Montana Public Service Commission elects James Brown chairman, succeeding Bob Lake, term-limited after eight years at the agency; Brad Johnson reelected vice chair; and Brown and Jennifer Fielder join the PSC after being elected to four-year terms, to which Tony O’Donnell was reelected; all those commissioners are Republicans ... At Arizona Corporation Commission, Lea Marquez Peterson (R) elected chair, saying her immediate priorities include helping bring broadband "to rural communities through a broadband transition of the Arizona Universal Service Fund High-Cost Fund"; meanwhile, Marquez Peterson is sworn in for a four-year term, as are new Commissioners Anna Tovar (D) and Jim O’Connor (R); for more on the new members, see our report here.
NARUC Telecom Committee member and ex-chair and current South Dakota Public Utilities Commissioner-Vice Chairman Chris Nelson elected chairman of the PUC; Commissioner Kristie Fiegen picked for vice chairperson ... California Public Utilities Commission moves Rachel Peterson to executive director, which she did on an acting basis ... MPA hires Conor McGrath from office of Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., as vice president-federal affairs.
Hudson Institute adds Mike O’Rielly, ex-FCC commissioner, as a visiting fellow in its Center for the Economics of the Internet ... Internet Association hires Amy Bos from National Association of Realtors as director-federal government affairs ... Comcast's Sky Group CEO Jeremy Darroch moves to executive chairman, Sky; Comcast Cable President-Consumer Services Dana Strong succeeds him, promoted to group CEO of Sky, reporting to Comcast Chairman-CEO Brian Roberts.
Davis Wright adds satellite and telecom lawyer Lafayette Greenfield from Milbank as partner ... Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council hires Fallon Wilson, UmanityEDU founder, as vice president-policy, leading MMTC’s work on technology, data privacy, artificial intelligence and digital-age civil rights; infrastructure, broadband connectivity and digital inclusion; and multicultural media ownership and content diversity ... Herman & Whiteaker promotes Clare Liedquist Andonov to principal, focusing on wireless and wireline broadband, auctions and communications tower compliance ... Access Partnership appoints Dileep Srihari from CompTIA as senior policy counsel, U.S. team.
With Callie Strock leaving House Commerce Committee to be communications director for new Rep. Young Kim, R-Calif., Olivia Hnat joins the committee as communications director, named by incoming ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., whose office she worked for; McMorris Rodgers also makes other appointments: see here and this section of a forthcoming issue of this publication for more details ... At Fletcher Heald, Davina Sashkin elected co-managing member, joining current co-managing members Matthew McCormick and Dan Kirkpatrick; Sashkin takes vacancy from Michelle McClure having left the law firm for Spire Global (see this section, April 3).
Hudson Institute promotes John Walters to president-CEO, succeeding Kenneth Weinstein, who becomes Walter P. Stern Distinguished Fellow ... Presidio taps Covetrus' Christine Komola, also ex-Staples, as chief financial officer, succeeding Neil Johnston, departing after transition ... Model N, cloud revenue management solutions provider, hires John Ederer, from K2 Software, as chief financial officer ... OpenText promotes Prentiss Donohue to executive vice president-sales, small- and medium-size business and consumer ... Criteo taps Brendan McCarthy, ex-Nielsen, as chief marketing officer.
FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington appoints Jonathan Cannon, from Wireline Bureau, as acting wireline adviser ... SMPTE elects Hans Hoffmann, European Broadcasting Union head-media fundamentals and production, to two-year term as president, beginning Jan. 1 ... The FCC appoints to the Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service: Michael Caron, Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority; Karen Charles Peterson, Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable; and Brandon Presley, Mississippi Public Service Commission.
Perkins Coie hires Brendan Sasso, ex-clerk for Judge Richard Andrews of U.S. District Court for Delaware, as associate in the law firm's data security practice ... E.W. Scripps promotes Jason Combs to chief financial officer, effective upon completing takeover of Ion Media; Combs replaces Lisa Knutson, who will lead combined businesses of Ion, Katz networks and Newsy (see this section, Oct. 19) ... Sinclair advances in Broadcast Group: Paul Nesterovsky to senior vice president-tax; Ethan Haire, vice president-associate general counsel; Dan Gallagher, operations controller; Derek Nance, corporate controller; and Mike Reed and Andrew Schnell, assistant vice presidents-corporate development; and in Television Group: Cathy Jamison to senior vice president-marketing; Dan Mellon, senior vice president-sales transformation; Antonia DeFeo, vice president-agency solutions; Jason Smith, vice president-chief of staff; and Skip Flenniken, assistant vice president-business development … WOW names Rose Jerez, ex-Fox, vice president-customer success … Wells Fargo hires Michelle Moore from Boston Consulting Group as digital platform leader.
SpyCloud hires Len Crosson, ex-Coronet, as chief revenue officer ... StradVision, supplier of artificial intelligence software for autonomous vehicles, hires Toshihiro Sato from Integrated Silicon Solution as head-sales, Japan ... Samsara industrial IoT company adds BlackRock co-founder Susan Wagner and Jonathan Chadwick, ex-VMWare, to the board ... Innovega appoints former AT&T smartphone executive Jeff Bradley to the board.
Texas Public Utility Commissioners vote to promote Thomas Gleeson to executive director, replacing JP Urban, resigned (see this section, Dec. 14); ex-adviser to the executive director Paytyn Woltersdorf joins Chairman DeAnn Walker’s office as adviser, effective Jan. 1 ... Cornell Tech's Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute taps Rit Aggarwala for Urban Tech Hub as senior urban tech fellow, leading new initiative of creating an urban tech agenda for New York City; he was head of urban systems at Sidewalk Labs, where he remains senior adviser ... Lingo completes acquisition of Lingo of Kentucky and Tempo Telecom, naming from those companies Vincent Oddo as president-CEO and Bill Morris for chief financial officer.