FCC Chairman Ajit Pai names Michael Carowitz, who was deputy Enforcement Bureau chief, as special counsel, Office of the Chairman; Nick Degani, who was senior counsel, became acting general counsel (see 1709080036) ... Arizona Corporation Commissioner Doug Little hired by federal Department of Energy as deputy assistant secretary-intergovernmental and external affairs, effective Oct. 2 ... Retiring from ESPN at year's end: Ed Durso, who has been executive vice president-administration; in January, Chief Counsel Diane Morse assumes Durso's seat on the ESPN board ... Netflix hires Melissa Cobb, ex-Dreamworks, as vice president-kids and family, overseeing the creation and acquisition of series and films for children and families, reporting to Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos.
Sean Farrell, aide to Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., joins House Communications Subcommittee staff ... Radcom names network virtualization expert David Amzallag, ex-Vodafone, special strategic adviser ... President Donald Trump to nominate Walter Copan, president-CEO of IP Engineering Group, as undersecretary of commerce-standards and technology.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai names ex-Deputy Managing Director Dana Shaffer Wireless Bureau deputy bureau chief/chief of staff ... Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., announces promotions of Crystal Tully to policy director and counsel-communications and technology, Cort Bush to senior professional staff member, communications and technology policy team, and Brianna Manzelli, ex-Republican National Committee, joins committee as press secretary and digital director ... In Ballard Spahr's combining with Levine Sullivan First Amendment and media law firm effective Oct. 1, all of the latter law firm's 25 lawyers join the bigger firm; they include name partners Lee Levine, Michael Sullivan, Elizabeth Koch and David Schulz; plus attorneys Jay Ward Brown, Chad Bowman, Cameron Stracher and others.
Squire Patton adds Tony Scott, federal chief information officer under then-President Barack Obama, as senior data privacy and cybersecurity adviser ... Information Technology and Innovation Foundation hires from U.S. Chamber of Commerce Lindsay Bembenek as communications director ... National Association of Manufacturers hires include Michael Short, ex-Trump White House, as senior director-strategic communications, and Andrew Clark, ex-Independent Journal Review, as manager-digital communications, and NAM promotes others in Washington, including Keith Smith to senior vice president-public affairs and mobilization.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai names Nick Degani, who was Pai's senior counsel, acting general counsel; Jennifer Tatel, who has been doing that job, departing for the private sector, no specific plans announced ... Sprint hires from Vodafone Ivo Rook to newly created position of senior vice president-IoT, effective Jan. 1; and he's liaison officer to SoftBank Group of companies involved in IoT ... Cox Media Group's Tom Raponi retiring from WFXT Boston, where he has been vice president-general manager, effective at year's end ... G+D Mobile Security adds Sridhar Ramachandran as vice president-IoT solutions, Americas region ... President Donald Trump nominations sent to the Senate for jurists include Gregory Katsas for U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit (see this section of the Sept. 8 issue of this publication); Janice Brown had retired.
Lyft moves in Washington: Lauren Belive promoted to director-federal government relations team; Jake Swanton, ex-Pew, hired as senior federal public policy manager; and Tommy Leander, who worked for Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz., joins as federal public policy associate ... Returning to Jenner & Block as partner is Michael Wolf, ex-Aon; he works on transactions including involving IP ... Discovery Communications moves: Francis Keeling, ex-Spotify, joins as senior vice president-international digital; Jay Trinidad, running Discovery Northern Asia, now also managing director-digital ventures; and Eugene Huang, ex-American Express, hired as senior vice president-technology.
Hogan Lovells hires Edith Ramirez, ex-FTC, as partner and co-head, Antitrust, Competition and Economic Regulation practice and she will also help Privacy and Cybersecurity practice ... Acting FTC Chairman Maureen Ohlhausen picks Ian Conner, in Antitrust & Competition group at Kirkland & Ellis, as acting deputy director, Competition Bureau, effective Sept. 18 ... 21st Century Fox elevates Peter Rice to president ... Nutter law firm adds from Stroz Friedberg Seth Berman as a partner and working in areas including the Privacy and Data Security practice group.
Mobile Future adds Margaret McCarthy, ex-aide to Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., as executive director ... Sidley Austin hires Wim Nauwelaerts, ex-Hunton & Williams, as partner and member, global Privacy and Cybersecurity practice ... NBCUniversal creates unified research group to align sales research, insights and data capabilities for all platforms and partnership, led by Kavita Vazirani, who moves to newly created role of executive vice president-strategic insights and analytics ... USTelecom promotes Lorna Johnson to vice president-finance and administration.
Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Brock Long names Field Operations Directorate Assistant Administrator Michael Byrne federal disaster recovery coordinator for Storm Harvey-hit (see 1709010042) areas ... Utilities Technology Council hires Rob Thormeyer, ex-aide to then-Federal Energy Regulatory Commission member Colette Honorable and before that at NARUC, as its first director-communications and advocacy ... Last Mile Communications CEO Peter Kahelin, a founding partner, retires effective in Q4, and will be non-executive chairman ... Cox Media Group moves up Paul Curran to market vice president-Orlando.
With Uber confirming its board voted unanimously to name Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO, Expedia, where he was CEO, says he remains a board member and the directors promote Chief Financial Officer Mark Okerstrom to succeed Khosrowshahi as president-CEO and he joins the board ... Fox Television Group moves up Michael Thorn to president-entertainment, Fox Broadcasting Co., effective at the end of next month, succeeding David Madden, stepping down to pursue other opportunities ... Syniverse President-CEO Stephen Gray retiring, effective in February when his agreement expires ... Ethernet Alliance names board members Greg McSorley, Amphenol Corp., as president, and Craig Carlson, QLogic, treasurer; as Scott Kipp, Brocade, is the outgoing president.