The Digital Age Communications Act Project

 

Advisory Committee

Dick Armey, Co-Chairman, FreedomWorks; Former U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader

Cesar V. Conda, Principal, Navigators LLC; Former Assistant for Domestic Policy, Office of Vice President Dick Cheney

Ronald A. Cass, President, Cass & Associates, PC; Former Dean, Boston University School of Law

Esther Dyson, Chairperson, EDventures Holdings; Editor, Release 1.0, CNET Networks

Jeffrey A. Eisenach, Chairman, Criterion Economics; Former President, The Progress & Freedom Foundation

Jack Fields, CEO, Twenty First Century Group; Former Chairman, House Subcommittee on Telecommunications

Darius W. Gaskins Jr., Partner, Norbridge; Former Chairman, Interstate Commerce Commission

Kenneth Gordon, Special Consultant, NERA; Former President, NARUC

C. Boyden Gray, Senior Partner, Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP; Former White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush

Larry Irving, President, Irving Information Group; Former Director, NTIA

Anne P. Jones, Former Commissioner, FCC

Alfred Kahn, Professor Emeritus, Cornell University; Former Chairman, Civil Aeronautics Board

George A. Keyworth, Chairman, The Progress & Freedom Foundation; Former Director, Reagan White House Office of Science and Technology Policy

Jay P. Lefkowitz, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Former Senior Policy Advisor, George W. Bush White House

Blair Levin, Analyst, Stifel Nicolaus

Ira C. Magaziner, President, SJS Incorporated; Former Senior Policy Advisor, Clinton White House

David M. McIntosh, Partner, Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw LLP; Former Chairman, House Subcommittee on Regulatory Relief

James C. Miller, III, Chairman, The CapAnalysis Group LLC; Former Chairman, FTC

Timothy J. Muris, Professor, George Mason University, School of Law; Former Chairman, FTC

John Rutledge, Chairman, Rutledge Institute for Capital & Growth; Advisor to the George W. Bush White House

Vernon Smith, Professor, George Mason University; Nobel Prize Winner in Economics, 2002

Kenneth W. Starr, Dean, Pepperdine University, School of Law; Former Solicitor General of the United States

Allan Thoms, Consultant, LECG; Former Chairman, Iowa Utilities Board

Nancy J. Victory, Partner, Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP; Former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, NTIA

Richard E. Wiley, Partner, Wiley, Rein & Fielding LLP; Former Chairman, FCC

G. Mitchell Wilk, Managing Director, LECG; Former President, California Public Utilities Commission

Affiliations are for purposes of identification only.


Advisory Committee Member Biographies

Dick Armey of Texas is a former U.S. Representative and House Majority Leader. A former economics professor at North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas) in Denton, Texas, he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984. During his time in Congress, he conceived the independent nonpolitical commission that became responsible for identifying those military bases to be closed as a cost-cutting measure. Armey was one of the most fervent supporters in Congress's of privatization of Social Security and phasing-out farm subsidies. In 1995 he was elected House Majority Leader. That same year his book Freedom Revolution was published. Armey announced his retirement from Congress in 2002 and did not run for re-election that year. Currently he is serving as Co-Chairman of FreedomWorks, a nonprofit group in Washington DC that recruits, educates, trains and mobilizes hundreds of thousands of volunteer activists to fight for less government, lower taxes, and more freedom. He received his undergraduate degree from Jamestown College, an MA from University of North Dakota and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Oklahoma.

Cesar Conda is a principal at Navigators and has twenty years of legislative and policy experience working at the highest levels in the White House and in Congress. Conda recently served as assistant for domestic policy under Vice President Richard Cheney, where he headed the domestic policy staff in the Office of the Vice President. In this position, Conda was the Vice President's principal advisor on domestic and economic policy issues, including energy, financial services, healthcare, information technology, and taxation. Conda has extensive experience in public policy research and development. He was the chief operating officer of the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, and member of the Board of Directors of Empower America. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Freedom Works and a member of the Board of Advisors of the National Foundation for American Policy. Conda is a graduate from the College of William and Mary.

Esther Dyson is editor at large at CNET Networks, where she is responsible for its monthly newsletter, Release 1.0, and the PC Forum, the high-tech market's leading annual executive conference. As editor at large, she also contributes insight and content to CNET Networks' other properties. At Release 1.0 and in her private investment activities, Dyson focuses on emerging technologies, emerging companies and emerging markets. Dyson is also an active player in discussions and policy-making concerning the Internet and society. From 1998 to 2000, she was founding chairman of ICANN (the organization responsible for overseeing the Domain Name System). The daughter of an English physicist and a Swiss mathematician, Dyson started traveling in Eastern Europe in 1989 and eventually helped to fill the small but vital vacuum at the intersection of Eastern Europe, high-tech and venture capital, even as she remains active in the U.S. and Western Europe. She graduated with a B.A. from Harvard.

Jeffrey Eisenach is chairman at Criterion Economics. He has more than 25 years of experience in economic analysis of legal and public policy issues, and has served in senior policy positions at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He has also served on the faculties of Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and, currently, at the George Mason University School of Law. As an economist with the FTC, Eisenach was actively involved in analyzing major consumer protection and antitrust cases before the Commission. In the mid-1980s, he served as Executive Assistant to the Director of OMB, where he was responsible for overseeing the analysis of a wide variety of public policy issues. In 1993, Eisenach co-founded The Progress & Freedom Foundation. As President of the Foundation from 1993 through 2002, he led the Foundation’s research into a wide range of issues, including antitrust policy, intellectual property, communications regulation, FDA regulation of pharmaceutical products and FERC regulation of the electricity sector. Eisenach graduated received a B.A. in Economics from Claremont McKenna College and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia.

Jack Fields is the CEO of Twenty First Century Group, a bipartisan consulting firm specializing in federal government affairs. He represented the 8th Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1980 to 1996. Fields served on the Committee on Commerce from 1982 to 1996. In 1995, Fields became the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance. As Subcommittee Chairman, Fields led the effort in the House to enact the first comprehensive reform of the Communications Act of 1934. The Telecommunications Act of 1996, designed to promote competition in all telecommunications-related industries and create an environment in which new telecommunications technologies could flourish, was signed into law by President Clinton in February 1996. Fields earned his bachelor’s degree from Baylor University and his J.D. from Baylor Law School.

Darius Gaskins is a partner at Norbridge, a management consulting firm focused on the transportation and logistics industry. Before joining Norbridge as a partner, Gaskins was President and CEO for the Burlington Northern Railroad, where he created a strong team of executives focused on customer service. He strove to rationalize the railroad through line sales and strategic alliances with other railroads. Earlier, as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the Burlington Northern, he substantially reorganized and re-oriented the marketing and sales force to respond to new opportunities created by deregulation. Gaskins served as the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission (during the 1980s deregulation period), Director, Office of Economic Analysis Civil Aeronautics Board, and as the Director of the Bureau of Economics for the Federal Trade Commission. Gaskins received a B.S. from the United States Military Academy, two M.S.E. degrees from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Michigan.

Kenneth Gordon is a special consultant with National Economic Research Associates, specializing in utility regulation and related issues. He was Chairman of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities from January 1993 to October of 1995. He came to the Massachusetts Commission from the Maine Public Utilities Commission, where he also held the office of Chairman from 1988 through the end of 1992. Gordon was an active member of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and served as president of that organization in 1992. Prior to that, he served at the Federal Communications Commission's Office of Plans and Policies. He has taught at several colleges since 1965, the most recent position having been at Smith College. Gordon has authored a number of publications and lectures widely on topics related to utility regulation. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and holds a doctorate in Economics from the University of Chicago.

C. Boyden Gray is a senior partner at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler, Pickering, Hale and Dorr LLP. He joined the firm in 1969, leaving in 1981 to serve as legal counsel to then-Vice President George H. W. Bush. He went on to serve as counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, chaired by Vice President Bush. Then he served as Bush's Counsel during his term as President of the United States. Gray returned to the firm in 1993. Gray serves as Co-Chairman of Citizens for a Sound Economy. He is the immediate past Chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the ABA. He is a member of Harvard University's Committee on University Development and sits on the board of trustees of a number of organizations, including the Washington Scholarship Fund, St. Mark's School and National Cathedral School. He also served on the Bush-Cheney Transition Department of Justice Advisory Committee.

Larry Irving is the president of the Irving Information Group, a consulting firm providing strategic planning and market development services to international telecommunications and information technology companies. Prior to forming the Irving Information Group in October 1999, Mr. Irving served for almost seven years as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, where he was a principal advisor to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international communications and information policy issues and supervised programs that award grants to extend the reach of advanced telecommunications technologies to under served areas. He was a point person in the Administration's successful efforts to reform the United States' telecommunications law, which resulted in the passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996. He initiated and was the principal author of the survey Falling Through the Net, which tracks access to telecommunications and information technologies, including telephones, computers and the Internet, across racial, economic, and geographic lines. Prior to joining the Clinton-Gore Administration, Irving served ten years on Capitol Hill, most recently as senior counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance. Prior to his Hill service, Irving was associated with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Hogan and Hartson, specializing in communications law, antitrust law, and commercial litigation. Irving received a B.A. from Northwestern University in 1976 and a J.D. from Stanford University School of Law, where he was President of the Class of 1979.

Anne Jones served as a Member of the Federal Communications Commission from 1979-1983. When she resigned from this position, she joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill and Brennan in Washington, D.C. where she practiced communications and financial institutions law. Following graduation from law school, Jones practiced law with the Boston firm of Ropes & Gray until she joined the staff of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington, D.C. There, she served in a number of roles,culminating in being appointed the Director of the Division of Investment Management, which regulates investment companies and investment advisers. Then Jones served as General Counsel of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Jones has served on the Boards and/or Advisory Committees of a number of commercial and not-for-profit enterprises, including Motorola, Inc., American Express Mutual Fund Group, Apollo Computer Inc., C-Cor Electronics, Inc., Boston College, National Academy of Sciences Committee on National Telecommunications Preparedness, New York Stock Exchange Legal Advisory Committee and Office of Technology Assessment Study of Communications Systems for an Information Age. She has also been active in the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute and the Federal Communications Bar Association. She is a graduate of Boston College and Boston College Law School.

Alfred Kahn is the Robert Julius Thorne Professor of Political Economy, Emeritus, at Cornell University and a special consultant to NERA. He has been chairman of the New York Public Service Commission; chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board; and Advisor to the President (Carter) on Inflation and Chairman of the Council on Wage and Price Stability. He has also served as a court-appointed expert in State of New York v. Kraft General Foods, Advisor to New York Governor Carey on Telecommunications Policy; and as a consultant to the Attorneys General of New York, Pennsylvania and Illinois, the Ford Foundation, the National Commission on Food Marketing, Federal Trade Commission, Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the City of Denver. He was for 15 years a regular commentator on PBS’s “The Nightly Business Report.” Kahn received his Bachelor’s (summa cum laude) and Master’s degrees from New York University and a Ph.D. in Economics from Yale University.

George Keyworth is chairman of The Progress and Freedom Foundation. Simultaneously, he remains chairman of The Keyworth Company, a firm established in 1986 to work with companies in developing strategies for growth based on emerging and changing technologies. From May 1981 to January 1986, Keyworth was Science Advisor to President Reagan and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. As the senior technical member of the President's staff, he led the Administration's effort to capitalize on U.S. science and technology to strengthen industrial competitiveness. In 1984 he was a member of the President's Commission on Industrial Competitiveness. Prior to his White House Service, Keyworth was Director of the Physics Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory, where he led the Laboratory's programs in experimental physics, condensed matter research, astrophysics and space science, and laser fusion. As a research scientist Keyworth's contributions include pioneering work in high-resolutioned spectroscopy. As a formulator of policy, he has had widespread interactions with science and defense policy makers in many other countries. He received his B.S. in Physics from Yale University in 1963. He was awarded a Ph.D. in Nuclear Physics in 1968 from Duke University.

Jay Lefkowitz is a Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP where he has focused on commercial litigation and strategic counseling practice. In March 2001 he was named General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget. He was appointed Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy in January 2002, where he coordinated the activities of the Domestic Policy Council. During his tenure, Lefkowitz was a principal advisor to President Bush on a wide variety of issues including healthcare, education, and transportation policy; stem cell research, biotechnology, and patent protection; litigation reform; environmental regulations; and international development. Lefkowitz earlier served as Director of Cabinet Affairs and Deputy Executive Secretary to the Domestic Policy Council in the administration of President George H.W. Bush.

Blair Levin is the Managing Director and principal regulatory strategy analyst at Legg Mason Equities. Mr. Levin served as Chief of Staff to Chairman Reed Hundt at the Federal Communications Commission from December 1993 through October 1997. Described by Broadcast and Cable Magazine as "The Sixth Commissioner," Mr. Levin oversaw, among other matters, the implementation of the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the first spectrum auctions, the development of digital television standards, and the Commission's Internet initiative. Mr. Levin has spoken to numerous conferences around the world on telecommunications issues. He is a summa cum laude graduate of Yale College and Yale Law School.

Ira Magaziner is President of SJS, Inc., an international corporate strategy consulting firm. Mr. Magaziner served as Senior Advisor to the President for Policy Development from January 1993 to December 1998. Mr.Magaziner was chiefly responsible for constructing a package of proposed Internet regulations, "A Framework for Global Electronic Commerce," which outlined the U.S. government strategy for promoting the development of global electronic commerce on the Internet. He also chaired the Joint National Economic Council/National Security Council initiative to increase U.S. exports. Prior to his White House appointment, Mr. Magaziner built two successful corporate strategy consulting firms and provided policy analysis for major corporations.

David McIntosh is a partner with the law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe and Maw LLP. During the Reagan Administration he served as Special Assistant to the Attorney General and as Special Assistant to the President for Domestic Affairs. During the first Bush Administration he served as Executive Director of the President's Council on Competitiveness and Assistant to the Vice President. From 1995 until January 2001 McIntosh represented Indiana's second district in the House of Representatives, becoming Chairman of the Subcommittee on Regulatory Relief, which had oversight of environmental, labor, and FDA regulations. He received a B.A. (cum laude) from Yale College, and a J.D. degree from the University of Chicago Law School.

James Miller leads the CapAnalysis practice as chairman and participates in its various research programs. He is the author and co-author of several CapAnalysis studies and has served as an expert witness in several cases. Miller's government service includes serving as Director of the Office of Management and Budget and Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. Miller is a Distinguished Fellow at both the Center for Study of Public Choice and the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is also a Senior Fellow (by courtesy) of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, a member of the board of Americans for Prosperity, and an Emeritus Member of the boards of Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation, the Tax Foundation, and The Progress and Freedom Foundation. Miller's most recent book is Monopoly Politics, published in 1999 by the Hoover Press at Stanford University. He received his B.A. in Economics from the University of Georgia and his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Virginia.

Timothy Muris is a George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law. From 2001-04, he served as Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. During his tenure at the FTC, he created the highly popular National Do Not Call Registry that has allowed millions of consumers to block unwanted telemarketing calls. In addition to his current position at George Mason, Muris is Of Counsel at the law firm of O'Melveny & Myers and is Co-Chair of the firm's Antitrust/Competition Practice. Muris has held three previous positions at the FTC: Assistant Director of the Planning Office (1974-1976), Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection (1981-1983), and Director of the Bureau of Competition (1983-1985). After leaving the FTC in 1985, Muris served at the Office of Management and Budget for three years. A member of the American Bar Association's Antitrust Section, Muris has written widely on antitrust, consumer protection, regulatory, and budget issues. Muris graduated with high honors from San Diego State University in 1971 and received his J.D. from UCLA in 1974.

John Rutledge is an advisor to the Bush White House on both the dividend tax cut and rebuilding Iraq. He is the chairman of the Rutledge Institute for Capital & Growth, dedicated to promoting economic growth through education and research. He is also the Chairman of Rutledge Capital, a private equity investment firm that has invested more than $150 million in middle market manufacturing, distribution, and service companies. Chairman of Rutledge Research, an economic advisory firm in Williamsburg, Virginia, he also chairs the Advisory Boards of B.V. Group, a venture capital, hedge fund, and real estate investment firm, and Saugatuck Capital, a private equity firm. After tours of duty in both academics and government policy, he has started, run, chaired, owned, and harvested dozens of companies, and managed both mutual funds and private equity. In 1980-81, Rutledge served as a member of the Reagan transition team as one of the principal architects of the Reagan Economic Plan. Rutledge holds a B.A. from Lake Forest College, and a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

Vernon Smith is a Nobel Prize winner in Economics (2002) and a professor of law and economics as well as a research scholar in the Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science. He is also a fellow of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. He is past president of the Public Choice Society, the Economic Science Association, the Western Economic Association and the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He has been a Ford Foundation Fellow, Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and a Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar at the California Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Smith is a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association, and the 1995 recipient of the Adam Smith award conferred by the Association for Private Enterprise Education. He was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1995 and received Cal Tech's distinguished alumni award in 1996.

Kenneth Starr is currently the Dean of Pepperdine University’s School of Law. While in private practice, he was a partner at Kirkland & Ellis and Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. He has served as Counselor to U.S. Attorney General William French Smith, Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit, Solicitor General of the United States, and Independent Counsel on the Whitewater matter. As Solicitor General, he argued twenty-five cases before the Supreme Court involving a wide range of governmental regulatory and constitutional issues of commercial importance. His latest book is First Among Equals: The Supreme Court in American Life published in 2002. Starr's areas of expertise are antitrust, federal courts and federal jurisdiction, and constitutional law. He received his A.B. degree from George Washington University, an M.A. from Brown University, and a J.D. from Duke University.

Allan Thoms is currently a consultant with Wilk & Associates/LECG of San Francisco, California, providing regulatory advocacy services to state regulatory commissions. From 2001 to 2003, he was Vice President, Public Policy and External Affairs, for Verizon Communications Inc. From 1995 to 2001, he served on the Iowa Utilities Board, serving as Chairman of the Board. He held various executive positions for the State of Iowa from 1986 to 1994, including Chief of Staff to Governor Terry Branstad and Director of the Iowa Department of Economic Development. He served as Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer, and Treasurer of Dubuque Packing Company from 1982 to 1986, and President of Rowley Interstate Transportation Company from 1979 to 1982. Thoms has served as Commissioner of the Iowa Department of Transportation, Commissioner of the Iowa Department of Environmental Quality, Mayor of the City of Dubuque, Iowa, and President of the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce. He was appointed by the Chairman of the FCC as a charter member of the Board of the Universal Service Administrative Company, Washington, D.C. He also served on the Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of the Board, and as Treasurer of the National Association of Regulatory Commissioners (NARUC). He is currently a Director of Carlisle Communications Company. He received a B.A. in Business from Parsons College and his LLB from the College of Law at the University of Iowa.

Nancy Victory is a partner at Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP and has extensive experience in communications policy. She advises a broad cross-section of the industry on the business implications of regulatory policy and represents these entities before the Federal Communications Commission, Congress and the Administration. Currently she is the chair of the Advisory Committee for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference, heading efforts to assemble U.S. industry positions on spectrum use issues in preparation for the conference. From 2001 to 2003 she was Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, appointed by President Bush to serve as his advisor on domestic and international communications policy and manager of the federal government’s use of spectrum. While at NTIA, Victory launched a comprehensive spectrum management reform effort. She received her B.A. with honors from Princeton University and her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center.

Richard Wiley heads Wiley Rein & Fielding’s communications practice. As chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 1970 to 1977, he advocated increased competition and lessened regulation in the communications field. Wiley played a pivotal role in the development of HDTV in this country, serving from 1987 to 1995 as chairman of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. He is a frequent author and lecturer on telecommunications and information law. He has a B.S. from Northwestern University and a J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law, as well as an LL.M. from Georgetown University Law Center and an Honorary Doctor of Laws from Catholic University.

Mitch Wilk is Managing Director of worldwide telecommunications industry consulting in the Economics & Policy practice group of LECG. Wilk joined the firm in October, 1999, from Wilk & Associates, Inc., a public policy research and consulting practice he founded in 1991, following careers in both the public and private sectors, most recently as Commissioner and President of the California Public Utilities Commission. Prior to his appointment to the Commission, Wilk was Deputy Legislative Secretary, and later, Deputy Chief of Staff to California Governor George Deukmejian. Wilk's consulting experience has emphasized strategic advice to CEOs and other senior executives of regulated industries, with a focus on independent, sounding board guidance regarding industry and regulatory change and opportunities, legislation, and media relations. Among others, the nationwide clients of Wilk & Associates, Inc. included major telecommunications and energy utilities, government agencies, and prominent law firms. Wilk earned a B.S. and an M.B.A. in finance from American University.

 
 
 

 

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