Where’s the telecom exec on Obama CTO shortlist?
[Editor’s Note: Who should be telecom’s candidate to be national CTO? Nominate your candidate in the comments below]
Interesting peek into the political process from Business Week today, with speculation on Barack Obama’s plans to name a national chief technology officer if elected.
The CTO title fits the Obama profile — it’s a flashier title than chief information office, or CIO. CIOs are hands-on implementers; CTOs, for better or worse, tend to be the visionary types.
So who’s on the short list, at least according to BW: Vint Cerf, Google’s chief Internet evangelist (and Internet pioneer); Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer; Amazon’s Jeffrey Bezos; and Ed Felton, Princeton University comsci professor.
This list is particularly interesting when one takes into account the apparent goal of this would-be CTO: raising national broadband penetration. From the BW story:
“Obama sees greater broadband penetration as an enormous economic engine, much like the railroads were a century ago,” says Andrew D. Lipman, a veteran communications lawyer in Washington. “That is why the CTO will play such a critical role in any recovery plan.”
If broadband deployment is the key to our economic future, why do the potential CTOs including a search engine exec (ok, that’s a bit unfair to Cerf — if accurate), CEO of a desktop software company, CEO of an e-commerce company and an Ivy League professor?
Where’s the candidate representing today’s actual broadband industry? I’m not saying an incumbent telecom industry player would be the best choice — someone with a lack of conflicts and deep industry ties could probably get more done.
But the list of proposed candidates show a lack of respect toward the mainstream telecom sector and a lack of understanding of the complexities and challenges of truly building a national broadband infrastructure.
It also is a relatively bad omen for the traditional telecom industry, which may be viewed more as having impeded choice and a path to the broadband future than enabling it. The industry already has a fairly combative relationship with the FCC, do we need to be battling the “Office of the National CTO” as well?
So who should be added to that list from the telecom sector. Here’s some possibilities gathered from a quick poll of the Telephony staff:
- Larry Irvin, former head of NTIA and current co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance.
- Bill Smith, former BellSouth CTO
- Mark Wegleitner, current Verizon CTO
- Barry West, Xohm, Sprint/Nextl
- Rob Pullen, CEO, Tellabs
We want your opinion: Who should be telecom’s candidate to be national CTO? Nominate your candidate in the comments below.
[Note: Obama/Superman photo courtesy of Mashable, which wrote about the CTO idea when it was first floated earlier this summer.]
October 21st, 2008 at 11:13 am
Hm. Considering the political and market might of the Bells, a sitting exec like (the clearly qualified) Wegleitner would probably raise lots of flags among consumers. What about David Isenberg? (http://isen.com/Bio-Res/LongBio.html) Or Tony Stark?
I would put money on Cerf, though, in part because Obama seems to feel a sort of kinship with Google. He even compared himself to the company in the primaries, when someone asked about his relative dearth of experience, and he said, “There are a lot of companies that have been around longer than Google, but Google is performing.”
And in any case, I think Cerf would make a better US CTO than the guy on the top of McCain’s short list: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._Loveless
October 21st, 2008 at 11:25 am
Obama has backed Net Neutrality but not with any real vigor. What we need in a CTO is someone who understands the relationship between technology and the economy — something the Clinton administration got in spades. Unlike other countries, the U.S. has chosen to leave broadband penetration to privately funded companies, thus creating the need for a delicate balance. Come down too hard on the incumbent ISPs — mostly telcos and cablecos — and watch Wall Street shiver. Fail to come down hard enough and major segments of the U.S. population — rural areas, inner cities — fall on the wrong side of the digital divide.
October 21st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Very interesting post. I also had a lot of questions based on the supposed short list.
Maybe I’ve done too much b2g work, but I think if the candidate doesn’t know government he/she won’t succeed in the position. Small example, Princeton’s Felten recently wrote a white paper calling on government agencies to give up on efforts to improve their web sites — that’s just not realistic.
Of the ones mentioned Cerf would probably be the best, since as former head of ICANN he’s well accustomed to regulatory lobbying.
October 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Barry West
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:23 pm
Tom Wheeler, Reed Hundt, or William E. Kennard would be good choices - strong policy background, good political instincts, and strong commitments to consumers - better than any of the executives from specific telcos who are (1) entrenched and (2) somewhat tainted from the FISA surveillance issues.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
I nominate - Mr Rob Pullen, CEO, Tellabs for Strong Commitments to Customers.
October 23rd, 2008 at 11:51 am
Pullen knows the Customers, Technology and Regulation/Public Policy through TIA (Chairman)
October 23rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks for the comments here and in my email. A few things:
- Wasn’t trying to say Obama should or will be president, just interested in the telecom impact of his would-be CTO list. Sorry for not making that clearer — this was NOT an endorsement!
- Received some good nominations via email. Because those folks chose not to leave comments here, I’ll forward their suggestions but not their names/affiliations. Some additional suggestions:
** There’s only one right guy, the product development whiz from Comcast, Franklyn Athias.
** Obama should choose Diana Gowen, SVP of Qwest Government Solutions to be his CTO. She is highly respected in the Telecom community, has an impressive resume, and is completely trusted by her government customers.
** Reed Hundt
I’ll add more offline suggestions as I get them..
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