Executive in Residence, Wake Forest University School of Business
John Allison is an Executive in Residence at the Wake Forest School of Business. He is a member of the Cato Institute’s Board of Directors and Chairman of the Executive Advisory Council of the Cato Institute’s Center for Monetary and Financial Alternatives. Allison was president and CEO of the Cato Institute from October 2012 to April 2015. Prior to joining Cato, Allison was chairman and CEO of BB&T Corporation, the 10th-largest financial services holding company headquartered in the United States. During his tenure as CEO from 1989 to 2008, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to $152 billion in assets. He was recognized by theHarvard Business Reviewas one of the top 100 most successful CEOs in the world over the last decade.
Allison has received the Corning Award for Distinguished Leadership, been inducted into the North Carolina Business Hall of Fame, and received the Lifetime Achievement Award from theAmerican Banker. He is the author of The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism Is the World Economy’s Only Hope and The Leadership Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why the Future of Business Depends on the Return to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. In addition, he is a former Distinguished Professor of Practice at Wake Forest University School of Business, and serves on the Board of Visitors at the business schools at Wake Forest, Duke, and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Allison is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill. He received his master’s degree in management from Duke University and is also a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. Allison is the recipient of six honorary doctorate degrees.
Founding Partner, Boyden Gray & Associates
Ambassador C. Boyden Gray is the founding partner of Boyden Gray & Associates, a law and strategy firm in Washington, D.C., focused on constitutional and regulatory issues.
Mr. Gray worked in the White House for twelve years, first as counsel to the Vice President during the Reagan administration and then as White House Counsel to President George H.W. Bush. In the Reagan administration, he was Counsel to the Presidential Task Force on Regulatory Relief, for which he wrote the original Executive Order 12291 requiring cost-benefit analysis and White House review of regulations (later renumbered as current EO 12866). In the George H.W. Bush Administration, Mr. Gray was in charge of judicial selection and was also instrumental in the enactment of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990, the Energy Policy Act of 1992, and a cap-and-trade system for acid rain emissions. In 1993, he received the Presidential Citizens Medal. Under President George W. Bush, Mr. Gray was U.S. Ambassador to the European Union and U.S. Special Envoy to Europe for Eurasian Energy.
Mr. Gray practiced law for 25 years at the law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering and was chairman of the Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section of the American Bar Association from 2000 to 2002. Early in his career, Mr. Gray helped to develop the Business Roundtable and served as its first counsel. He is an adjunct professor at Antonin Scalia Law School and a former adjunct professor at NYU Law School (teaching energy and environmental law). Mr. Gray is on the Board of Directors of the Atlantic Council, the Federalist Society, Reason Foundation, and the Trust for the National Mall.
Mr. Gray earned his A.B. magna cum laude from Harvard, where he was an editor of the Crimson, and his J.D. with high honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he was editor-in-chief of the Law Review. Mr. Gray served in the United States Marine Corps, and after law school, he clerked for Earl Warren, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
Director, Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute, New York Law School
Charles M. Davidson is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. Charles oversees all aspects of the program, including its focus on broadband policy. The ACLP has published a number of papers and has hosted interdisciplinary public policy events on an array of broadband issues, with a particular emphasis on promoting broadband adoption and utilization.
Prior to joining the ACLP, Mr. Davidson served as a state regulatory utility commissioner and held a variety of positions in government and the private sector. His government work included serving as the Executive Director of Florida’s Information Technology Taskforce and as the Staff Director of the state’s first Committee on Information Technology. In the private sector, Mr. Davidson was an attorney in the New York offices of Baker & McKenzie and subsequently Duane Morris. He also served as the Chairman of ITFlorida, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation in the state’s high-tech sector.
Mr. Davidson speaks and writes frequently on technology and public policy issues, and has provided expert testimony before numerous state and federal bodies, including the U.S. House of Representatives and the Federal Communications Commission. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Mr. Davidson holds a Masters of Law in Trade Regulation from New York University, a Masters in International Business from Columbia University, and undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Florida, where he served as a fellowship instructor at the College of Law. He also served as a Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law.
President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Policy Director, Next Century Cities
Christopher Mitchell is the Policy Director at Next Century Cities as well as the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis. Mr. Mitchell is a leading national expert on community networks and speaks at conferences across the United States on telecommunications policy.
On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. His research and reports are available online. In 2012, he published three in-depth case studies of citywide publicly owned gigabit networks, called “Broadband at the Speed of Light.” In 2011, Mr. Mitchell released the Community Broadband Map, a comprehensive map of community owned networks.
He was honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology by Government Technology, which honors the top “Doers, Drivers, and Dreamers” in the nation each year. That same year, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named ILSR the Broadband Organization of the Year.
His Twitter identity is @communitynets
He earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Macalester College.
Senior Policy Director, Mobile Future
Rachael Bender is Senior Policy Director for Mobile Future, where she focuses on issues involving wireless technology, broadband, and spectrum. Prior to joining Mobile Future in 2011, Ms. Bender was a law clerk in the Department of Regulatory Affairs at CTIA – The Wireless Association. Ms. Bender graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Government & Politics, and from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law with a J.D. and certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies. During law school, she served as president of the Communications Law Student Association and competed in the National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition, for which she also served as Vice Chancellor during her third year. She is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars.
Senior Policy Director, Mobile Future
Rachael Bender is Senior Policy Director for Mobile Future, where she focuses on issues involving wireless technology, broadband, and spectrum. Prior to joining Mobile Future in 2011, Ms. Bender was a law clerk in the Department of Regulatory Affairs at CTIA – The Wireless Association. Ms. Bender graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Government & Politics, and from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law with a J.D. and certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies. During law school, she served as president of the Communications Law Student Association and competed in the National Telecommunications Moot Court Competition, for which she also served as Vice Chancellor during her third year. She is a member of the Pennsylvania and New Jersey Bars.
Director, Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute, New York Law School
Charles M. Davidson is a Director of the Advanced Communications Law and Policy Institute (ACLP) at New York Law School. Charles oversees all aspects of the program, including its focus on broadband policy. The ACLP has published a number of papers and has hosted interdisciplinary public policy events on an array of broadband issues, with a particular emphasis on promoting broadband adoption and utilization.
Prior to joining the ACLP, Mr. Davidson served as a state regulatory utility commissioner and held a variety of positions in government and the private sector. His government work included serving as the Executive Director of Florida’s Information Technology Taskforce and as the Staff Director of the state’s first Committee on Information Technology. In the private sector, Mr. Davidson was an attorney in the New York offices of Baker & McKenzie and subsequently Duane Morris. He also served as the Chairman of ITFlorida, a nonprofit organization that promotes innovation in the state’s high-tech sector.
Mr. Davidson speaks and writes frequently on technology and public policy issues, and has provided expert testimony before numerous state and federal bodies, including the U.S. House of Representatives and the Federal Communications Commission. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Mr. Davidson holds a Masters of Law in Trade Regulation from New York University, a Masters in International Business from Columbia University, and undergraduate and Juris Doctorate degrees from the University of Florida, where he served as a fellowship instructor at the College of Law. He also served as a Special Professor of Law at Hofstra University School of Law.
President, The Free State Foundation
Randolph J. May is Founder and President of The Free State Foundation. The Free State Foundation is an independent, non-profit free market-oriented think tank founded in 2006.
From October 1999-May 2006, May was a Senior Fellow and Director of Communications Policy Studies at The Progress & Freedom Foundation, a Washington, DC-based think tank. Prior to joining PFF, he practiced communications, administrative, and regulatory law as a partner at major national law firms. From 1978 to 1981, May served as Assistant General Counsel and Associate General Counsel at the Federal Communication Commission.
May has held numerous leadership positions in bar associations. He is a past Chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration. Mr. May also has served as a Public Member of the Administrative Conference of the United States and currently is a Senior Fellow at ACUS.
Mr. May has published more than two hundred articles and essays on communications, administrative and constitutional law topics. He is author of A Call for a Radical New Communications Policy: Proposals for Free Market Reform, and co-author of #CommActUpdate: A Communications Law Fit for the Digital Age and The Constitutional Foundations of Intellectual Property. Mr. May is editor of two books, Communications Law and Policy in the Digital Age: The Next Five Years and New Directions in Communications Policy. In addition, he is the co-editor of two other books, Net Neutrality or Net Neutering: Should Broadband Internet Services Be Regulated? and Communications Deregulation and FCC Reform. In the past, Mr. May has written regular columns on legal and regulatory affairs for Legal Times and the National Law Journal, leading national legal periodicals.
He received his A.B. from Duke University and his J.D. from Duke Law School, where he serves as a member of the Board of Visitors.
Policy Director, Next Century Cities
Christopher Mitchell is the Policy Director at Next Century Cities as well as the Director of the Community Broadband Networks Initiative with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in Minneapolis. Mr. Mitchell is a leading national expert on community networks and speaks at conferences across the United States on telecommunications policy.
On a day-to-day basis, Mr. Mitchell runs MuniNetworks.org, the comprehensive online clearinghouse of information about community broadband. His research and reports are available online. In 2012, he published three in-depth case studies of citywide publicly owned gigabit networks, called “Broadband at the Speed of Light.” In 2011, Mr. Mitchell released the Community Broadband Map, a comprehensive map of community owned networks.
He was honored as one of the 2012 Top 25 in Public Sector Technology by Government Technology, which honors the top “Doers, Drivers, and Dreamers” in the nation each year. That same year, the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors named ILSR the Broadband Organization of the Year.
His Twitter identity is @communitynets
He earned a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Hubert Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Macalester College.
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