Network Neutrality

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PARTICIPATING TELECOM LEADERS

Michael Altschul
Senior Vice President & General Counsel 
           
As CTIA’s General Counsel, Mike Altschul is responsible for the Association’s legal advocacy, CTIA’s compliance with antitrust and other applicable laws, and he is an active participant in the development of the Association’s public policy positions.

 Altschul joined CTIA in 1990 after serving with the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice.  Prior to that, he began his legal career as an attorney specializing in antitrust litigation with Simpson Thacher Bartlett in New York City.  During his ten year stint at the Justice Department, Altschul worked exclusively on communications matters, including the Modification of Final Judgment and the GTE decree, as well as related FCC filings and telecommunications industry mergers and acquisitions. 

Altschul received a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Colgate University, and a Juris Doctor from the New York University School of Law.

Prof. David Farber is Distinguished Career Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University holding secondary appointments in the Heinz School of Public Policy and the Engineering Public Policy Group.

He recently (2003) retired as the Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems at the University of Pennsylvania where he he held appointments as Professor of Business and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business and as a Faculty Associate of the Annenberg School of Communications.

In January 17, 2000, he was appointed to be Chief Technologist at the US Federal Communications Commission while on leave from UPenn for one year ending in early June 2001. While at UPenn, he co-directed The Penn Initiative on Markets, Technology and Policy. He was also Director of the Distributed Systems Laboratory - DSL where he managed leading edge research in Ultra High Speed Networking. Research papers of the DSL are available in its electronic library.

Michele C. Farquhar, Partner, Hogan & Hartson; serves as co-director of the firm’s communications group. She focuses her practice on commercial and private wireless and mass media regulation, strategic planning on complex spectrum allocation and auction-related transactional issues, regulation and licensing of new domestic and foreign technologies, and global telecommunications convergence and competition issues. She has extensive experience in practice before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and federal courts as well as U.S. Congress, the White House, the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Department of Commerce, and international regulatory bodies. Before joining Hogan & Hartson as a partner, Michele served as Chief of the Wireless Telecommunications Bureau at the FCC, where she had primary responsibility for the Bureau’s implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and numerous rulemaking proceedings, spectrum auctions, licensing and ownership issues, and enforcement matters. Under her leadership, the Bureau undertook rulemaking proceedings addressing interconnection, resale and roaming, enhanced wireless 911, refarming, and microwave relocation; she also developed auction rules and enhanced flexibility for many different wireless services, including local multipoint distribution service (LMDS), paging, specialized mobile radio service, wireless communications service, and new services at the microwave and millimeter wave frequencies.

Robert C. Atkinson, Director of Policy Research, CITI Columbia University. For 18 months prior to joining CITI, Mr. Atkinson was the Deputy Chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau. Mr. Atkinson negotiated the conditions associated with the FCC's approval of the SBC-Ameritech merger and was responsible for the substance of many major FCC decisions, including: UNE Remand; Line Sharing; Bell Atlantic-GTE and Qwest-US West mergers; Broadband Deployment (Sec.706) Report; and, Local Competition & Broadband Deployment data gathering. In 2001, the FCC appointed Mr. Atkinson to be the Chairman of the North American Numbering Council. Beginning in 1985, Mr. Atkinson was responsible for the regulatory, public policy and external affairs activities of Teleport Communications Group (TCG), the nation's first Competitive Access Provider (CAP) and Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC). In 1994 he became Senior Vice President for Legal, Regulatory & External Affairs when his role was expanded to include responsibility for TCG's Legal Department. When AT&T acquired TCG in July 1998 and TCG became AT&T Local Services, Mr. Atkinson was Vice President and Chief Regulatory Officer of AT&T Local Services until he joined the FCC. Throughout his career, Mr. Atkinson played a leading role in most of the key regulatory and public policy decisions that introduced competition to the local telephone markets and shaped the Competitive Local Exchange Carrier (CLEC) industry.

Ken Robinson, currently a Washington Attorney, was Senior Legal Advisor to Al Sikes, Chairman, FCC. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he received both his A.B. and J. D. in 1966 and 1969. He has served as Attorney, Evaluation and Special Regulated Industries Sections, Antitrust Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 196y9-70; Counsel, Office of Telecommunication Policy, Executive Office of the President, 1970-74; and policy advisor to Assistant Secretaries of Commerce for Communications and information – Henry Geller, Bernard J. Wunder David J. Markey, Acting Assistant Secretary Rodney Joyce, and Alfred Sikes.  He is a member of the D.C. and N.C. bars.  Mr. Robinson has made and is making continuous significant policy contributions in the American telecommunications milieu.

Lawrence E. Strickling is a technology policy expert with more than two decades of experience in the public and private sectors. As Policy Coordinator for Obama for America, Strickling oversaw two dozen domestic policy committees and was responsible for technology and telecommunications issues. Prior to joining the campaign, Strickling was Chief Regulatory and Chief Compliance Officer at Broadwing Communications for three years. His private sector experience also includes serving in senior roles at Allegiance Telecom and CoreExpress, Inc. and as a member of the Board of Directors of Network Plus. In government, Strickling served at the Federal Communications Commission as Chief of the Common Carrier Bureau from 1998 to 2000. Prior to that, Strickling was Associate General Counsel and Chief of the FCC's Competition Division. During his tenure at the FCC, Strickling developed and enforced rules to foster competition and protect consumers in the telecommunications marketplace. Prior to joining the FCC, Strickling was Vice President, Public Policy at Ameritech.  Before Ameritech, he was a litigation partner at the Chicago law firm of Kirkland & Ellis.

Strickling earned his J.D. from Harvard Law School and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Maryland with a degree in economics. Prior to his appointment, he served on the Board of Visitors at the University of Maryland School of Public Policy, as Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the University of Chicago's Court Theatre, and on the Board of Directors of Music of the Baroque in Chicago.

Christopher Guttman-McCabe
Vice President, Regulatory Affairs

Since joining CTIA in 2001, Chris Guttman-McCabe has worked on a wide range of issues involving spectrum, regulatory mandates, and homeland security. Guttman-McCabe became Vice President for Regulatory Affairs in September, 2005, and in that capacity coordinates the associationÕs regulatory policy advocacy. Prior to joining CTIA, Guttman-McCabe worked as an attorney for four years at the D.C. based law firm Wiley Rein & Fielding LLP. He served as an Associate in the Communications Practice Group where he advised clients on wireless and common carrier issues, including licensing, compliance, and policy matters. Guttman-McCabe started his career as a management and strategic consultant to the steel industry at AUS Consultants and later co-founded Jacobson & Associates, a metals industry management and strategic consulting firm, where he served as the Vice President. Guttman-McCabe received his B.A. degree in economics from Swarthmore College and his J.D. Magna Cum Laude from Catholic University with a certificate from the Institute for Communications Law Studies.

Kathleen Franco
Executive Director, Public Policy, AT&T Services, Inc.

Ms. Franco joined AT&T (then Ameritech) in 1998. Her duties include responsibility for regulatory policy for core retail services and emerging services, including converged wireline-wireless services, enterprise services and consumer broadband services.  She is also responsible for developing AT&T’s policies on broadband reporting and carrier of last resort.  Prior to joining AT&T, Ms. Franco worked at the FCC, serving as legal advisor to the Common Carrier Bureau Chief and Commissioner Rachelle Chong and as an interim legal advisor to Commissioner Michael Powell.  Prior to the FCC, she was an associate at the law firm of Arent, Fox, Kintner, Plotkin and Kahn in Washington D.C.  Ms. Franco is a graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center and Boston College.

Rick Cimerman

Vice President, State Government Affairs, National Cable & Telecommunications Association

Rick is the Senior Director of State Telecommunications Policy. He joined NCTA as a Director in January 1995. His primary responsibility is to aid State Cable Associations and cable companies in working with Public Utility Commissions to facilitate local telecommunications competition.Rick currently co-chairs the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee's Broadband Task Force, serves as the Program Chair for the NARUC/NECA National Summit on Broadband Deployment and is the past president of the National Coalition for Technology and Education in Training (NCTET). He has testified across the country before numerous state Public Service Commissions and Legislatures. He has also served as an adjunct faculty member of Michigan State University's NARUC Annual Regulatory Studies Program and serves as a member of New Mexico State University's Center for Public Utilities Advisory Committee. Prior to joining NCTA he worked for nearly three years as the Director of the Telecommunications Division of the Maryland Public Service Commission. Rick oversaw the Telecommunications Division at a time when Maryland became one of the first states to allow local exchange competition. While at the Commission he managed a professional staff of accountants, economists, and engineers and provided expert testimony on behalf of the staff.Rick also worked for two and a half years at the Florida Public Service Commission with an emphasis on issues related to competition and emerging competition. He holds a Bachelor's and Master's Degrees in Economics from the University of Florida where he studied public utility economics in association with the Public Utility Research Center (PURC) at the University of Florida. Rick is also a former Jeopardy TV game show winner.