SB QST @ ARL $ARLB011
ARLB011 President Obama Nominates Financier and Former Telecom
Executive Tom Wheeler as FCC Chairman
ZCZC AG11
QST de W1AW
ARRL Bulletin 11 ARLB011
From ARRL Headquarters
Newington CT May 2, 2013
To all radio amateurs
SB QST ARL ARLB011
ARLB011 President Obama Nominates Financier and Former Telecom
Executive Tom Wheeler as FCC Chairman
On Wednesday, May 1, President Barack Obama announced that he has
nominated Tom Wheeler to be the new Chairman of the Federal
Communications Commission. If the Senate confirms the nomination,
Wheeler will replace Julius Genachowski who announced his
resignation from the FCC in March. Pending Wheeler's confirmation,
FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn -- the agency's soon-to-be senior
Democrat -- will serve as the Commission's acting chairman.
Wheeler, 67, has served as an informal adviser to Obama in recent
years and has been a major fundraiser for his political campaigns.
He has a background as a venture capitalist and as a lobbyist for
the communications industry. He is the former President of the
National Cable Television Association (NCTA, now known as National
Cable & Telecommunications Association) and former Chief Executive
Officer of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association
(CTIA). Currently, he is a Managing Director at Core Capital
Partners, a venture capital firm in Washington, DC.
Obama, who made the announcement from the State Dining Room in the
White House, said that Wheeler "has been at the forefront of some of
the very dramatic changes that we've seen in the way we communicate
and how we live our lives. He was one of the leaders of a company
that helped create thousands of good, high-tech jobs. He's in charge
of the group that advises the FCC on the latest technology issues.
He's helped give American consumers more choices and better
products."
As technology continues to shape the way that Americans do business
and communicate, Obama said that Wheeler will help the FCC fulfill a
very important mission: "[Wheeler will give] businesses and workers
the tools they need to compete in the 21st century economy, and
making sure we're staying at the cutting edge of an industry that
again and again we've revolutionized here in America."
Currently, Wheeler is Chairman of the FCC's Technological Advisory
Council and Chairman of the State Department's Advisory Committee on
International Communications and Information Policy (ACICIP).
Wheeler was a fundraiser for Obama during both his 2008 and 2012
campaigns. In 2009, Wheeler led the Obama-Biden Transition Project's
Agency Review Working Group that was responsible for the science,
technology, space and arts agencies. Wheeler has served on the
President's Intelligence Advisory Board since 2011.
Wheeler is the author of Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails, a book on Abraham
Lincoln's use of the telegraph. "Mr Wheeler has experienced the
revolution in telecommunications as both a policy expert and
advocate, as well as a businessman," states the author page for Mr.
Lincoln's T-Mails. "As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start
multiple companies offering new cable, wireless and video
communications services. As a policy expert he has been intimately
engaged in the development of the government's telecommunications
policy at both the legislative and regulatory level."
Also in March, FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell -- a Republican --
announced his resignation. There has been no announcement by the
White House as to who will be nominated to replace McDowell,
although it is not unusual for nominations to fill Republican and
Democrat vacancies to be paired, smoothing their way through the
confirmation process.
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Topic: Obama Nominates Tom Wheeler as FCC Chairman (Read 1942 times)
