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Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein
https://www.digitalbridge.com/about#about-leadership
Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein is a Managing Director and Head of Global Policy and Public Investment at DigitalBridge Investment Management. In this role, Mr. Adelstein works with all DigitalBridge portfolio companies on public policy and strategic regulatory matters and reviews policy impacts on potential investments.
Prior to joining DigitalBridge, Mr. Adelstein was President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association (WIA), where he represented over 200 businesses that build, own, and operate wireless infrastructure, including infrastructure owners, developers, carriers, and professional service firms.
Prior to WIA, Mr. Adelstein was nominated to positions by both President Barack Obama and President George W. Bush and confirmed unanimously for each by the U.S. Senate. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein headed the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Utilities Service as Administrator. There, he led the investment of nearly $7 billion under the Recovery Act in rural broadband and water infrastructure and oversaw a $60 billion loan portfolio in rural electric, telecommunications, and water infrastructure. Under President Obama, Mr. Adelstein was appointed to the White House National Science and Technology Council, which coordinates science and technology policy across the Federal government, and the White House Business Council, leading Council meetings with business leaders across America.
Mr. Adelstein was nominated by President Bush and served as Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2002 to 2009. At the FCC, he worked to achieve bipartisan progress on issues including spectrum auctions, broadband expansion, widening access to the Internet and media diversity.
Before the FCC, Mr. Adelstein served at the U.S. Senate, in a number of legislative staff positions, culminating as a senior policy advisor to the Senate Majority Leader.
Mr. Adelstein received an M.A. in History and a B.A., with Distinction, in Political Science from Stanford University. He instructed undergraduates in history as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and a Teaching Assistant at Stanford University. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Andover.
Robert Branson
https://www.mmtconline.org/staff/
Robert E. Branson. Esq. 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 joining MMTC, Mr. Branson served as Of Counsel at Empire Consulting Group a strategic business and public policy firm serving leading technology, wireless, broadcast and other industry clients. He brings his unique perspective as someone who has worked inside and outside government and who understands the challenges ahead in the diverse world we are creating in corporate America.
In his corporate career, most recently, he was an Associate General Counsel with Verizon Communications. In that position, he had various responsibilities, including the 5G rollout in the Washington, DC area, privacy regulations, and relationship building with leaders in the federal and state governments. He also coordinated with trade associations and internally with other legal, public policy and business groups.
He has been the General Counsel of the Association of Local Television Stations, Chief Legal Counsel of Post-Newsweek Stations and an Assistant General Counsel at the National Association of Broadcasters. He also has worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a Senior Legal Advisor to a Commissioner.
Mr. Branson has served as President of the Federal Communications Bar Association where he has gotten to know many of the leaders at the FCC, NTIA, FTC and other federal agencies. 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 named an Honorary Trustee after his service. He was a member of the Boards of the Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia and the Hayride to Help Others in Washington, DC.
Mr. Branson received his law degree from Harvard University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia.
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. 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.
Commissioner Carr’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 the United States Senate.
Commissioner Carr lives in Virginia with his wife and three children.
Dr. Ronald Johnson
Dr. Ronald Johnson is the Chair of the MMTC 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 US 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 twenty years as the owner of Ronson Network Services, a provider of communication infrastructure services.
Hon. William Kennard
William E. Kennard has had a distinguished career in both the public and private sectors. President Bill Clinton appointed Kennard to serve as Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in 1997. He presided over the agency at an historic time. During his tenure, he shaped policies that created an explosion of new wireless phones, brought the Internet to a majority of American households, and resulted in billions of dollars of investment in new broadband technologies. At the same time, he implemented bold new policies to bridge the digital divide in the United States and around the world.
President Barack Obama appointed him to serve as the United States Ambassador to the European Union in 2009. As Ambassador to the European Union, Kennard made reinvigorating the U.S.-EU economic relationship and eliminating regulatory barriers his top priorities. He also helped to cement close U.S.-EU coordination on a range of common foreign policy priorities, including the Balkans, Libya, the political transitions in the Middle East, and the adoption of historic nuclear non-proliferation sanctions against Iran and North Korea.
As FCC Chairman, Kennard became well known for advocating for people at risk of being stranded on the wrong side of the digital divide. He implemented the FCC’s e-rate program, which brought the Internet to disadvantaged schools and libraries. Under Kennard’s leadership, the FCC dramatically expanded access to communications technologies for people with disabilities. The FCC also adopted pioneering new policies to increase telephone service to rural areas, especially to Native Americans living on tribal lands. He worked to create more ownership and employment opportunities for women and minorities in the communications sector.
U.S. News & World Report dubbed Kennard a “consumer champion for the digital age.” He has received many honors and awards for his accomplishments, including honorary degrees from Howard University, Gallaudet University and Long Island University and awards from the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, the Easter Seals Foundation, and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. In 2020, he received the Award of Merit from Yale Law School, which is the school’s highest honor. In 2021, he received the American Horizon Award from the Media Institute.
In the private sector, Kennard has spent his career working in the financial services industry. Before joining the Obama Administration, he was a Partner and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm, where he led investments in the telecommunications and media sectors. Upon returning to the U.S. after his service as an Ambassador, Kennard co-founded Astra Capital Management, a private equity firm based in Washington, DC.
Kennard has served on the boards of numerous public and private companies and nonprofit organizations. He currently serves as Chairman of the board of directors of AT&T, Inc. He also serves on the boards of directors of Ford Motor Company and MetLife, Inc. He is member of the board of trustees of Yale University.
Kennard is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Law School. He and his wife, Deborah Kennedy Kennard (Yale Law School, Class of 1979), divide their time between Charleston and Washington, DC.
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. Nathan Simington
https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/nathan-simington
Hon. Nathan Simington was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. He was confirmed by the United States Senate in 2020.
Commissioner Simington brings both private and public-sector experience to the Commission. Previously, he served as Senior Advisor at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA.) In this role, he worked on many aspects of telecommunications policy, including spectrum allocation and planning, broadband access, and the US Government’s role in the Internet. Prior to joining the Commission, he was senior counsel to Brightstar Corp., an international mobile device services company. In this capacity, he led and negotiated telecommunications equipment and services transactions with leading providers in over twenty countries. Prior to joining Brightstar, he worked as an attorney in private practice.
Commissioner Simington is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School. He also holds degrees from the University of Rochester and Lawrence University.
Commissioner Simington grew up in Saskatchewan, Canada. He became a United States citizen and now lives in McLean, Virginia with his wife and three kids.
Hon. Geoffrey Starks
https://www.fcc.gov/about/leadership/geoffrey-starks
FCC Commissioner Geoffrey Starks believes that communications technology has the potential to be one of the most powerful forces on Earth for promoting equality and opportunity. To unlock that potential, however, all Americans must have access. From combatting internet inequality to advocating for diversity in employment, entrepreneurship, and media ownership, Commissioner Starks fights for policies designed to ensure that modern communications technology empowers every American.
Because high-quality broadband is essential to participating in our economy and society, Commissioner Starks has been a champion for the millions of Americans who lack access to or cannot afford a home internet connection. As a native Kansan, he understands the communications needs of rural America. He has consistently advocated for broadband deployment that helps rural communities tap into economic and educational opportunities that may not be close to home, which both encourages young people to stay and attracts new residents and employers.
Bringing a wealth of enforcement experience to the Commission, Commissioner Starks advocates for consumer protection and accountability, particularly in managing the Universal Service Fund. Before he was appointed Commissioner, Starks helped lead the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau, handling a wide variety of complex investigations. At the Department of Justice, he served as a senior advisor to the Deputy Attorney General on a variety of domestic and international law enforcement matters and received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service—the highest honor award a DOJ employee can receive.
Commissioner Starks is also a leader on national security policy, working to eliminate untrustworthy equipment from America’s communications networks. His Find It, Fix It, Fund It initiative brought national attention to the urgent need to support small and rural companies as they work to make their networks more secure. With regard to personal data security, while Commissioner Starks fully supports the promise of advanced wireless service and other cutting-edge technologies—and works to ensure that all communities share in the benefits of these advancements—he also fully appreciates the potentially intrusive powers of some communications technologies and is vigilant to ensure against any uses of those powers that would promote illegal discrimination or compromise personal privacy.
Before he entered federal public service, Commissioner Starks practiced law at Williams & Connolly, clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, served as a legislative staffer in the Illinois State Senate, and worked as a financial analyst. Commissioner Starks graduated from Harvard College with high honors and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Lauren, and their two children.
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.
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