FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly names acting legal advisers to that position permanently: Amy Bender for wireline and Erin McGrath for wireless, public safety and international issues … NERA Economic Consulting hires Jeff Eisenach, ex-Navigant, as senior vice president, and he remains American Enterprise Institute visiting scholar and director, Center for Internet, Communications and Technology Policy … Tribune hires Kathy Clements, ex-Belo Corp., which is being acquired by Gannett, as chief operating officer, broadcasting division, and Lynda King, ex-Local TV Holdings, which Tribune acquired last year, and also to that COO job.
FCC Commissioner Mike O'Rielly hires Courtney Reinhard, ex-office of Commissioner Ajit Pai, as senior legal adviser, handling legal issues, and chief of staff … Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Chairman and CEO John Hogan retiring, named chairman emeritus, as parent CC Media extends contract of Chairman and CEO Bob Pittman for five more years … NetMotion Wireless, which connects corporate employees’ mobile devices to applications, hires Erik Prusch, adviser to NetMotion owner Clearlake Capital Group and ex-Clearwire, as CEO, succeeding interim CEO Chris Gibbons, who remains a Clearlake adviser and on NetMotion’s board … Harley Geiger, ex-aide to Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., rejoins Center for Democracy & Technology as senior counsel and deputy director, Project on Freedom, Security and Surveillance … On Capitol Hill: Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, hires Paul Teller, ex-Republican Study Committee, as deputy chief of staff, effective Thursday … Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., hires include Chris Slevin, ex-office of Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, as legislative director, and Monique Waters, ex-office of Rep. Cedric Richmond, D-La., as press secretary.
FCC hires Tim Brennan, University of Maryland-Baltimore County and also Resources for the Future, as chief economist, and Clete Johnson, ex-Senate Intelligence Committee, as Public Safety Bureau chief cybersecurity counsel … CBS promotes to executive vice presidents Steve Mirante for human resources and Josie Thomas, also named chief diversity officer … California Senate votes 35-0 to confirm Carla Peterman, ex-California Energy Commissioner, as Public Utilities Commission member … Returning to Hearst Television is Shawn Oswald, ex-Sunflower Broadcasting, hired as president and general manager, KHBS Fort Smith and KHOG-TV Fayetteville, both in Arkansas, succeeding Brian Sather, promoted to same role at KCCI Des Moines … Regan Communications Group marketing and public relations firm hires Julie Kahn, ex-Entercom, as executive vice president-sports/media and special adviser to President George Regan Jr.
BakerHostetler hires Pamela Jones Harbour, ex-Norton Rose, as a partner, Antitrust and Competition Practice, and co-leader, Privacy and Data Protection team … Cablevision hires Robert Comstock, ex-Direct Energy, as executive vice president-operations, new position … Time Warner Cable moves Senior Vice President Alan Lui to lead all human resources department functions … Viamedia, which sells ads for cable operators, hires Mark Lieberman, ex-TRA, as president and CEO and board member, as outgoing President and CEO Jeff Carter remains in advisory role as vice chairman … Akamai elects Steven Scopellite, ex-Goldman Sachs, to board.
Among Hogan Lovells promotions to partner are Mark Brennan for technology, media and telecom, and for intellectual property Anna Kurian Shaw, Srecko “Lucky” Vidmar and David Toy, and in IP practice as of counsel is Anishiya Abrol … Parents Television Council Policy Director Dan Isett adds communications to purview … NARUC names Greg White, Michigan Public Service Commission, chairman of Washington Action program, succeeding former co-chairs Nikki Hall, South Carolina Public Service Commission, who was named chairwoman of association’s Utility Marketplace Access Subcommittee, and Larry Landis, who retired from Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission … ZTE promotes Zeng Xuezhong to global head-mobile devices … Adyen, online and mobile payment firm, hires Kamran Zaki, ex-Netflix, as president-Adyen North America … Time Warner hires Lesley Goldman, ex-CNBC, vice president-development & original programming, truTV … BlueCat, IP address management firm, hires Andrew Wertkin, ex-PTC, as chief technology officer, as ex-CTO Richard Hyatt named chief scientist … Lobbyist registration: Charter Communications, ML Strategies, effective Dec. 9.
Madison Square Garden Co.’s Bob Pollichino to retire as executive vice president and chief financial officer in the fall, and for a year afterwards will be a consultant to the company … Fox Broadcasting hires in alternative entertainment Lisa Levenson, ex-Cineflix Productions, as senior vice president and Alex Piper, ex-Asylum Entertainment, as vice president … Emulex hires Kyle Wescoat, ex-Skullcandy, as senior vice president, chief financial officer and treasurer … Packet Design, IP network route analytics software firm, hires Daniel Ley, ex-CA Technologies, as senior vice president-sales … Immersion Corp. hires Jason Patton, ex-YOD China, as vice president and general manager-content & media.
Among Steptoe & Johnson promotions to partner are Stephanie Roy in Telecom, Internet & Media Group, where she works on telecom and media, and promoted to of counsel are Michael Maas and Doug Peterson, both in Intellectual Property Group … Bennet & Bennet law firm hires wireline, wireless and broadband lawyer Erin Fitzgerald as associate … Frontier Communications hires Jennifer Lem, ex-International Flavors and Fragrances, as senior vice president-controller … Nielsen hires Katie Burke, ex-Edelman, as executive vice president-marketing and communications, to be effective Jan. 27 … Women in Cable Telecommunications 2014 board includes Martha Soehren, Comcast, as vice chairwoman; board members Sandy Howe, Arris, and Kelly Regal, Turner Broadcasting System joining executive committee; and named directors at large are Sandra Kapell, Cablevision, Ellen Kroner, AMC Networks, Kathleen O'Reilly, Accenture, and Leigh Woisard, Cox Communications.
Allan Friedman, director of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Technology Innovation, moves to George Washington University’s Cyber Security Policy and Research Institute as visiting scholar on cybersecurity policy research … Dickstein Shapiro promotes Katie Scott to partner in Palo Alto, Calif., office’s Intellectual Property Practice… Neil Smit of Comcast Cable takes over as chairman of the NCTA board … NTIA Chief Economist James McConnaughey retires after 24 years at NTIA, following 10 at the FCC … Discovery Communications extends contract of CEO David Zaslav through the end of the decade.
Chris Nelson, South Dakota Public Utilities Commission, becomes chair of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners Telecommunications Committee, succeeding John Burke, Vermont Public Service Board … at Wiley Rein: Robert Benton named partner in Corporate, Election Law & Government Ethics and Satellite practices; Maureen Thorson becomes partner in International Trade Practice; Colleen King becomes of counsel in Communications Practice; Brendan Morrissey becomes of counsel in Litigation, Appellate, Communications and Food & Drug Law practices; Kimberly Sikora Panza becomes of counsel in Franchise, Intellectual Property and Privacy practices … Wilkinson Barker attorney Neil Chilson joins staff of Federal Trade Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen as attorney-adviser … Richard Chernock, Triveni Digital, becomes chairman of ATSC’s Technology Group 3, the standards development group working on the ATSC 3.0 next-generation broadcast standard, succeeding Jim Kutzner, who announced his Feb. 1 retirement from PBS … euNetworks Group names Neil Hobbs of Terrepact to its board … Huawei names Bill Gerski, ex-Dish Network and National Rural Telecom Coop, vice president-sales for Huawei Technologies USA … ZTE organizational changes: ZTE Mobile Devices to be headed by Zeng Xuezhong, executive vice president of ZTE; He Shiyou, former head of terminals, to remain as an executive director of ZTE; Pang Shengqing named head of ZTE’s enterprise business; Zhao Xianming promoted to chief technology officer of ZTE.
Quincy Newspapers CEO Ralph Oakley joins NAB TV Board … Victoria Salhus retired as Cablevision Systems senior vice president-deputy general counsel and secretary, effective Dec. 30 … Andrew Ruszkowski promoted to XTAR chief commercial officer … Jesper Ovesen to depart as executive chairman, Nokia Solutions and Networks, when the sale of Nokia’s devices and services business to Microsoft is complete in 2014’s first quarter … Lobbyist Registrations: Yelp, represented by Laurent Crenshaw, effective Nov. 4.