Obama to Tap Tech Adviser as FCC Chief
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"Keeper of Secrets???"
HARVARD:
Julius Genachowski, a classmate of Obama in law school who was former chief of council to the FCC, has been selected as one of the leaders of a group that will work on technology, innovation, and government reform for the administration, including net neutrality.
The Harvard Law School alumus has often been named as one of the top candidates for FCC chairman under the Obama administration.
Genachowski is credited with recommending that Obama use the power of the internet to organize support and is an advisor on the Obama-Biden Transition Project Advisory Board.
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Julius Genachowski --- Columbia and Harvard
Jan 13, 2009
This time, the post is chairman of the FCC, which has been in censorship overdrive ever since Janet-Jackson-boob-gate, and the nominee is Julius Genachowski, CC '85.
Genachowski not only overlapped with Obama's two years at Columbia, but also was his Harvard law school classmate, working under Obama at the Harvard Law Review. He has already served as General Consul Counsel to the FCC in the mid 90s, but is in fact best known for his technology experience, including "spearheading Obama's online campaign strategy, which used social networking and other tools to spread Obama's campaign message and raise record campaign contributions."
Few people realize Genachowski was at both Columbia College and Harvard with Obama.
Julius Genachowski
***Genachowski not only overlapped with Obama's two years at Columbia College (class of '85), but also was his Harvard law school classmate, working under Obama at the Harvard Law Review (as notes editor).
***Genachowski is credited for spearheading Obama's online campaign strategy, which used social networking and other tools to spread Obama's campaign message and raise record campaign contributions. WaPo
***He was a top bundler for Obama (over $500,000)
Net Neutrality For Campaign Donors ( Top Donor awarded FCC chairman position )
***Proponent of Net Neutrality During the campaign Mr. Genachowski shaped many of Mr. Obama’s telecommunications and technology policies. He advocated an open Internet in the debate over so-called net neutrality, and media ownership rules that promoted a diversity of voices on the airwaves. NYT
Over the last decade, the chairman of the F.C.C. has played a more expansive role in regulating the economy, particularly with the rise of the Internet and wireless communications. Now, as the new administration plans to make the expansion of broadband and Internet services a significant part of its stimulus package, Mr. Genachowski, with his close ties to Mr. Obama, could have a larger role in shaping economic policy than many of his predecessors. NYT
BIO Highlights
Born August 19, 1962, Genachowski, the son of Eastern European Jews who fled during the Holocaust, grew up in Great Neck, NY. His father, having fled Nazi-occupied Belgium came to the US and studied engineering at MIT.
Genachowski attended yeshiva (Jewish religious school) through high school and studied in Israel before enrolling in Columbia College.
After receiving his BA in history, magna cum laude, in 1985, Genachowski decided to postpone law school and go to work for then-Congressman Charles Schumer (D-NY). His time on Capitol Hill also included work on the staff of the special Congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair.
Upon receiving his JD in 1991, magna cum laude, from Harvard, he married that same year Boston journalist Martha Raddatz (who was previously married to Ben Bradlee III, son of the longtime Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee). They later divorced.
Genachowski's first position was as clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Obama had turned down a clerkship with Judge Mikva.
Mr. Genachowski later clerked for Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and David H. Souter.
He was chief counsel to Reed Hundt, an F.C.C. chairman during the Clinton administration.
He then worked for eight years as a senior executive at the IAC/Interactive Corporation, run by Barry Diller.
He also founded Rock Creek Ventures, an investment and advisory firm for digital media companies and co-founded the country’s first commercial “green” bank.
Genachowski is currently married to Rachel Goslins, a copyright-lawyer-turned documentary filmmaker. The couple has two children and Genachowski has a son from his first marriage.
SOURCES: NYT, AllGov, Muckety, USA Today
I added this research to the Threat Matrix thread in May 2010