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Tech Lobbyist Joins White House Staff
by Sarah Lai Stirland
President Bush on Monday announced his selection of Ernst & Young Partner Candi Wolff to serve as his assistant for legislative affairs. Wolff will be the White House's chief lobbyist and liaison to Capitol Hill. She succeeds David Hobbs.
Wolff is a familiar face to many in the technology industry because of her work as general counsel for the Consumer Internet Access Coalition, a group of 38 technology, e-commerce and telecommunications companies that lobbied Congress last year to extend the Internet tax moratorium.
Last year, Congress cleared legislation, S.150, that extends the moratorium for four years retroactive to 2003, when the moratorium expired. Bush signed the measure into law in early December. Wolff was hired to lobby for the group through her job at Ernst & Young.
"She knows the industry, she knows the issues, and she knows how to get things done," said Ralph Hellmann, senior vice president of government relations at the Information Technology Industry Council (ITI).
Before joining Ernst & Young, Wolff was chief legislative affairs director for Vice President Richard Cheney.
New Congress, New Staff On Capitol Hill
As the 109th Congress begins, Capitol Hill offices are being filled with both new and returning staffers. Connie Partoyan, a former counselor and senior adviser to Commerce Technology Undersecretary Phil Bond, returns to Congress as chief of staff for Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Wash. She will be managing a staff of six along with Legislative Director Jack Silzel.
Most recently, Partoyan worked as a government affairs counselor in the policy practice at Preston Gates & Ellis, a position she left at the end of the year. Her last stint on Capitol Hill was as chief of staff for former Rep. Rick White, R-Wash., who now serves as president and CEO of the industry lobbying group TechNet. She also worked for former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. Her other private-sector experience includes serving as executive vice president of TechNet and as ITI's communications director.
McMorris has been assigned to serve on the House Armed Services, Education and the Workforce, and Resources committees.
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill, Senate Finance Committee ranking Democrat Max Baucus of Montana has promoted Brian Pomper to serve as chief international trade counsel for the committee's Democratic staff. Pomper had been the committee's minority trade counsel since 2003. Previously, he worked for six years as a trade, litigation and intellectual property attorney at the Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom law firm. He succeeds Timothy Punke, who left the Hill to join Preston Gates.
And Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., last week unveiled the new Senate Democratic Communications Center. The center has five staff members. Among them is Ari Rabin-Havt, the director of Internet communications. He comes to the job after serving as deputy director of Internet communications for 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
Rabin-Havt said that about 40 percent of his job is to reach out to the most influential writers of online journals known as Web logs, or blogs, and the rest of the job entails political marketing duties such as managing e-mail lists and Web sites.
"In the end, a lot of these guys are basically pundits and are like any other column writer," Rabin-Havt said of bloggers. In some ways they are more influential than traditional columnists because in aggregate, the blogs reach millions of readers who might not read newspapers, he said.
Everyone in the communications office reads political blogs such as the Daily Kos, Atrios and MyDD, he said. But some of Rabin-Havt's personal favorites include Pandagon, Seeing the Forest, Hullabaloo by "Digby" and the Tapped, the American Prospect's blog.
Off the Hill, the Electronic Industries Alliance announced last week that it has promoted Storme Street to be its director of government relations. She will help to develop more long-term policy positions in her new role, as well as retain oversight of tax, economic and international business issues for the association. Street is a former reporter for the financial newswire BridgeNews, as well as other financial publications.
Physics Majors Reign Supreme At Patent Office
The Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) on Friday announced three key appointments to senior management. As of Jan. 21, John Doll will serve as deputy commissioner for patent resources and planning; Margaret "Peggy" Focarino will take on the job of deputy commissioner for patent operations; and Joseph Rolla will serve as deputy commissioner for patent examination policy.
Rolla succeeds Stephen Kunin, who retired from PTO late last year to join the Oblon, Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt law firm in Alexandria, Va., which specializes in patent law. Focarino succeeds Esther Kepplinger, and Doll succeeds Ed Kazenske.
"I am confident that the experience, vision and abilities of this new team will ensure that the U.S. PTO continues to show the way for the patent world," PTO Director Jon Dudas said in a statement.
All three new deputy commissioners were physics majors in college and have worked at PTO since the 1970s. Doll is currently a special assistant to Dudas. His new position puts him in charge of the technology operations and processing of patent applications. Last year, he was part of the team that implemented PTO's electronic patent-application processing system, an initiative to eliminate the paper trail that historically has been an integral part of the process.
Before his position as special assistant, Doll directed the patent examination group that specializes in biotechnology and pharmaceutical patents.
Focarino will run PTO's day-to-day operations. She currently directs the patent examination group that specializes in issuing patents for computer architecture and software. During her career, she also has developed many training programs for PTO managers and technical staff.
Rolla will develop and direct policy issues related to patent examination. He currently directs the patent examination group that specializes in issuing telecommunications patents. He played a central role in implementing PTO's 1996 examination guidelines for computer-related inventions.
Tech Daily Writer To Head New Publication
After almost five years as a senior writer at National Journal's Technology Daily, William New is moving closer to the action in a key area of his coverage.
New has been hired by a European startup nonprofit publication called Intellectual Property Watch to cover intellectual property policymaking on an international level. His title will be editor-in-chief, and he will be a founding member of the publication. His last day at Technology Daily is Friday. His new job is based in Geneva, home to the World Intellectual Property Organization.
New has covered international issues, trade, science policy, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, cyber security and homeland security for Technology Daily.
"For years, I've talked about living and working abroad and kept covering international issues -- including intellectual property issues. When this came along it just seemed to be a great opportunity not to be passed up," he said. "It's a great idea at the right time: Do professional, nonpartisan reporting on a set of issues of ever-increasing importance, and make it accessible to a broader audience of stakeholders."
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