Matt Pearl

Matt Pearl is the director of the Strategic Technologies Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He joined CSIS in January 2025 after more than 14 years of federal government service. Until August 2024, he was director for emerging technologies and special advisor to the deputy national security advisor at the National Security Council, where he focused on technology and telecommunications issues. Prior to that, Matt was an associate bureau chief at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where he was responsible for managing wireless policy, including overseeing many of the largest spectrum transitions and auctions in history. Before joining the FCC, he worked as a law clerk for Judge Harris Hartz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. Prior to that, he was a law clerk for Judge Lawrence Kahn of the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York. From 2014 to 2020, Matt was a research affiliate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, where he was part of an effort to advance networking technologies. Matt earned his JD at Yale Law School, where he served as a submissions editor for the Yale Journal on Regulation.