Acting FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel moves Michele Ellison to acting general counsel and Joel Taubenblatt to Wireless Bureau acting chief; Tom Johnson steps down as general counsel and continues at FCC, now at Wireless Bureau, where outgoing Chief Don Stockdale moves to Office of Economics and Analytics; Rosenworcel also makes staff appointments and "special designations to the Office of the Chairwoman": acting Chief of Staff Travis Litman, acting Chief Policy Adviser Kate Black and acting Chief Counsel Umair Javed, all worked in her commissioner's office; acting Special Adviser to the Chairwoman D’wana Terry, who remains acting director, Office of Workplace Diversity; acting Special Adviser to the Chairwoman Sanford Williams, who remains director, Office of Communications Business Opportunities; acting Special Adviser to the Chairwoman Trent Harkrader, also remaining deputy chief, Wireline Bureau; acting Legal Adviser-Media Holly Saurer, joining from Media Bureau; acting Legal Adviser-Consumer, Enforcement and International David Strickland, from Enforcement Bureau; acting Legal Adviser-Wireline Ramesh Nagarajan, from Wireline Bureau; acting Legal Adviser-Wireless and Public Safety Ethan Lucarelli, from Wireless Bureau; acting Staff Assistant Aurelle Porter, from then-Commissioner Rosenworcel’s office; and acting Confidential Assistant Andi Roane, who worked for office of Commissioner Nathan Simington.
Department of Agriculture names Justin Maxson, who has led Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation, deputy undersecretary-rural development, overseeing agencies including Rural Utilities Service, which itself hasn't named a head ... Department of Commerce names Christopher Hoff deputy assistant secretary-services, a job that Information Technology Industry Council notes "will oversee U.S. negotiations on a new data transfer agreement following the invalidation of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework by the European Court of Justice" in Schrems II ... Kelley Drye moves Steve Augustino to lead Communications practice, succeeding John Heitmann, who remains a partner at the firm.
Leaving the FCC is Evan Swarztrauber, policy adviser to former Chairman Ajit Pai, whose last day was Wednesday; among others leaving agency after Pai's departure are spokesperson Brian Hart ... President Joe Biden names acting agency leaders including at Department of Homeland Security, David Pekoske; DOJ, Monty Wilkinson (also see below in this section for more on the department); NASA, Steve Jurczyk; OMB, Rob Fairweather; Office of Personnel Management, Kathy McGettigan; Small Business Administration, Tami Perriello; and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, Maria Pagan.
Manatt Phelps hires as managing directors, both from Sanctum Insights, Jen Millard and Kalon Gutierrez; and new partner is Farnaz Alemi, ex-MPA; all join Digital and Technology group ... SpaceLink names Tony Colucci, ex-Rockwell International, as chief strategy and commercial officer; Larry Rubin, ex-Space Systems Loral, where Colucci also worked, as chief operating officer; Rob Singh, ex-Maxar Technologies, which acquired SSL, as chief technology officer; and David Lihani, ex-Astrolabe Enterprises, as general counsel ... Isotropic Systems, broadband terminal technology developer, hires Indira Hann, ex-Amadeus, as general counsel.
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr adds as policy adviser Greg Watson, ex-White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, where he "led efforts to increase broadband access through the American Broadband Initiative" ... Nebraska Public Service Commissioners elects for coming year: as chair, Dan Watermeier, and vice chair Tim Schram, who also is co-vice chair, NARUC Telecom Committee.
President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announce transition spokesperson TJ Ducklo as incoming administration's deputy press secretary; before the Biden campaign, Ducklo was senior communications director at NBC News and ex-MPA; Biden also taps New York City Emergency Management Department Commissioner Deanne Criswell for Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator; and Biden picks Eric Lander as director, Office of Science and Technology Policy and presidential science adviser, who will be a Cabinet member for the first time; Lander is founding director, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard and during Obama administration was external co-chair, President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology; Kei Koizumi named OSTP chief of staff and Narda Jones, ex-Senate Commerce Committee and FCC before that, for OSTP legislative affairs director.
O’Melveny hires data privacy and policy expert Tod Cohen, ex-Twitter, as partner ... Connected Nation promotes Heather Gate to vice president-digital inclusion ... Discovery hires Michele Barney from AT&T as president-affiliate distribution ... Qualcomm hires Luiz Tonisi from Nokia as president, Qualcomm Latin America and vice president, Qualcomm Servicos de Telecomunicacoes.
George Mason University Mercatus Center adds outgoing FTC General Counsel Alden Abbott as senior research fellow ... Public Knowledge names Montana Williams, ex-Evans & Associates, policy fellow ... President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris announce more National Security Council members, with new post of deputy national security adviser-cyber and emerging technology; Anne Neuberger, who led NSA election security, becomes director-cybersecurity ... Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency's Kevin Benacci says he's joining Targeted Victory, reportedly as vice president-corporate practice, working on cybersecurity.
Center for Democracy & Technology adds Samir Jain, ex-Jones Day, as director-policy; and Ari Goldberg from Bipartisan Policy Center as director-communications ... Facebook hires civil rights attorney Roy Austin from Harris Wiltshire to start "civil rights organization" as vice president-civil rights and deputy general counsel ... NPR CEO John Lansing hires Leora Hanser from U.S. Soccer Foundation to join NPR Feb. 1 as chief development officer.
Internet Association hires NCTA Chief Operating Officer Dane Snowden as president-CEO, effective Feb. 1 ... NCTA President-CEO Michael Powell promotes Nilda Gumbs to chief of staff, a job Snowden did previously, joining the executive office and taking on similar responsibilities to Snowden's; Mark Kulish moves up to chief administrative and financial officer ... CTIA advances to assistant vice presidents: Benjamin Aron for state regulatory affairs; Jen Oberhausen, regulatory affairs; and Melanie Tiano, cybersecurity and privacy.