-affairs staffers at area lunch spots and being able to catch up on news through casual conversations.
Microsoft's Outreach To Governments
Microsoft last week announced its promotion of Gerri Elliott to corporate vice president for the worldwide public sector. In her new position, Elliott will be responsible for marketing to governments and educational institutions when those institutions are looking for "open source" software solutions that allow users to view and alter underlying code as an increasingly tempting alternative to protected software like Microsoft's.
Microsoft has adapted by providing governments more access to its source code as they implement technology projects. In a statement on Elliott's promotion, Microsoft said it helps governments become more secure by providing them with access to Windows and Office 2003 source code and other technical information. The countries participating in the program include Australia, China, Russia, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
Elliott succeeds Maggie Wilderotter, who earlier this month left Microsoft to head Citizens Communications, a telecommunications company in Stamford, Conn., focused on providing services to rural areas and small-- to medium-sized towns and cities. Wilderotter begins her new job as CEO of Citizens Communications on Nov. 1.
For BellSouth He Tolls
BellSouth announced Monday that it has promoted Marc Gary to the position of general counsel and that he has been elected as an officer of the company. The position is effective Oct. 1.
Gary is currently BellSouth's associate general counsel. He will oversee all of BellSouth's legal affairs and report directly to the company's chairman and CEO Duane Ackerman.
In other industry news, the London-based International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) announced that John Kennedy will succeed Jay Berman as its chairman and CEO in January. Kennedy, an entertainment lawyer by training, was formerly president and chief operating officer of Universal Music International. Berman leaves IFPI after six years, where he headed the association's efforts to fight music piracy.
The Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) last week appointed to its software division board Prakash Panjwani, vice president and general manager of SafeNet's rights-management business unit. The board has 19 members, and each of them helps shape SIIA's programs and agenda. SafeNet is an information security firm.
Some technology entities also have hired new lobbyists, according to recent disclosures. Arent Fox Kintner Plotkin & Kahn has registered to lobby for the Business Software Alliance; Blank Rome Government Relations has registered to lobby for Strikeforce Technologies, a company that makes devices to prevent identity theft; and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Dale & Dorr has registered to lobby for Parametric Technology on technology and procurement legislation.
Financial Security Council Names Vice Chairman
George Hender was recently elected as vice chairman of the Financial Services Sector Coordinating Council for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Homeland Security. Hender is vice chairman of The Options Clearing Corp. in Chicago. He joins Donald Donahue, sector coordinator for banking and finance and the chairman of the council.
The council is a group of companies and financial trade associations that work with the Treasury Department to protect the financial infrastructure from attacks. Like other areas of cyber security, financial infrastructure protection largely depends on the cooperation of and coordination between commercial and public-sector management.
Council members include many key members of the financial community and back-office and technology specialists such as the Nasdaq stock market, the National Automated Clearinghouse Association and the Securities Industry Automation Corp.
"I'm honored to have been chosen for this position, and I look forward to working with Don and the council to further strengthen our industry's resilience and protect our critical infrastructure," Hender said.
Celebrating A Century Of Legal Work
The Hogan & Hartson law firm, Washington's oldest, marked its 100th anniversary Thursday. To celebrate its centennial, Hogan threw a bash that encompassed not only its offices in Columbia Square but also its atrium and the roof of the building, which features a panoramic view of the area around the Washington Monument.
Between 800 and 900 people were on the guest list. They included FTC Chairwoman Deborah Majoras and her fellow commissioner, Thomas Leary. Joshua Sears, the ambassador for the Commonwealth of Bahamas, also was there. Hogan advises the Bahamas government in its effort to privatize its local phone company, Bahamas Telecommunications.
In his speech commemorating the firm's milestone, Hogan Chairman Warren Gorrell noted that one benefit of its size is its diverse array of service areas. Its technology-related law practices include telecommunications, media and entertainment, and intellectual property.
Hogan law partners have helped shape the rules that govern the business of technology. For example, Christine Varney, who heads Hogan's Internet practice group, is a former FTC commissioner. Jeffrey Blattner in Hogan's antitrust group worked on the government's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft when he was deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's antitrust division. And Michele Farquhar, who is co-chairman of Hogan's communications group, formerly headed the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.
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