Senior Staff Changes at FCC

Federal Communications Commission Julius Genachowski announced today the appointment of Zachary Katz as Chief of Staff, as well as other senior staff changes. Katz will succeed Eddie Lazarus when he departs at the end of January.

Over the past three years, Katz has led a number of high-priority initiatives at the Commission, including the creation of the Connect America Fund, which brought sweeping reforms to the Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation programs. Katz has worked with technology companies at a strategy consulting and investment firm in Silicon Valley; developed an expertise on intellectual property, technology and media issues at a leading Los Angeles law firm; and worked in the White House.

In addition, Chairman Genachowski announced new roles and responsibilities for senior staff and named a new legal advisor:

• Sherrese Smith, currently Senior Counsel and Legal Advisor, will become Chief Counsel and Senior Legal Advisor. In this role, Ms. Smith will manage the Commission’s overall policy agenda, and will be responsible for policy coordination among the Bureaus and Offices. The new role builds on her broad experience leading major policy initiatives for the Commission, including her role driving the process that resulted in historic new policies under which wireless companies will provide voice, text and data usage alerts for over 97 percent of U.S mobile phone consumers.
• Josh Gottheimer will expand his responsibilities as Senior Counselor to the Chairman to focus on directing a new team at the Commission on public-private initiatives. This new role builds on Gottheimer’s leadership in the creation of several recent public-private partnerships, including Connect to Compete, a first-of-its-kind broadband adoption initiative with national digital literacy and low-cost broadband offerings; the FCC’s cybersecurity small business initiative, between government experts and private IT and security companies; a partnership with mobile carriers on the Personal Localized Alerting Network (PLAN), a new public safety emergency alerting system; and Jobs4America, an initiative that will bring more than 100,000 new and repatriated call center jobs to the U.S. over the next two years. Upcoming initiatives will harness the power of broadband to advance key national priorities such as jobs, health care, energy, public safety, and education.
• Amy Levine, currently Special Counsel and Legal Advisor, will become Senior Counsel and Legal Advisor. Ms. Levine will continue to have particular responsibility for the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau, and Office of Engineering and Technology. Her work includes supervising the agency’s spectrum auction policy and providing technical advice to Congress; managing wireless transaction reviews, including the proposed AT&T/T-Mobile and AT&T/Qualcomm transactions; and promoting the creation of a nationwide, interoperable public safety broadband network and deployment of E911 and NG911 technologies.
• Michael Steffen will join the Chairman’s office as Legal Advisor to the Chairman with particular responsibility for wireline, international, and Internet issues, including universal service, open Internet, and satellite matters. Mr. Steffen currently serves as Special Counsel in the Office of General Counsel, where he has helped coordinate the Commission’s Universal Service Fund and Intercarrier Compensation reforms and other priority projects.