Chief of Staff and Wireless Advisor, Commissioner Nathan Simington at Federal Communications Commission
Ms. Boone serves as Commissioner Simington’s chief of Staff and wireless advisor and manages matters before the International Bureau and the Office of Engineering and Technology. Ms. Boone most recently served as Deputy Division Chief in the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau’s Competition and Infrastructure Policy Division, where she led a team responsible for matters and rulemakings addressing mobile data and voice services, mobile spectrum holdings, and mobile broadband mapping, among others. Ms. Boone also served in the Enforcement and Wireline Competition Bureaus, and worked at T-Mobile, Clearwire, and Level 3 Communications before her time at the Commission. She earned her law degree from the Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law and her bachelor’s from the University of Texas.
Managing Director, Washington Research Group - Technology, Media & Telecom, TD Cowen
Paul Gallant is TD Cowen’s TMT Policy Analyst based in Washington. For 15+ years he has advised institutional investors on TMT political matters as part of the recently #1 II-ranked Washington Research Group. The Washington Research Group has been consistently ranked in the annual Institutional Investor survey. Before becoming an analyst, Paul served as Legal Advisor to the Chairman of the FCC and as Senior Counsel at Qwest Communications.
He received a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University and a law degree from Catholic University.
Material prepared by the TD Cowen Washington Research Group is intended as commentary on political, economic, or market conditions and is not intended as a research report as defined by applicable regulation.
Senior Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce
John Lin is a congressional staffer staffer and telecommunications lawyer with experience in litigation, regulatory, and legislative matters. His work experience includes working for congressional committees, a governor, a congressional leadership office, national and statewide political campaigns, a federal judge, and a large law firm.
Partner, HWG LLP
Patricia Paoletta is a partner with the law firm of HWG LLP, where she specializes in telecommunications, trade and technology policy. Ms. Paoletta provides advice on regulatory, trade and legislative policy to clients before the FCC, Congress and the Administration. Her clients include providers of content, cloud, mobile broadband, VoIP, international telecommunications, small cells, cognitive radio, public safety and homeland security solutions. She serves on Advisory Boards for several entities engaged in information services, communications and technology.
Ms. Paoletta has accrued considerable experience with telecommunications trade and policy in the public sector. From 1990 to 1995, she was senior advisor to the International Bureau Chief and Office Director at the Federal Communications Commission. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Paoletta served as Director of Telecommunications Trade Policy in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, where she worked on the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Basic Telecommunications Agreement. After USTR, Ms. Paoletta served as Majority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She then moved to Level 3 Communications, as Vice President, Government Relations.
Ms. Paoletta is on the Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the European Institute. She is a member of the USTR Alumni Association, Washington International Trade Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), and Women in Technology. Ms. Paoletta has served on the Board of Advisors for the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Telecom Advisor, Co-Chairman of the American Bar Association International Communications Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Technology Policy Committee.
Ms. Paoletta served as a delegate in 2012 to the ITU-R's Study Group 6 Working Party 6A Meeting and in 2009 and 2010 to the ITU-R's Study Group I Working Party IB Meetings; the 2009 meetings of CITEL (the Committee on International Telecommunications at the Organization of American States) PCC-II; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Standards Assembly (2000); the ITU Internet Protocol Telephony Experts Group and the ITU World Telecommunications Policy Forum in 2001; as Chairman of the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Steering Committee (2000-2001); as Board Member for the Voice on the Net Coalition (2001); as Co-Chairman of the FCBA's Annual Seminar Committee (2009-2011); as a member of the FCBA's Ad Hoc Speakers Committee (2006-2007); as Co-Chairman for the FCBA International Practice Committee (2001-2002 and 2005-2006); and as a Co-Chairman of the FCBA Legislative Practice Committee (1999-2000).
Policy Director, Telecommunications, U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation
Arielle Roth serves as Policy Director, Telecommunications for Ranking Member Ted Cruz on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Prior to joining the committee, Roth spent almost a decade working on federal communications and broadband policy, including in senior roles at the Federal Communications Commission and as Wireline Legal Advisor to former Commissioner Michael O’Rielly. Her previous congressional experience includes serving as Legislative Counsel to U.S. Senator Roy Blunt and as Counsel on Detail to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Before entering government, Roth was a Legal Fellow with the Hudson Institute's Center for the Economics of the Internet. Roth holds degrees from the University of Toronto and the McGill University Faculty of Law. She lives in D.C. with her husband Yaakov and their five children.
Chief of Staff, FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr
Prior to joining Commissioner Carr’s office, Greg served as a Policy Advisor to the Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy where he led efforts to increase broadband access through the American Broadband Initiative. He was also involved with the Administration’s efforts to advance America’s leadership in 5G. Prior to his tenure at the White House, Greg was an advisor to Congressman Steve Scalise and the House Energy and Commerce Committee where he handled a broad range of communications and technology issues. Before moving to Washington, DC, he was a campaign aide to Congressman Fred Upton. Greg is a graduate of East Carolina University, where he studied History and Political Science.
Senior Fellow and Academic Director, Penn Carey Law School
Gus Hurwitz is a Senior Fellow and the Academic Director of the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition and the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School where he is working to develop academic and scholarly programs at the intersecution of law, technology, and policy.
He is also Director of Law & Economics Programs at the International Center for Law & Economics (ICLE), a think tank based in Portland, Oregon, where he directs its law and economics-focused research program and helps to translate academic research into applied policy issues.
Hurwitz's research focuses on the regulation of technology, including administrative and regulatory law, antitrust law, torts and products liability, and media law - alongside cognate fields. Inrecent years he has worked on an AI standardization initiative with Seoul National University, a UNICEF-organized study of broadband deployment to public schools in Rwanda, and a book on conglomerate and ecosystems theories of antitrust.
He has published over 30 articles and book chapters, two books (one on cybersecurity law & policy, one on media regulation in the digital era) and have two more in process, over 100 shorter writings (op-eds, shorter analyses, blog posts, &c), hosted over 100 podcast episodes, and regularly appear or am quoted in popular media (including the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Associated Press). His work has been cited by legislators, federal courts of appeals, and federal regulatory agencies.
He was previously a full professor and founding director of the Governance & Technology Center at the University of Nebraska, prior to which he was the inaugural research fellow at the Center for Technology, Innovation & Competition (CTIC). From 2007 to 2010, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division in the Telecommunications and Media Enforcement Section.
He also is, or has been, affiliated with the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University School of Law, the National Security Institute at George Mason University, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Before attending law school, Hurwitz worked at Los Alamos National Lab and interned at the Naval Research Lab. During this time his work was recognized by the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Los Alamos National Lab, IEEE & ACM, Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California, R&D Magazine, and even the Guinness Book of World Records.
A current list of Hurwitz’s publications is available on his website: GusHurwitz.net.
John Homer Kapp Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law
Raymond Ku is the John Homer Kapp Professor of Law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. He has also served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Co-Director of Case’s Center for Law, Technology and the Art. He received his J.D., cum laude, from New York University School of Law where he was a Leonard Boudin First Amendment Fellow in the Arthur Garfield Hays Civil Liberties Program, and his A.B. with Honors from Brown University where he was the recipient of the Philo Sherman Bennet Prize for the best political science thesis discussing the principles of free government. Professor Ku clerked for the Honorable Timothy K. Lewis, United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. He then practiced constitutional, intellectual property, and antitrust law with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, and First Amendment/media and intellectual property law with Levine Pierson Sullivan & Koch, L.L.P., both in Washington, D.C. He has taught at Cornell Law School, Seton Hall University School of Law, Thomas Jefferson School of Law, and St. Thomas University School of Law.
An internationally recognized scholar, Professor Ku writes on legal issues impacting individual liberty, creativity, and technology. His areas of expertise include Constitutional Law, Cyberlaw, Privacy and Copyright. His articles appear in the law reviews and journals of Berkeley, Chicago, Georgetown, Minnesota, Vanderbilt, and Wisconsin among others, and he is the lead author of the first casebook devoted exclusively to the study of cyberspace law. Professor Ku was the 2009 recipient of the Case Western Reserve University Law Alumni Association’s Distinguished Teacher Award, and voted Professor of the Year by the graduating class of 2009.
Professor of the Practice of Economics, Duke University
Michelle P. Connolly is Professor of the Practice in the Economics Department at Duke University. She was the Economics Director of Duke in New York: Financial Markets and Institutions Program for 2007-2009 and the Director of EcoTeach for several years. She currently serves as the Director of the Honors Program in Economics and a member of the Duke Alumni Association Board.
In 2011, Professor Connolly won the Howard D. Johnson Trinity College Teaching Prize and was named among the top five percent of Duke University Undergraduate Instructors in 2009, 2010 and 2011.
Professor Connolly previously served as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission in 2006-2007 and 2008-2009, and as an Economist for the International Research Function for the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1996 to 1997. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude from Yale University in 1990, and went on to earn her M.A. and M.Phil in economics. Professor Connolly received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1996.
Professor Connolly’s research and teaching focus specifically on international trade, telecommunications policy, media policy, education, growth, and development. She has received funding for her research from the National Science Foundation, the Duke Arts and Sciences Research Council Grants, the Spencer Grant, and the Teagle Grant.
Professor Connolly has published in numerous journals, including the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Macroeconomics, the Journal of Development Economics, the Journal of Economic History, the Journal of Economic Growth, the Review of Industrial Organization, and Current Issues in Economics and Finance.
In 2011, Professor Connolly testified before Congress and participated in a White House panel on Spectrum Issues. She has been presenting her work at university seminars and international conferences since 1996. Some of her appearances were at the ACLP Advanced Communications 2009 Summit, where she was a panelist and moderator, at the conference on “Wireless Technologies: Enabling Innovation and Economic Growth”, where she served as a keynote panelist, and at the Martin H. Crego Lecture in Economics, an all college Lecture at Vassar College. In 2013 Professor Connolly was awarded a National Science Foundation Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace Grant, “Dollars for Hertz: Making Trustworthy Spectrum Sharing Technically and Economically Viable.”
Senior Fellow and Director, Center for the Economics of the Internet, Hudson Institute
Harold Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow and director of the Center for the Economics of the Internet at Hudson Institute.
Mr. Furchtgott-Roth founded Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises in 2003. He frequently comments on issues related to the communications sector of the economy. From 2001 to 2003, he was a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute where he published A Tough Act to Follow, chronicling the difficulties implementing the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
From 1997 through 2001, Mr. Furchtgott-Roth served as a commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission. In that capacity, he served on the Joint Board on Universal Service. He is one of the few economists to have served as a federal regulatory commissioner, and the only one to have served on the Federal Communications Commission.
Before his appointment to the FCC, he was chief economist for the House Committee on Commerce and a principal staff member on the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Earlier in his career, he was a senior economist with Economists Incorporated and a research analyst with the Center for Naval Analyses.
Mr. Furchtgott-Roth is a member of the Washington Legal Foundation’s Legal Policy Advisory Board. He is the coauthor of three books: Cable TV: Regulation or Competition, with R.W. Crandall; Economics of A Disaster: The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, with B.M. Owen et al; and International Trade in Computer Software, with S.E. Siwek.
President & CEO, Public Knowledge
Chris Lewis has served as President and CEO at Public Knowledge since July 2019. Prior to being elevated to President and CEO, Chris served seven years as PK’s Vice President for Government Affairs, leading the organization’s day-to-day advocacy and political strategy on Capitol Hill and at government agencies. During that time he also served as a local elected official, serving two terms on the Alexandria City Public School Board in Virginia.
Before joining Public Knowledge, Chris worked in the Federal Communications Commission Office of Legislative Affairs, including as its Deputy Director. He is a former U.S. Senate staffer and an experienced political organizer and advocate in both the nonprofit world and political campaigns from local to the presidential level. Chris graduated from Harvard University with a Bachelors degree in Government and lives in Alexandria, VA where he continues to volunteer and advocate on local civic issues.
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.
President, Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal and Economic Public Policy Studies
Lawrence J. Spiwak is President of the Phoenix Center for Advanced Legal & Economic Public Policy Studies, a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that studies broad public-policy issues related to governance, social and economic conditions, with a particular emphasis on the law and economics of the digital age. Mr. Spiwak is a prolific scholar whose work is frequently cited by policymakers, major news media and academic journals around the world, and is in the top 1.3%of authors downloaded on the Social Science Research Network. Mr. Spiwak currently serves as the co-chair of the Federal Communications Bar Association’s (FCBA) committee responsible for overseeing the FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS LAW JOURNAL and is a member of the program committee of the Telecommunications Policy Research Conference (“TPRC”). Mr. Spiwak is also the recipient of the FCBA’s Distinguished Service Award. Prior to joining the Phoenix Center, Mr. Spiwak was a Senior Attorney with the Competition Division in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel from 1994-1998. While in college, Mr. Spiwak was accepted into the Presidential Stay-In School program where he was responsible for delivering classified and confidential material among senior White House and Reagan Administration officials and received a full FBI security clearance. Mr. Spiwak received his B.A. with Special Honors from the George Washington University and his J.D. from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law. Mr. Spiwak is a member in good standing of the bars of New York, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.
Head of U.S. Policy and Strategic Advocacy, Electric Coin Company
Paul Brigner is the Head of U.S. Policy and Strategic Advocacy at the Electric Coin Company. He has served in senior level technology policy and government relations roles for the last eighteen years with another ten years of hands-on technical experience at the beginning his career after serving in the United States Army.
He holds an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University and a JD from the Georgetown University Law Center. He received a Bachelors degree from Stephen F. Austin State University where he was named the Outstanding Computer Science Graduate.
Senior Vice President, Strand Consult
Roslyn Layton, PhD is a leading international expert on technology policy. She is Senior Vice President of Strand Consult, an independent consultancy serving the global mobile telecom industry. She is also a Visiting Researcher at Aalborg University Copenhagen where she earned a doctoral thesis on network neutrality by measuring the outcome of the policy across 53 countries over 5 years. She served on the Presidential Transition Team for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and her work was critical to the FCC’s defense for the Restoring Internet Freedom Order. She has testified to the United States Senate and House on multiple topics including spectrum, broadband, mobile mergers, competition, and privacy. She founded the think tank China Tech Threat to study the problems of technology produced by the People’s Republic of China. She serves as the Program Chair for the Telecom Policy Research Conference, the leading interdisciplinary academic gathering. Her recent paper on rural broadband describes the empirical case for policy reform to recover network infrastructure costs from streaming video entertainment providers. She is a Senior Contributor to Forbes.
Partner, Cooley
Rob McDowell advises telecommunications, media and technology clients on their most significant regulatory, legal and business matters. As a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and a highly regarded industry leader, Rob has been at the forefront of the most complex and groundbreaking issues facing telecommunications.
Mr. McDowell was first appointed to the FCC by President George W. Bush in 2006 and again by President Obama in 2009. He was unanimously confirmed both times by the US Senate. During his tenure, Mr. McDowell led efforts to expand consumer access to spectrum through his work on the two largest wireless auctions in US history at the time, played a key role in the 2009 digital television transition and led efforts to establish the first federal civil rights rule in a generation by creating a ban on racially discriminatory practices in broadcast advertising. He also worked extensively on several large and complex mergers, including Sirius/XM and Comcast/NBC-Universal.
He is an advocate for internet freedom, serving on the US delegation to the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications and exposing an international bid to regulate vital aspects of the Internet through multilateral treaty-based organizations. Mr. McDowell authored an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal opposing multilateral internet regulation that led to a resolution passed unanimously in the House and Senate, as well as the ultimate defeat of the international bid at a treaty negation in Dubai later that year.
Prior to the FCC, Mr. McDowell was senior vice president for CompTel, the Competitive Telecommunications Association, where he led advocacy efforts before several government agencies, the White House and Congress.
Mr. McDowell is often called upon for speaking engagements and frequently appears on TV and radio. He has written opinion pieces for many high-profile publications, including the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post.
Founder and President, Salt Point Strategies
David Redl is the Founder and President of Salt Point Strategies, a strategic advising firm focused on the technology and telecom sectors. David is an attorney and former government executive with experience in both the legislative and executive branches of the U.S. government in the telecommunications, media, and technology fields.
David previously served as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. During his tenure, he led U.S. efforts to ensure American leadership in 5G, to bring broadband to more rural Americans, and to promote a free, open, and secure Internet around the world.
David also represented the United States in international forums, including leading U.S. efforts before the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and the International Telecommunication Union.
In the legislative branch, David served as Chief Counsel for Communications and Technology on the majority staff of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce. While at Energy and Commerce, he worked extensively on telecommunications, media, and technology laws, including the successful passage of laws authorizing the first-ever spectrum incentive auction, the creation of the First Responder Network Authority, and reauthorization of the satellite television laws.
Prior to his government service, David started his career as Director of Regulatory Affairs at CTIA, an international trade association of the wireless communications industry.
Mr. Redl received his B.A. in Journalism and his B.A. in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University and his J.D. from the Catholic University of America with a certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies. He is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars.
Partner, HWG LLP
Patricia Paoletta is a partner with the law firm of HWG LLP, where she specializes in telecommunications, trade and technology policy. Ms. Paoletta provides advice on regulatory, trade and legislative policy to clients before the FCC, Congress and the Administration. Her clients include providers of content, cloud, mobile broadband, VoIP, international telecommunications, small cells, cognitive radio, public safety and homeland security solutions. She serves on Advisory Boards for several entities engaged in information services, communications and technology.
Ms. Paoletta has accrued considerable experience with telecommunications trade and policy in the public sector. From 1990 to 1995, she was senior advisor to the International Bureau Chief and Office Director at the Federal Communications Commission. In the mid 1990s, Ms. Paoletta served as Director of Telecommunications Trade Policy in the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Executive Office of the President, where she worked on the WTO Information Technology Agreement (ITA) and the Basic Telecommunications Agreement. After USTR, Ms. Paoletta served as Majority Counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee. She then moved to Level 3 Communications, as Vice President, Government Relations.
Ms. Paoletta is on the Steering Committee of the Transatlantic Roundtable on Telecommunications and Information Technology of the European Institute. She is a member of the USTR Alumni Association, Washington International Trade Association, the Federal Communications Bar Association (FCBA), and Women in Technology. Ms. Paoletta has served on the Board of Advisors for the Inter-American Dialogue's Latin America Telecom Advisor, Co-Chairman of the American Bar Association International Communications Committee, and as a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Technology Policy Committee.
Ms. Paoletta served as a delegate in 2012 to the ITU-R's Study Group 6 Working Party 6A Meeting and in 2009 and 2010 to the ITU-R's Study Group I Working Party IB Meetings; the 2009 meetings of CITEL (the Committee on International Telecommunications at the Organization of American States) PCC-II; the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) World Telecommunications Standards Assembly (2000); the ITU Internet Protocol Telephony Experts Group and the ITU World Telecommunications Policy Forum in 2001; as Chairman of the National Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC) Steering Committee (2000-2001); as Board Member for the Voice on the Net Coalition (2001); as Co-Chairman of the FCBA's Annual Seminar Committee (2009-2011); as a member of the FCBA's Ad Hoc Speakers Committee (2006-2007); as Co-Chairman for the FCBA International Practice Committee (2001-2002 and 2005-2006); and as a Co-Chairman of the FCBA Legislative Practice Committee (1999-2000).
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.
The Broadband Economy – $42 Billion Infusion and a Newly-Minted Biden FCC: What lies ahead?
Erin Boone, Paul Gallant, John Lin, Patricia J. Paoletta, Arielle Roth, Greg Watson
Registration is now CLOSED. Join us on Tuesday, June 11th at 4:00 PM ET for...
Déjà Vu all over again? The Return of Network Neutrality
Justin (Gus) Hurwitz, Raymond Ku
In 2002, under Chairman Michael Powell, the FCC passed the Cable Modem Order which classified...
The Telecommunications Act at 25 Years: A Panel Discussion
Michelle P. Connolly, Harold W. Furchtgott-Roth, Chris Lewis, Randolph May
On February 8, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed into law the landmark Telecommunications Act of...
The Preemption Predicament Over Broadband Internet Access Services
Lawrence J. Spiwak
Note from the Editor: The Federalist Society takes no positions on particular legal and public...
Regulating a World Wide Web - Podcast
Paul Brigner, Roslyn Layton, Robert M. McDowell, David Redl, Patricia J. Paoletta
Net Neutrality has been the subject of intense policy discussion in recent years, but the...
What's the Download on Municipal Broadband? - Podcast
Charles M. Davidson, Randolph May, Christopher Mitchell, Rachael M. Bender
The role of municipally-owned and operated broadband networks in the United States has been the...