TMF Washington 2018

Abigail Slater is Special Assistant to the President for Technology, Telecom, and Cyber policy on the National Economic Council. Prior to her current role, she served for over three years as the General Counsel at the Internet Association and worked for a decade at the Federal Trade Commission.

Ms Slater trained as a lawyer in the London and Brussels offices of Freshfields law firm. She holds degrees from University College, Dublin and Oxford University and is an IAPP/US/EU certified privacy professional.

Ajit Pai joined CTIA as its President and CEO in April 2025.  He joined CTIA from Searchlight Capital Partners, a leading global private investment firm, where he has been a partner since 2021. Prior to Searchlight, Mr. Pai had a distinguished public service career at the Federal Communications Commission. He was designated FCC Chairman by President Donald Trump, and during his tenure, he implemented major initiatives to help close the digital divide, promote U.S. leadership in 5G, encourage innovation, and safeguard consumers and national security. Mr. Pai was appointed to the FCC as Commissioner in 2012 by President Barack Obama. Mr. Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University and from the University of Chicago Law School.

Alastair Mactaggart is a real estate developer and investor based in San Francisco and for the last twenty years he has been a partner at Emerald Fund, one of that city’s leading developers.

In 2016-2018 he created and led a ballot initiative which resulted in the passage of California law AB 375, the most extensive consumer privacy legislation ever passed in the United States.

Mr Mactaggart is committed to community involvement, and was deeply involved for many years as a volunteer on the board of San Francisco’s non-profit California Pacific Medical Center hospitals, culminating in the approval and construction of two major new hospitals in that city in 2014.

He is a past board member of Room to Read, the San Francisco Mission YMCA, and board chair of the Sutter Physicians Foundation at California Pacific Medical Center. Currently, he serves on the Harvard College Fund Executive Committee and is co-chair of the Harvard West Coast Committee.

Andrea Gita Millwood Hargrave is an independent consultant in the field of regulation across the communications ecosystem, with particular emphasis on emerging trends in technologies and consumer behaviour.

An Associate of the Programme in Comparative Media Law and Policy, University of Oxford, and a Member of the Working Group on Information Access (part of UNESCO’s IFAP Programme), Andrea stepped down as the IIC’s Director General in 2020, having run its regulatory programme for over twenty years. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Andrea served as a regulator for content delivery organisations in the UK for many years and has published widely on communications policy in an international context, having acted as an Expert for both the European Union and the Council of Europe.

Andrew Haire has been associated with some of the industry’s most successful telecom initiatives and his portfolio includes architecting major policy frameworks in the telecoms, technology, and postal sectors, as well as serving as regulator and ICT policy for 10 years at Singapore’s IDA, soon after its inception in the year 2000.

Previously, his experience included senior management roles with regulatory and public policy portfolios at one of the world’s largest telecom operators and before that, various engineering and management positions at the world’s largest computer company.

Mr Haire holds a degree in engineering in the United States, and attended the advanced management program from Harvard University.

Andrew Haire is also an Advisory Council member at the International Institute of Communications.

Barry C Lynn is Executive Director of the Open Markets Institute in Washington. He is author of Cornered (Wiley 2010) and End of the Line (Doubleday 2005), and his work has been profiled in The New York Times, Politico, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and CBS. Mr Lynn and his team have taken the lead in illuminating America’s new monopoly problem, and in detailing how to protect our democracy from concentrated power. He and other members of OMI work closely with political leaders from both parties, and with antimonopoly enforcers in the United States and Europe. Mr Lynn’s work on the flaws in the international trading system – especially the fragility of key supply chains – has been widely studied in Europe, Asia, and throughout the US government.

Prior to launching OMI, Mr Lynn worked at the New America Foundation for 15 years. Before that he was Executive Editor of Global Business Magazine and a correspondent for the Associated Press and Agence France Presse in South America and the Caribbean.

Brian Hendricks is Head of Policy and Public Affairs for Nokia in the Americas Region, responsible for regulatory and legislative developments impacting technology, innovation, and deployment, including: spectrum allocation, infrastructure policy, privacy, and emerging policy on technologies critical to connected healthcare, intelligent transportation, and SmartCities. Mr Hendricks has nearly two decades of regulatory and legislative experience dealing with technology policy issues in the private sector, as a senior congressional staffer, and as an enforcement lawyer with Federal Communications Commission.

Prior to joining Nokia, Mr Hendricks served as Staff Director to the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation where he also served as General Counsel. He was the Committee’s lead legal and policy advisor in the areas of commerce, science, space, telecommunications, and emerging technology. Earlier in his career, Mr Hendricks served in the Enforcement Bureau at the Federal Communications Commission. Before joining the FCC, he spent six years in a variety of management positions with Ameritech and SBC Communications.

Mr Hendricks is a graduate of the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary where he also earned a Master of Public Policy (MPP) degree specialising in regulatory policy. He is an adjunct professor in the law school and graduate Public Policy program at William and Mary. He is a past Visiting Lecturer at the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado.

Chris Wilson possesses over 20 years of public policy experience covering a wide-range of subject matters, including the last seven years focusing on Internet governance policy.

Mr Wilson currently serves as Senior Manager, Public Policy, for Amazon where he coordinates the company’s policy engagement at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the United Nations, and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Prior to joining Amazon, Mr Wilson represented the interests of the media company 21st Century Fox before various Internet governance bodies, including ICANN. While at 21st Century Fox, Mr Wilson served as Chair of ICANN’s Business Constituency.

Additionally, Mr Wilson worked for Time Warner Inc. where he advocated for the company before Capitol Hill on general telecommunications and media policy matters.

Mr Wilson’s early career began on Capitol Hill in the office of the late US Senator Arlen Specter and subsequently at two law firms, Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP and Wiley Rein LLP, where he worked on a variety of telecommunications legal matters, and the Technology Association of America.

Mr Wilson earned his Bachelor’s degree in Public Policy Studies from Vanderbilt University and his JD, cum laude, from American University’s Washington College of Law.

Christoph Steck is Director Public Policy & Internet for Telefonica. He oversees the strategy and development of Telefonica´s global Public Policy work and defines its positions on Digital Policies, Internet and issues related to the Digital Economy. He is Vice-chair of the Business at OECD (BIAC) Committee on Digital Economic Policy, Vice-Chair of the Commission on Digital Economy of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Chairman of the Internet Governance workgroup of ETNO (European Network Operators Association and represents Telefonica regularly at international policy organisations like ITU, ICANN and G7/G20. Mr Steck has overseen also the publication of the influential Digital Manifesto of Telefonica.

Mr Steck joined Telefonica in 2002 and has managed in various positions Regulatory Affairs, Government Relations and Corporate Responsibility for the company in Germany, afterwards was Chief Regulatory Officer for its European business unit and since September 2008 works in Telefonica´s headquarter in Madrid in his current position.

Mr Steck is a qualified German lawyer and holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from IE Business School. He studied Law and Human Rights at the Universities of Cologne, Munich and London (UCL) and is Associate Professor at the School of Human Science and Technology of IE University in Madrid.

Ambassador David Gross co-chairs Wiley’s Telecom, Media & Technology Practice. He is widely recognised as one of the world’s foremost experts on international telecommunications and Internet policies, having addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and led more U.S. delegations to major international telecommunication conferences than anyone else in modern history.

Noted as bringing “innovation and vision to the rapidly changing TMT industry” by Who’s Who Legal and as one of the “Top 30 Telecommunications lawyers in the world” by Euromoney, Ambassador Gross draws on more than 30 years of experience as a lawyer, global policymaker, and corporate executive to assist US companies seeking to enter or expand international businesses.

He also advises non-US companies, and industry organizations seeking to invest in, monitor, and understand the US and international markets, as well as national governments. Ambassador Gross advises companies and others on international and domestic telecoms, Internet, and high-tech strategy focusing on both specific markets and international organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), as well as many regional organisations.

Ambassador Gross is also an Advisory Council member at the International Institute of Communications.

Diane Rinaldo was sworn in as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information at the Department of Commerce on April 20, 2018. She serves as the Deputy Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Executive Branch agency principally responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy.

Focusing on cybersecurity and technology policy, Ms Rinaldo has extensive experience in government and the private sector throughout her career. She staffed the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, where she was the lead committee staffer on Congress’ landmark cybersecurity legislation, the Cybersecurity Act of 2015. She also served as the oversight and budget monitor for the National Security Agency and the defense network systems, and served as Deputy Chief of Staff to Congressman Mike Rogers as his top technology policy staffer.

Recognised for her work on cybersecurity, Ms Rinaldo was awarded the Executive Women’s Forum’s 2016 Influencer of the Year award. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Maine and an Executive Certificate from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University for cyber studies.

Evan Engstrom is the Executive Director at Engine, a non-profit technology policy, research, and advocacy organisation that bridges the gap between policymakers and startups, working with government and a community of high-technology, growth-oriented startups across the nation to support the development of entrepreneurship.

Prior to joining Engine, Mr Engstrom was an attorney in private practice in San Francisco, focusing on copyright and other intellectual property litigation matters.

Göran Marby was CEO & President from 2016 – 2022. He has over 20 years’ experience as a senior executive in the Internet and technology sector, as well as his leadership as Director General at the independent regulatory body Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS), where he worked closely with international organizations and standards bodies.

Prior to this, he served as CEO and founder of Appgate, a Swedish security software company (now Cryptzone in the US), where he grew the organisation to a global company with customers in 35 countries and operations in the US.

Before his seven years at Appgate, he was CEO for the advanced networks company Cygate Group (now owned by TeliaSonera) where he spearheaded operations in five countries with revenues in the range of 120 million euros. And as Country Manager for Cisco in Sweden, Mr Marby led sales of all products and services.

He currently serves on several Boards including: The Swedish Broadband Forum, The Swedish E-identification Board and the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

Mr Marby holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the University of Gothenburg, School of Business, Economics and Law.

Howard Symons is a partner at Jenner & Block LLP, an international law firm with more than 500 attorneys. Mr Symons has nearly 40 years of experience in telecommunications law and policy, including senior positions in government and the private sector. Most recently he served as General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission from 2016 to 2017 and as Vice Chair of the FCC’s Incentive Auction Task Force from 2014 to 2016, appointed to both posts by Chairman, Tom Wheeler. From 1981 to 1985, Mr Symons served as Senior Counsel to the Subcommittee on Telecommunications in the US House of Representatives.

During his time in private practice, Mr Symons has represented companies in the cable, wireless and telecommunications industries as well as their trade associations before the US FCC, Congress and State legislatures, and the courts. He has authored several articles on the telecommunications policy process, testified before Congress and state legislatures, and spoken at numerous industry conferences and continuing legal education seminars. He has also served as an adjunct professor at George Washington University’s National Law Center, where he taught courses in telecommunications law and regulation for 10 years.

Mr Symons graduated from Yale University summa cum laude and earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Ian Scott has over 25 years of policy and regulatory experience in broadcasting and telecommunications both in the public and private sectors.

Most recently, Mr. Scott served as the Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. Mr. Scott was appointed by the Governor-in-Council on July 14, 2017 and led the organization from September 2017 to January 2023.

Earlier in his career, Mr. Scott worked at the Competition Bureau in both the Regulated Industries Branch and the Mergers Branch. After working at the Competition Bureau, he joined the CRTC from 1990 to 1994, where he collaborated on the development of a framework for long-distance telephone service competition in Canada. Between 2007 and 2008, as part of the Executive Interchange Program, he was Senior Policy Advisor to the Chairman at the CRTC.

Before rejoining the CRTC in 2017, Mr. Scott held various executive positions in the communications industry, including at Telesat Canada, Telus and Call-Net Enterprises, one of the first companies to offer competition in the Canadian long-distance market. He also provided leadership on broadcasting policy and regulatory issues as an executive at the Canadian Cable Television Association.

Mr. Scott has served on various boards, including Women in Communications and Technology, the International Institute of Communications, Canadian Aerospace Association and Ski Quebec Alpin, and holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from McGill University.

Mr. Scott is also an Advisory Council member at the International Institute of Communications.

Jacquelynn (Jackie) Ruff has more than 25 years of experience in global law and public policy around policy frameworks for digital services, Internet governance, digital trade, expansion of broadband connectivity, and women and technology.

Previously, Ms Ruff was a consulting counsel at the law firm of Wiley Rein where she provided legal, regulatory and public policy guidance on international issues impacting telecom, media, and technology industries.

Ms Ruff was also Vice President of International Government Relations and Policy at Verizon Communications. Her responsibilities included leading work in international organisations such as the UN International Telecommunication Union, the OECD, ICANN, and the Internet Governance Forum, and regional organisations CITEL and APEC.

She also represented Verizon on federal advisory committees to the US Department of State, the US Trade Representative, and the US Department of Commerce. Ms Ruff was a board member of the US Telecom Training Institute and co-chair of the Digital Trade group of the US Council for International Business, and she participated in the Policy and Spectrum Groups of the GSM Association. She is currently a Director of the International Institute of Communications. She is also a professorial lecturer at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs.

Ms Ruff joined Verizon in 2004 from the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where she was Associate Chief and Chief of Staff for the Bureau. Previously she practiced with the communications and Latin America groups of an international law firm and served as staff for a US Senate Committee.

She has a BA from Radcliffe College/Harvard University, MA from Harvard University, and JD from the Georgetown University Law Center.

Professor Jim Dratwa heads the team tasked with Ethics in Science and New Technologies at the European Commission He is also the Secretary-General of the EC International Dialogue on Bioethics and the EC representative in the international organisations dealing with the ethical implications of science and new technologies.

Professor Dratwa’s research and publications address the interconnections between knowledge, values and action.

Professor Dratwa has taught at the Ecole des Mines de Paris, Harvard University, and the universities of Brussels, where he is currently based. He is Invited Professor and Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Washington, D.C.

Professor Dratwa holds degrees in physics, philosophy, politics and the life sciences. He received the Fulbright Scholar Award, was Harvard Boas Fellow, Ramón y Cajal Scholar He was also a pre and post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard Law School and Harvard Kennedy School of Government and in the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, with the program on Science, Technology, and Society.

Building on her distinguished public service career spanning more than three decades at the state and federal level, Julie Brill now leads Microsoft’s international work to elevate privacy as a fundamental human right.

Leading the team at the forefront of many of the regulatory issues that underpin the digital transformation, Ms Brill serves as a global authority concerning policy and legal issues involving privacy; internet governance; telecommunications; accessibility; and corporate standards. In 2018, she spearheaded Microsoft’s global adoption of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and now leads Microsoft’s advocacy for complementary privacy mandates around the globe. In addition, Ms Brill serves as an advisor on data protection to Microsoft’s commercial customers, to help them remain on the cutting edge of privacy improvements.

Nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate, Ms Brill served for six years as a Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission. As Commissioner, Ms Brill worked actively on issues of critical importance to consumers, including privacy, fair advertising practices, fighting financial fraud, and maintaining competition in all industries, including health care and technology.

Prior to Microsoft, Ms Brill joined the global law firm Hogan Lovells as Partner and Co-Director of its privacy and cybersecurity practice. She assisted clients with navigating the complex regulatory environment governing privacy, data breaches, cybersecurity, advertising and competition issues around the globe. Under her leadership, Hogan Lovells’ privacy and cybersecurity lawyers were named the top privacy practice in 2017 by Chambers.

Earlier in her career, Ms Brill served as Senior Deputy Attorney General and Chief of Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the North Carolina Department of Justice; and as Assistant Attorney General for Consumer Protection and Antitrust for the State of Vermont for more than 20 years. Ms Brill led the National Association of Attorneys General Privacy Working Group during her tenure at the North Carolina and Vermont Attorneys General offices.

Ms Brill is active in civil society, serving as co-chair of Business at the Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development’s Committee for Digital Economic Policy; board member of the Center for Democracy and Technology; advisory board member of the AI Now Institute; and member of the National Academy of Sciences Intelligence Community Study Board.

Ms Brill has received numerous national awards and plaudits for her work, and, in 2013, Ms Brill was elected to the American Law Institute.

Ms Brill graduated, magna cum laude, from Princeton University, and from New York University School of Law, where she had a Root-Tilden Scholarship for her commitment to public service.

Justin Castillo is Head of Legal and Data Protection Officer for BT Americas, which provides IT, security, cloud, and network services to enterprise and government customers in over 170 countries.

Before joining BT, Mr Castillo represented enterprise customers in transactions for IT and network services. He also served as an Honors Program Trial Attorney at the Department of Justice, where he litigated cases involving the False Claims Act. He also clerked for the Honorable John A. Terry of the DC Court of Appeals.

Mr Castillo has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center, where he taught Professional Responsibility.

Mr Castillo is a graduate of Yale University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Kathleen. Abernathy recently joined the law firm of Wilkinson Barker Knauer, LLP as Special Counsel following her retirement from Frontier Communications. She first joined Frontier in 2006 as a member of the Board of Directors following her term as a Commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In 2010 she accepted the position of Chief Legal Officer and Executive Vice President, Regulatory and Governmental Affairs. Over the next seven years she was on the senior leadership team that oversaw three major strategic acquisitions that eventually grew Frontier to a Fortune 250 company. She was responsible for obtaining the state and federal regulatory approvals critical to the growth of the company. At retirement she was Executive Vice President, External Affairs.

She is also a member of the Board of Directors of ISO New England, a regional energy transmission organization authorised by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and is a Senior Industry and Innovation Fellow with Georgetown University’s Center for Business and Public Policy, McDonough School of Business. Prior to her term as an FCC Commissioner, Ms Abernathy worked for a number of different telecommunications companies and law firms.

She has received numerous awards in recognition of her professional accomplishments and has taught as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Catholic University’s Columbus School of Law.

Katie Watson is Policy Advisor, North America at the Internet Society. She joined the organisation in March 2018 and currently supports, develops, and advocates for the Internet Society’s Internet-related public policy positions on access, security, and privacy in the United States and Canada.

Ms Watson has previously served as the Development Manager at Public Knowledge, where she led development efforts and explored emerging technologies. After graduating from University of Virginia, she worked as a Google Public Policy Fellow at New America’s Open Technology Institute and as a Policy and Program Manager at Next Century Cities, where she assisted mayors with local broadband, digital inclusion, and civic tech initiatives.

Ms Watson received her BA from the University of Virginia, where she majored in Foreign Affairs and Media Studies.

Lee Rainie is Director of  Internet and Technology Research at Pew Research Center. Under his leadership, the Center has issued more than 650 reports based on its surveys that examine people’s online activities and the internet’s role in their lives. The American Sociological Association gave Mr Rainie its award for “excellence in the reporting on social issues” in 2014 and described his work as the “most authoritative source of reliable data on the use and impact of the internet and mobile connectivity.”

Mr Rainie is a co-author of Networked: The new social operating system and five books about the future of the internet that are drawn from the Center’s research. He gives several dozen speeches a year to government officials, media leaders, scholars and students, technology executives, librarians, and nonprofit groups about the changing media ecosystem.

Prior to launching Pew Research Center’s technology research, Mr Rainie was Managing Editor of US News & World Report.

Mr Rainie is a graduate of Harvard University and has a master’s degree in political science from Long Island University.

Leonard Cali serves in the AT&T External and Legislative Affairs organisation as Ssenior Vice President of Global Public Policy. Mr Cali and his team are responsible for developing AT&T positions on public policy issues. Mr Cali also serves as AT&T’s representative on the board of directors of the United States Council on International Business (USCIB) and on the board of directors of the USCIB Foundation. He is also a member of the GSMA Policy Group and is on the advisory board of the Columbia Institute for Tele-Information (CITI) at Columbia Business School.

Prior to his current role at AT&T, Mr Cali was Senior Vice President responsible for AT&T’s wireless and international external affairs. Before this, as Vice President of Law and Director of Federal Government Affairs, he led the AT&T Washington, DC office, including the AT&T federal law and antitrust group and the federal regulatory, congressional and executive branch advocacy teams.

Earlier in his career, Mr Cali served in a variety of positions in the AT&T Law and Public Policy group. He was responsible for the development and advocacy of AT&T policy positions on telecommunications competition and related matters.

Before joining AT&T in 1988, Mr Cali was an associate with the law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in New York City. There, he focused on general commercial litigation matters.

Mr Cali earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Fordham University and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of Michigan Law School.

Mark MacCarthy is Senior Vice President of Public Policy for the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal association for the software and digital content industries, where he directs initiatives and advises member companies on technology policy, privacy, AI and ethics, content moderation and competition policy in tech.

Mr MacCarthy is on the faculty of Georgetown University, where he teaches courses in the Communications, Culture & Technology Program on tech policy, ethical challenges of AI and competition policy in tech industries. He is also an affiliate of the Georgetown Center for Business and Public Policy.

Michael Calabrese directs the Wireless Future Program at New America, a non-profit think tank in Washington, DC. He develops and advocates policies to promote ubiquitous, fast and affordable wireless broadband connectivity, mobile broadband competition, and more efficient spectrum use, including unlicensed access and dynamic spectrum sharing.

Mr Calabrese has served as an appointed Member of the US Department of Commerce Spectrum Management Advisory Committee (CSMAC) since 2009. He served as an Invited Expert on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) spectrum reform working group during 2011-2012.

Mr Calabrese has previously served as General Counsel of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee, director of domestic policy at the Center for National Policy, an attorney and as a clerk to California Supreme Court Justice Allen E. Broussard.

Mr Calabrese is a graduate of Stanford Law and Business Schools, where he earned a JD/MBA degree; and a graduate of Harvard College, where he earned a BA in Economics and Government.

Mick Stawasz is the Deputy Chief for Computer Crime at the United States Department of Justice’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. Mr Stawasz leads a team of federal prosecutors who engage in worldwide efforts to detect, disrupt and deter cybercrime. Every Computer Fraud and Abuse Act prosecution in the country comes to Mr Stawasz for consultation. He also heads the Department’s experts on the proper collection and use of electronic evidence. In addition, Mr Stawasz was the first head of the Criminal Division’s Cybersecurity Unit, a central hub for expert advice and legal guidance regarding how the criminal electronic surveillance and computer fraud and abuse statutes impact cybersecurity.

Mr Stawasz has been with CCIPS since 2002 and became the Deputy Chief for Computer Crime in 2012. He has received back to back Attorney General’s Awards, including the John Marshall Award, the Department’s highest award for attorneys.

He is a graduate of Dartmouth College and the Georgetown University Law Center.

Nicolas Curien is a member of Corps des Mines and currently sits at the board of the French Regulatory Body for Radio and Television. He is Emeritus professor at Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, where he held the chair “Telecommunications Economics and Policy” (1992-2011), before becoming a member of the French Regulatory Body for Telecommunications and Post (2005-2011). He started his career as an assistant professor at Telecom ParisTech (1977-1978). He was then in charge of economic studies at the Telecommunications Governmental Directorate (1978-1986), before he joined the Department of Defense as chief economist and later as deputy-director of the Division for General Studies (1986-1988). Within the Department of Economics and Finance, he was deputy-director of the National School for Statistics and Economic Studies (1989-1992).

Nicolas Curien taught economics at École Polytechnique (1985-2007). He is a founding member of the French National Academy of Engineering. He wrote a number of scientific articles and several books in the field of networks’ industrial organization and digital economics.

Nicolas Curien graduated from École Polytechnique and Telecom Paris.

As the leader of the Business & Human Rights Program, Nicole Karlebach drives efforts to respect and promote privacy and free expression across Oath’s media and technology brands and works to identify innovative solutions to human rights challenges. Most recently, Ms Karlebach has undertaken an effort to lead the expansion of the Program across Verizon.

Ms Karlebach previously led the Yahoo Business & Human Rights Program. Prior to joining Yahoo, Ms Karlebach worked as an attorney at Schulte Roth & Zabel LLP in New York; as an international policy fellow at Human Rights First examining issues of business and human rights and national security law, and policy; and as a human rights consultant to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Ms Karlebach has also worked at the UN in the Office of the Legal Counsel and at the State Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the Special Department for War Crimes in Sarajevo.

Ms Karlebach received her LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University School of Law, her J.D. from Boston College Law School and her B.A., magna cum laude, in Politics and Sociology from Brandeis University.

Following his nomination by President Donald J Trump and unanimous confirmation by the United States Senate, Noah Joshua Phillips was sworn in as a Commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission on May 2, 2018. Before coming to the FTC, Commissioner Phillips served as Chief Counsel to US Senator John Cornyn, of Texas, on the Senate Judiciary Committee. From 2011 to 2018, he advised Senator Cornyn on legal and policy matters including antitrust, constitutional law, consumer privacy, fraud, and intellectual property. Prior to his Senate service, Commissioner Phillips worked as a litigator at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, in New York City, and Steptoe & Johnson LLP, in Washington, DC. Commissioner Phillips began his career at Wasserstein Perella & Co., an investment bank in New York City.

Commissioner Phillips received his AB from Dartmouth College and his JD from Stanford Law School.

Rebecca MacKinnon directs the Ranking Digital Rights project at New America, evaluating internet, mobile, and telecommunications companies on their respect for users’ privacy, security and freedom of expression. She is co-founder of the citizen media network Global Voices and author of Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom. She is on the Board of Directors of the Committee to Protect Journalists and was a founding board member of the Global Network Initiative.

Fluent in Mandarin Chinese, Ms MacKinnon was CNN’s Bureau Chief and correspondent in China and Japan between 1998-2004. She has taught at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Pennsylvania Law School and held fellowships at Harvard’s Shorenstein and Berkman Centers, the Open Society Foundations, and Princeton’s Center for Information Technology Policy.

Ms MacKinnon received her AB magna cum laude from Harvard University and was a Fulbright scholar in Taiwan.

Robert L Strayer is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Cyber and International Communications and Information Policy. In this capacity, he leads development of international cybersecurity, Internet, data, and privacy policy and related negotiations with foreign governments. He has led dozens of bilateral and multilateral dialogues with foreign governments’ foreign affairs and communications ministries.

Mr Strayer was named by the President, as an Ambassador, to lead the 90-plus person US delegation to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Plenipotentiary Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2018, and served as vice-chair of the conference. He managed the successful election of first US citizen to an ITU senior management position in more than two decades. The United States also achieved successful, pro-innovation results on resolutions related to cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

Before joining the State Department, Mr Strayer was the general counsel for the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee under the leadership of Senator Bob Corker (R-TN). In that position, he oversaw the drafting and passage of the committee’s legislation and advised the Chairman on policy matters, including cyber security, sanctions, and digital economic policy. During 2015, Mr Strayer taught a seminar on cyber security law as an adjunct law professor at the George Mason University law school.

From 2011 to 2012, Mr Strayer was the director of the homeland security project at the Bipartisan Policy Center, which was led by 9/11 Commission co-chairs former Governor Tom Kean and former Congressman Lee Hamilton. During that time, he initiated and directed a task force on cyber security that published a report on eliminating cyber security information sharing impediments.

From 2005 to 2011, Mr Strayer served as a counsel and, subsequently, Republican deputy staff director on the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. In that role, he managed the development of cyber security policy and the drafting of cyber security legislation. In addition, he was a counsel on the committee’s special investigation of the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, reviewing communications failures following the hurricane.

From 2002 to 2005, Mr Strayer practiced telecommunications law at WilmerHale. Prior to the law firm, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Lanier Anderson on the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, and served as the Si Karas fellow in the Solicitor’s Office of the Ohio Attorney General.

Mr Strayer received a law degree from Vanderbilt University Law School, where he was Order of the Coif, and he earned his BA in Economics, summa cum laude, from Denison University.

Robert Pepper is Senior Fellow, Global Digital Inclusion Partnership. He was previously Head, Global Connectivity Policy and Planning, Meta until August 2024.  He helped lead Meta’s connectivity and technology policy activities focusing on new technology development, deployment and adoption. Dr Pepper previously was Cisco’s Vice President for Global Technology Policy for more than a decade working with governments across the world helping them develop their digital strategies and address areas such as ICT and development, broadband plans, IP enabled services, wireless and spectrum policy, the Internet of Things, security, privacy and internet governance.

As Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the FCC for 16 years beginning in 1989, Dr Pepper led teams designing and implementing the first US spectrum auctions, developing policies promoting the development of the internet, implementing telecommunications legislation, and planning for the transition to digital television.

Before joining the FCC, he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy. His government service also included Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiating a programme on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation.

His academic appointments included faculty positions at the Universities of Iowa, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and as a research affiliate at Harvard University. He chairs the US Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy and has served on the board of the US Telecommunications Training Institute, the US Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee and the UK’s OFCOM Spectrum Advisory Board.

Dr Pepper received his BA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Robert Pepper is also an Advisory Council member at the International Institute of Communications.

Bio coming soon

Terrell McSweeny is currently a partner at Covington & Burling where her practice focuses on the intersection of technology, competition and consumer protection law and policy.

Ms McSweeny is a former Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission. Prior to joining the Commission, Ms McSweeny held several senior government appointments including: Chief Counsel for Competition Policy in the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division; Deputy Assistant to President Obama and Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President Biden; and Counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Thomas Dailey is Verizon’s Chief International Legal and Regulatory Officer responsible for strategic-level legal advice and regulatory and policy guidance regarding the corporation’s business operations outside the United States, including those in the European Union, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Asia Pacific region. Mr Dailey manages a diverse team of legal and regulatory professionals based on five continents around the globe who advise on a wide variety of issues including privacy, commercial, corporate, product, employment and security.

Mr Dailey also serves as chief strategy counsel providing legal, regulatory and policy guidance to Verizon’s head of Corporate Strategy and her team on matters affecting the future direction of the corporation across all lines of business, including wireless, wireline, digital advertising, content and telematics. Outside his work at Verizon, Mr Dailey served from 2011 to 2014 as the Chair of the Center for Copyright Information, an organisation formed as part of a ground-breaking collaborative effort between US content creators in the movie and music industries and leading ISPs to help educate the public about legal content options and deter copyright infringement. Mr Dailey has testified numerous times before the US Congress and various state legislatures and is a periodic speaker on Internet, communications and other policy issues in the US and internationally.

Professor Umar Garba Danbatta is Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Agency charged with the responsibility of regulating telecommunications in Nigeria. He was the Vice President of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), International Centre for Advance Communications Studies, established in 2004 by the NCCto build capacity for the Nigerian/Africa telecom industry in information and communications technology. While at DBI he developed expertise in the following major areas of ICT: implementation, policy and regulation.

Professor Danbatta served as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology of Bayero University Kano for 28 years, where he taught courses in telecommunications engineering and electronics and held academic positions of Dean of the Faculty and Head of Department at different times. He was also a member of over 60 University committees and task forces, including numerous stints as Chairman. In administrative and other responsibilities outside the university, he has served on over 20 committees, prominent among which was his Chairmanship of the Implementation Committee on Kano State University of Science & Technology, after which he became its pioneer Deputy and Acting Vice-Chancellor when it took off in 2001.

Professor Danbatta has to his credit more than 50 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is also the author of a book entitled ‘Elements of Static Engineering Electromagnetics’. A recipient of 18 distinguished awards and certificates of honour, Professor Danbatta has served two terms as a Member of Council of the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), and is also a COREN Registered Engineer and a Fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers. (NSE).

Prof Danbatta obtained his BEng, MSc degrees from the technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and his PhD from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) UK respectively.

Will Hudson is Senior Advisor for International Policy at Google, where his work focuses on international policy issues relating to the free, open, and secure Internet. Before joining Google, Mr Hudson was Director for International Cyber Policy at the National Security Council. There, he was responsible for coordinating the government’s implementation of a range of technology policies, including those relating to Internet governance, Internet freedom, human rights issues associated with data privacy and online surveillance, and cyber capacity building.

Prior to his time in the White House, Mr Hudson served in a variety of national security positions in the federal government, culminating in his service as Senior Associate General Counsel at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. There he was responsible for advising clients on the legal and policy issues associated with cybersecurity and cyber operations, norms of state and non-state behaviour online, and emerging technologies. He is a board member of the US Telecommunications Training Institute and the Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare.

Mr Hudson is a graduate of Stanford University and Georgetown University Law Center.

Yih-Choung Teh is Group Director, Strategy and Research at Ofcom. The group leads on setting Ofcom’s overarching strategy, drawing on insights from our research and analysis of the sectors we regulate. He has previously been a Director in Ofcom’s Competition Group, working on issues including Ofcom’s strategy to encourage investment in telecoms infrastructure, and overseeing Ofcom’s broadcasting and media competition programme.

Before joining Ofcom, Mr Teh worked for a strategy consultancy in the telecoms sector, providing policy and strategy advice to public and private sector clients globally. Prior to this he held an academic research post in the University of Oxford.