Report: Obama picks Julius Genachowski for FCC chair
President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate tech veteran Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission, according to the Wall Street Journal, which cites “a source close to the transition team.”
This isn’t the first time Genachowski name has come up as the likely replacement for outgoing FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, as well as a possible candidate for the new position of chief technology officer. (The latter position remains nebulous, while the FCC remains involved in a number of important issues, including the switch to digital TV that the Obama team has asked to delay.)
Genachowski certainly seems to have the background for the job: He worked at the FCC during Bill Clinton’s administration, then moved to media corporation IAC. He was a classmate of Obama’s at Harvard Law School, and is already part of the Obama team’s technology working group. Before the recent foray into politics, Genachowski co-founded Rock Creek Ventures and incubator LaunchBox Digital.
We’ve emailed Genachowski for comment, but he did not immediately respond.
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About the Author, Anthony Ha
Anthony is VentureBeat's assistant editor, as well as its reporter on enterprise technology, cloud computing, and tech policy. Before joining VentureBeat in 2008, Anthony worked at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing. He attended Stanford University and now lives in San Francisco. Reach him at anthony@venturebeat.com. You can also follow Anthony on Twitter.
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