Best Best law firm hires technology and telecom expert John Gasparini, ex-Public Knowledge, as associate, Municipal Law and Telecom practices ... BSA|The Software Alliance hires Shaundra Watson, ex-office of FTC then-Chairwoman Edith Ramirez, as director-policy, working on privacy and artificial intelligence issues ... Business Roundtable adds from the Center for Strategic and International Studies Denise Zheng as vice president, overseeing the Technology, Internet and Innovation Committee.
Comcast adds New Jersey Consumer Affairs Division Chief Steve Lee, leaving government post in September, as deputy general counsel ... Harvard's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy names Kathleen Hall Jamieson, co-founder of FactCheck.org, as one of its fall 2017 fellows; Ex-FCC chairman Tom Wheeler is media and democracy fellow for the 2017-18 academic year, researching and teaching a study group on public policy and technology ... Society of Professional Journalists departures: Joe Skeel, executive director, effective Dec. 1, hired for same title at Indiana State Bar Association; and Chris Vachon, associate executive director, hired as Investigative Reporters & Editors director-partnerships.
Fossil Group names board member Jeffrey Boyer, who leaves Oct. 3 as Pier 1 Imports chief financial officer, as executive vice president-CFO, effective Oct. 16, replacing Dennis Secor, who's leaving the company to relocate back to California for personal reasons (see 1708090030) ... Graham Media moves up Jaimie León to vice president-general manager, WSLS-TV Roanoke, Virginia ... Sanmina promotes David Anderson to executive vice president-chief financial officer, effective Oct. 2, succeeding Bob Eulau, previously named CEO.
UHD Alliance hires Mike Fidler, ex-Sony, as its first full-time dedicated president; Warner Vice President-Technology Michael Zink succeeds Hanno Basse, 20th Century Fox Film chief technology officer, as alliance chairman ... Mintz Levin adds Sean Grygiel, ex-Perkins Coie, as member, and part of Intellectual Property practice ... Velodyne LiDAR hires from VeriSilicon Holdings Bob Brown as chief financial officer ... J.D. Power adds from Huge Bernardo Rodriguez as chief digital officer, new post.
WideOpenWest adds to board Tom McMillin, TierPoint and Cequel III, and ex-Suddenlink Communications ... Leaving FTC, no new plans announced: Justin Brookman, policy director-Office of Technology Research and Investigation ... Lauren Huston leaves Senate Commerce Committee, where she was press secretary and digital director, to be full-time law student ... SintecMedia promotes Lorne Brown to CEO; founder Amotz Yarden, former CEO of the broadcast and digital management software provider, retiring and remains on the board ... BDO USA names Gregory Garrett, ex-UIC/Bowhead, Blue Canopy Group and Lucent, head-international cybersecurity, Technology and Business Transformation Services practice.
FCC elevates Jim Balaguer to deputy director-Office of Legislative Affairs ... AT&T hires Brian Lesser from GroupM North America to build and lead advertising and analytics business as CEO, reporting to the parent company's CEO Randall Stephenson, who says that once it buys Time Warner, "there is an opportunity to build an automated advertising platform that can do for premium video and TV advertising what the search and social media companies have done for digital advertising” ... CTA Chief Economist Shawn DuBravac departs to start new consulting firm, Astra Insights, will remain a CTA consultant on "specific projects" at January CES.
Additional changes at AT&T: Glenn Lurie, president-CEO of mobility and consumer operations, retiring Sept. 1; reporting to John Donovan, moving to CEO, AT&T Communications amid the company buying Time Warner (see this section of the Aug. 1 issue of this publication), are Senior Executive Vice President-AT&T Technology and Operations Melissa Arnoldi and AT&T Business CEO Thaddeus Arroyo; Entertainment Group now led by President-AT&T Entertainment Group David Christopher, Senior Executive Vice President-Digital, Retail and Care Rasesh Patel and Senior Executive Vice President-Chief Content Officer Daniel York.
Davis Wright adds as partners in media and First Amendment practice, all from Levine Sullivan law firm: Nathan Siegel, who worked on right of publicity cases and defamation cases; Katherine Bolger, who represented newspaper and book publishers, broadcast networks and film studios on content issues; and Rachel Strom, who worked with publishers and broadcasters on privacy, copyright and other cases; and former Levine Sullivan associates in same posts Amy Wolf, with First Amendment and intellectual property expertise, and Adam Lazier, who worked on content issues ... Hogan Lovells hires Jeffrey Epstein, ex-TerreStar Networks, for Space and Satellite practice as counsel.
Computer & Communications Industry Association moves: Marianela López-Galdos, ex-George Washington University Competition Law Center, joins Washington office as director-competition and regulatory policy; the office adds Isabelle Styslinger, who has done various tech and government internships, as research analyst; Christian Borggreen promoted to vice president/head-office, CCIA Europe, succeeding James Waterworth, going to work for a member company; and Jakob Kucharczyk moves up to vice president-competition policy ... Sidley Austin adds Jim Lowe, ex-WilmerHale and who has worked on telecom equipment and services issues, as partner and member, Antitrust/Competition practice.
With John Kelly sworn in Monday as White House chief of staff, Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke moving to acting secretary ... AT&T appointments in preparation for completing acquisition of Time Warner, effective Tuesday and continuing to report to Chairman-CEO Randall Stephenson: Global Marketing Officer Lori Lee leads AT&T International, and was lead of AT&T’s Time Warner Merger Integration Planning Team; now that team is led by John Stankey, who becomes CEO of AT&T’s media company once deal is complete and was previously CEO-AT&T Entertainment Group; and John Donovan moves to CEO-AT&T Communications, including Business Solutions, Entertainment Group and Technology & Operations groups ... HomeGrid Forum President Donna Yasay stepping down.