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TechNet Reshapes Its Lobbying Team
by Heather Greenfield
TechNet has a nearly all new government and political affairs team. The association for technology industry CEOs had been looking for a Democratic vice president since last fall when Alix Burns left to start her own consulting firm, Bay Bridget Strategies. Then Republican Vice President Andrea Hoffman left late last month.
TechNet has hired Betsy Mullins to replace Burns. Mullins most recently served as the deputy director of the Democratic Governors Association, where she served as member of the senior management team and liaison to the chairman, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. She also held a number of Energy Department positions during the Clinton administration.
Mike Platt will fill Hoffman's job. Platt was the legislative director for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., where he focused on technology, telecommunications, intellectual property, and trade policy. Platt spent more than nine years on Capitol Hill, previously working for Rep. Asa Hutchinson, R-Ark.
TechNet also is filling another Democratic post that had been vacant for awhile. Bret Wincup has been hired as director of government and political affairs. He most recently served as the deputy finance director in the political action committee office of then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. Before that, he worked in the Democratic cloak room of the Senate and in the office of former Senate Minority Leader Thomas Daschle, D-S.D.
"Betsy brings substantial expertise in federal and state policy and politics to TechNet; Mike brings great experience on a range of key issues from Capitol Hill; and Bret brings with him stellar service from a number of key positions in the United States Senate," said Lezlee Westine, president and CEO of the group. "I have no doubt that with their diverse backgrounds, they will make a terrific addition to the already strong TechNet team."
Google Adds Attorney To Washington Office
Google has made another new hire that brings the number of people in its Washington office to nine. The Internet firm has hired Richard Whitt to be its Washington telecom and media counsel.
He will be Google's voice before the FCC, other federal agencies and Congress on telecom and media advocacy issues. Other areas of focus will include high-speed Internet competition and safeguards, the "unregulation" of Internet-enabled applications, and efficient use of spectrum.
Before joining Google last month, Whitt founded and headed NetsEdge Consulting. He provided legal analysis, regulatory strategy and advocacy counsel to Google and other Web-based firms with an emphasis on broadband-related issues. Before that, he spent a dozen years working in MCI's legal office, most recently as vice president for federal law and policy.
NTIA Official Gets Expanded Duties
Meredith Attwell Baker is adding to her job at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. She has been named deputy assistant secretary for communications and information and deputy national telecom and information administration administrator.
"For the last three years, I have relied heavily on Meredith's extraordinary combination of substantive expertise and sound judgment," NTIA chief John Kneuer said. "I am thrilled that she has agreed to take on the additional operational responsibilities of the deputy assistant secretary."
Baker joined NTIA in January 2004 as a senior adviser and also served on detail to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Before joining NTIA, she was vice president at Williams Mullen Strategies, where she focused on telecom, intellectual property and trade issues.
Speaker Pelosi Taps High-Profile Staffers
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has hired some senior staffers who worked for Democrats with presidential ambitions.
Pelosi announced three new senior staff members: Cheryl Parker Rose will serve as the Speaker's director of intergovernmental affairs, replacing Lorraine Miller, who was recently elected House clerk; Ellen Qualls will serve in a new position, senior adviser for strategic planning; and Joseph Onek will be a senior counsel for Pelosi.
Rose most recently was a senior policy adviser to former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. She also worked on strategic initiatives for the Service Employees International Union, specializing in education, health care and economic issues. Vilsack is running for president in 2008.
Qualls served in the office of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, where she oversaw all strategic communications and media relations. She was responsible for identifying and communicating key successful bipartisan initiatives such as education reform, fiscal reform, and economic development. Last fall, Warner opted out of a presidential run.
Onek began his career as a law clerk to two prominent federal judges, David Bazelon and William Brennan, and then worked as a staff member on the Senate Judiciary and Labor committees. In the Carter administration, he served on the White House domestic policy staff and as deputy counsel to the president. In the Clinton administration, he served as principal deputy associate attorney general in the Justice Department.
Government Officials Honored For Cyber Efforts
FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras and California state Sen. Joe Simitian, a Democrat, were named co-winners of the 2007 RSA Conference Award for Public Policy. The pair were recognized for their contributions to cyber-security policy.
Since 2004, Majoras has spearheaded the FTC's outreach to businesses, consumers and law enforcement to help combat identity theft, computer spyware and unsolicited commercial e-mail. Majoras currently serves as co-chair of the president's task force of ID theft and recently helped establish the FTC's privacy and information protection division.
Majoras and the FTC have brought more than a dozen cases against firms such as ChoicePoint for failing to implement reasonable security procedures to protect the sensitive consumer information they had collected.
Simitian co-authored a law that enabled Californians affected by data breaches to take immediate steps to protect their identities. The act also provides an exemption for breaches of encrypted data, which has fostered broader adoption of encryption as an industry best practice.
"Chairman Majoras and Senator Simitian have made great strides to lay a solid foundation for and improve the way our nation deals with identity-theft crimes and data-breach notifications," said Liz Gasster, acting executive director and general counsel for the Cyber Security Industry Alliance. "Cyber-related crimes are escalating rapidly in both the U.S. and abroad, and their fundamental efforts to protect citizens' sensitive, personal information have not gone unnoticed."
In other news, CSIA picked its 2007 board. Patricia Sueltz, the CEO of SurfControl, and Suzanne Joyce, the CEO of TechGuard Security, will join 10 other current board members to advance cyber-security policy in 2007.
Quote Of The Week
"There are deep and growing divisions within the high-tech community that Congress should acknowledge."
-- Qualcomm Vice President Sean Murphy, explaining that the characterization of the patent debate as high-tech versus pharmaceuticals is an oversimplification.
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