Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein
https://www.twncomm.com/2024/04/24/twn-communications-appoints-jonathan-adelstein- as-executive-vice-president-chief-strategy-and-external-affairs-officer
Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein serves as the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy and External AffairsOfficer. Prior to joining TWN, Adelstein served as a Managing Director with DigitalBridge , a successful asset manager focused on digital infrastructure, including fiber and wireless broadband. Before DigitalBridge, he served for ten years as the CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association. His previous experience includes serving as the head of the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, seven years as an FCC Commissioner, and as a key staff member in the US Senate.
Adelstein holds an MA in History and a BA with honors in Political Science from Stanford University. He attended Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard and a Teaching Assistant at Stanford.
Hon. Brendan Carr
www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/brendan-carr
Hon. Brendan Carr is the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and he served previously as the agency’s General Counsel.
Described by Axios as “the FCC’s 5G crusader,” Carr has led the FCC’s work to modernize its infrastructure rules and accelerate the buildout of high-speed networks. His reforms cut billions of dollars in red tape, enabled the private sector to construct high-speed networks in communities across the country, and extended America’s global leadership in 5G.
Commissioner Carr is also focused on expanding America’s skilled workforce—the tower climbers and construction crews needed to build next-gen networks. His jobs initiative promotes community colleges and apprenticeships as a pipeline for good-paying 5G jobs. And he is recognizing America’s talented and hardworking tower crews through a series of “5G Ready” Hard Hat presentations.
Commissioner Carr leads a groundbreaking telehealth initiative at the FCC. The Connected Care Pilot Program supports the delivery of high-quality care to low-income Americans and veterans. CommissionerCarr’s time outside of Washington helps inform his approach to the job. He regularly hits the road to hear directly from the community members, local leaders, and small business owners that are impacted by the FCC’s policies at town halls and events across the country.
Commissioner Carr brings nearly 20 years of private and public sector experience in communications and tech policy to his position. Before joining the agency as a staffer back in 2012, he worked as an attorney at Wiley Rein LLP in the firm’s appellate, litigation, and telecom practices.Previously, Commissioner Carr clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for Judge Dennis Shedd. And after attending Georgetown University for his undergrad, Commissioner Carr earned his J.D. magna cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where he served as an editor of the Catholic University Law Review. Commissioner Carr was nominated to the FCC by President Trump and confirmed unanimously by theUnited States Senate.
Commissioner Carr lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.
Hon. Mignon Clyburn
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm8718524/bio
Hon. Mignon Clyburn is President of MLC Strategies, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, a position she has held since January 2019. Previously, Ms. Clyburn served as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2018, including as acting chair. While at the FCC, she was committed to closing the digital divide and championed the modernization of the agency’s Lifeline Program, which assists low-income consumers with voice and broadband service. In addition, Ms. Clyburn promoted diversity in media ownership, initiated Inmate Calling Services reforms, supported inclusion in STEM opportunities and fought for an Open Internet. Prior to her federal appointment, Ms. Clyburn served 11 years on the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and worked for nearly 15 years as publisher of the Coastal Times, a Charleston weekly newspaper focused on the African American community.
Ms. Clyburn is a director and member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: CHRA) since March 2019.
Hon. Michael Copps
https://www.commoncause.org/people/michael-copps
From 2001 to 2011, Hon. Michael Copps served as a member of the Federal Communications Commission, where his tenure was marked by a consistent embrace of the public interest. As a strong voice in opposition to consolidation in the media, Copps dissented in the FCC vote on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger. He has been a consistent proponent of localism in programming and diversity in media ownership. Though retired from the Commission, he has maintained a commitment to an inclusive, informative media landscape. In addition to his work at Common Causes, he sits on the boards of Free Press and Public Knowledge.
Before joining the FCC, Copps served as assistant secretary of commerce for trade development at the Department of Commerce and chief of staff to U.S. Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC) from the early 1970s to 1983. He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Hon. Reed Hunt
Hon. Reed Hundt is co-founder, former chairman and CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports, and advocates for green banks to invest in the clean power platform.
Hundt was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1993-97. Previously he was a partner at Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. He is a member of the District of Columbia bar. Since 1997 he has advised several venture capital and private equity firms, and served on more than two dozen for-profit and not-for-profit boards and commissions, including 19 years on the board of Intel Corporation (2001-20) and seven years on the board of the Connecticut Green Bank (2011-18). He also taught at Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management.
Hundt has written many articles and four books: A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama’s Defining Decisions (Rosetta, 2019); Zero Hour: Time to Build the Clean Power Platform (Odyssey, 2013); The Politics of Abundance: How Technology Can Fix the Budget, Revive the American Dream, and Establish Obama’s Legacy (Odyssey, 2012); In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (Yale University Press, 2006); You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (Yale University Press, 2000).
Mr. Hundt has a B.A. from Yale College (1969) and J.D. from Yale Law School (1974). He lives in Chevy Chase, MD., and Portola Valley, CA. He is married to Elizabeth Katz and has three children: Adam, Nathaniel, and Sara.
Dr. Ronald Johnson
Dr. Ronald Johnson is the Chair and Treasurer of MMTC’s Board of Directors. Dr. Johnson’s company, Solutions4Change, provides analytics that strategically aligns millions of procurement dollars between the telecommunications industry and diverse suppliers. He served on the Obama-Biden Transition team as subject matter expert at the U.S. Department of Commerce. He served two terms on the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Diversity in the Digital Age as chair of its Subcommittee on Procurement Best Practices Effecting Diverse Suppliers. He is serving in his sixteenth year as Commissioner/Secretary of the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority, where he has assisted with the placement of billions of dollars in industrial revenue bonds. He has served five Virginia Governors in appointed positions to include the Southern Technology Council, Transportation Advisory board, Rector of Virginia State University’s Board of Visitors, Vice Chairman of the Virginia Department of Agriculture. Dr. Johnson also spent 20 years as the owner of Ronson Network Services, a provider of communication infrastructure services.
Hon. Ajit Pai
Hon. Ajit Pai, a former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), is a nonresident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he focuses on issues pertaining to technology and innovation, telecommunications regulatory policy, and market-based incentives for investment in broadband deployment. Concurrently, he is a partner at Searchlight Capital Partners, a global investment firm.
Mr. Pai’s distinguished career at the FCC includes two leadership roles following presidential appointments. He was appointed commissioner by President Barack Obama in 2012, designated chairman by President Donald Trump in 2017, and twice confirmed by the US Senate. While at the helm of the FCC, Mr. Pai had a transformative impact on the future of US technology and communications policy, implementing major initiatives to help close the digital divide; advance US leadership in 5G and other wireless technologies; promote innovation; protect consumers, public safety, and national security; and make the agency itself more open, transparent, and data-driven.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Pai served in various public-sector positions in the FCC’s Office of General Counsel, the US Department of Justice, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, and the US District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. He also worked as a partner at Jenner & Block and associate general counsel at Verizon Communications.
Mr. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University, where he received a bachelor’s degree, and from the University of Chicago Law School, where he received a law degree and was an editor on the University of Chicago Law Review.
Hon. Deborah Taylor Tate
Hon. Deborah Taylor Tate, a two-time former Presidential appointee, previously served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 2006-2009.
As an FCC Commissioner, Tate was a policy leader in international media, telecommunications, and broadband policy serving as a U.S. World Radio Conference Presidential Designee, Chairman of both the Joint Federal-State USF and the Advanced Telecommunications Boards.
Known as the “Children’s Commissioner”, Tate was named the first “Special Envoy” to the International Telecommunications Commission for Child Online Protection, co-recipient of the world Telecommunications and Information Society Day Laureate and also co-chaired the Healthy Media Commission with Geena Davis. She has served over a decade on the Board of Directors of Healthstream, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSTM). Tate has been a champion for mental/behavioral health issues and most recently as the former Administrator for the Tennessee Supreme Court and CEO of the state court system, was appointed Co-chair of the National Judiciary Opioid Task Force, logging over 25,000 miles to combat the opioid crisis. Last month she helped launch the first TN Justice Bus to bring legal services to rural Tennesseans and received the Justice Holder Access to Justice Award. Ms. Tate has been a Vice Chair of MMTC since 2009, is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee Bar, a certified Mediator and served on numerous nonprofit boards and commissions including the Free State Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies. She is a frequent lecturer and adjunct professor at universities and law schools.
Hon. Richard E. Wiley
https://www.wiley.law/people-DickWiley
Hon. Richard E. Wiley, the co-founder and name partner of the firm, Wiley Rein, has received numerous accolades throughout his storied career, including being named a Washington “Visionary” by The National Law Journal, the “most influential media and telecommunications lawyer in the United States” by the International Herald Tribune, one of the top “100 Men of the Century” by Broadcasting & Cable, and the “Father of High-Definition” television by The Globe and Mail. As Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Mr. Wiley fostered increased competition and lessened regulation in the communications field. He played a pivotal role in the development of HDTV in this country, serving for nine years as Chairman of the FCC’s Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service. He has represented a number of major communications-oriented organizations, including Verizon, AT&T, JP Morgan, Credit Suisse, Newspaper Association of America, Motorola, CBS, Belo, Gannett, Sirius/XM, Emmis, Gray Television, and LG. He also is a frequent author and lecturer on telecommunications and information law.
Robert Branson
https://www.mmtconline.org/staff
Robert E. Branson is the President and CEO of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a non-partisan, national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecom and broadband industries, and closing the digital divide.
Prior to MMTC, he was an Associate General Counsel with Verizon.
He has been the GC of the Association of Local Television Stations and of Post-Newsweek Stations. He also has worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a Senior Legal Advisor.
Branson has served as President of the Federal Communications Bar Association. He is a two-time recipient of the FCBA Distinguished Service Award. He has championed diversity and inclusion in the Bar and has lead several efforts to expand the pipeline my mentoring and working to assist the careers of numerous people in the industry and government. In part based on these efforts, he has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from MMTC.
He has served on the Board of Trustees at Simmons University in Boston and was a member of the Boards of the Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia.