[RTC List] FCC's new Chair Genachowski Sworn In, Announces Staff

Mon Jun 29 13:12:32 PDT 2009

Big news at the FCC

http://www.tvnewsday.com/articles/2009/06/29/daily.9/

Genachowski Sworn In, Announces Staff

By Staff

TVNEWSDAY, Jun 29 2009, 3:29 PM ET

Julius Genachowski was sworn in as FCC chairman this afternoon by
Supreme Court Justice David Souter and promptly announced members of
his staff, noting their extensive experience in the public and private
sectors, including service at the FCC, the office of the U.S.
Attorney, the U.S. Congress, private legal practice, and in news,
media and technology businesses.

"The FCC should be a model for excellence in government, and this
extraordinarily accomplished team will help us achieve that,"
Genachowski said. "The agency will benefit enormously from their
leadership, from their private and public sector experience, and from
their dedication to public service. I look forward to drawing on their
diverse and strong talents to ensure that the FCC pursues policies
that unlock opportunity, unleash innovation and job creation, protect
consumers, and help address many of our nation's most pressing
challenges."

The staffers are:

Edward P. Lazarus — chief of staff.  He comes to the FCC from Akin,
Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where he was co-head of the firm-wide
global litigation practice and a member of the firm's management
committee, overseeing more than 800 lawyers. He is a former
prosecutor, having served as an assistant U.S. Attorney for the
Central District of California, and started his legal career as a law
clerk to Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun. Lazarus has also
served as the chairman of the board of AbilityFirst, a provider of
housing and vocational services to people with disabilities, and the
Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, a nonprofit legal services
organization that represents roughly 25,000 dependent youth in
Southern California.

Colin Crowell — senior counselor to the chairman. In this role,
Crowell will serve as strategic adviser on a broad range of matters,
and will also have particular responsibility for the communications,
legislative, intergovernmental affairs, and public liaison functions
of the agency. Crowell previously worked for more than 20 years on the
staff of Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), serving on the staff of the
House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the
Internet when Markey chaired the panel, and in the congressman's
personal office when Markey was the subcommittee's ranking member.

Bruce Liang Gottlieb — chief counsel to the chairman and senior legal
adviser. He will manage the commission's overall agenda and have
responsibility for policy coordination with the bureaus. In addition,
he will have particular responsibility for wireless, engineering and
technology, and public safety issues. Gottlieb was legal adviser to
Commissioner Copps from 2006 to 2009. He also previously practiced
communications law at Harris, Wiltshire & Grannis, and wrote for
Slate. He began his legal career as a clerk to the Honorable David S.
Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

Priya Aiyar — legal adviser, with particular responsibility for
wireline competition and international issues. She was most recently a
partner at Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, where she
practiced in litigation and telecommunications. She began her legal
career as a law clerk for the Honorable Stephen Breyer of the U.S.
Supreme Court and the Honorable Merrick Garland of the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.  Prior to entering law school, Aiyar was
a Rhodes Scholar.

Sherrese Smith — legal adviser, with particular responsibility for
media, consumer and enforcement issues. She was most recently vice
president and general counsel of Washington Post Digital. Prior to
that, Smith was a member of the Intellectual Property group at Arnold
& Porter. She currently serves on the board of the ABA's Forum for
Communications Law, has served on the board of the Media Law Resource
Center Institute and was a co-chair of the Copyright Committee of the
ABA. She is a frequent lecturer on media, publishing, internet and
intellectual property issues and is a faculty member for the
Practicing Law Institute.

Sherry Gelfand — confidential assistant to the chairman. Gelfand was
executive assistant to the assistant attorney general, Antitrust
Division, U.S. Department of Justice, from 1993 to 1996. Since leaving
the Department of Justice, she has been manager for business intake
for a major Tampa law firm and has served as executive assistant to
the chairman/CEO of Valor Telecom in Dallas. Most recently, she served
as executive assistant to the chairman/CEO of Soundpath Legal
Conferencing in Washington.

Daniel Ornstein — special assistant to the chairman. Ornstein comes to
the FCC from CBS, where he managed several new media initiatives and
helped run the network's growing mobile business. Previously, Ornstein
worked on a start-up company called Click.TV, which was acquired by
Cisco Systems in 2007.

Mary Beth Richards — special counsel to the chairman for FCC reform
She will also head a comprehensive program to provide openness and
transparency at the agency. Richards first joined the FCC in 1984 and
held a variety of positions, including deputy chief of the Consumer
and Governmental Affairs, Enforcement, and Common Carrier Bureaus,
deputy managing director and special counsel to the chairman, before
moving to the Federal Trade Commission in November 2006 as deputy
director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. She recently returned
to the FCC as deputy general counsel, and has been serving as acting
managing director. In 1995, she received the Presidential Meritorious
Executive Service Award.

Ruth Milkman will lead the transition effort in the chairman's office.
Milkman served at the FCC between 1986 and 1998 in a variety of
positions, including deputy chief of the International and Common
Carrier Bureaus, and senior legal adviser to Chairman Reed Hundt.
Milkman also was a founding partner of Lawler, Metzger, Milkman &
Keeney, LLC, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable J. Harvie
Wilkinson of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.

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