Obama Taps Genachowski, and Tunes the FCC In to Broadband

With Julius Genachowski's background as a New York media exec and venture capitalist, the new chairman will be a strong force in Obama's tech strategy

By Tom Lowry and Heather Green

By selecting Julius Genachowski to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Barack Obama is signaling that the nation's chief media and technology regulator will play a much more prominent role than in previous Administrations.

Why is that? For one, Genachowski and Obama have been friends since their days at Harvard Law School. Genachowski, 46, was a trusted adviser during Obama's campaign and a key architect of the strategy to deploy technology and social networking to attract supporters. More important, though, Obama's desire to make greater broadband deployment a key part of his plan to revive the economy will certainly mean the White House will lean on Genachowski's FCC for help.

When you look at recent history, Genachowski is an unusual choice to chair the FCC. Like his predecessors, he is a lawyer, and like other chairmen, he had worked previously at the FCC (as chief counsel to Chairman Reed Hundt in the Clinton years). But unlike other inside-the-Beltway paths to the chairmanship, mostly through working at big D.C. communications law firms, Genachowski was a New York media executive. He served for eight years in various senior roles to Barry Diller at IAC (IACI) during the period when the mogul was remaking himself in new media. Most recently, Genachowski ran his own venture capital firms. His wife, Rachel Goslins, is a documentary filmmaker.

Business Sense

"What Julius will bring to this job is a perspective beyond Washington," says Carol Melton, Time Warner's (TWX) chief D.C. lobbyist, who has known Genachowski since his days at the FCC. "He has not only a policy sense but a business sense. He played an integral role at IAC at a time when Barry wasn't just managing businesses, but creating new ones." Adds Ted Leonsis, vice-chairman emeritus of AOL: "Julius has a broad experience in communications, media, law, government, and technology, and better yet, in the synthesis of it all. This convergence is what will drive the industry over the next decade, and it will be a breath of fresh air to have an exec who has lived in all industries serving in such an important capacity."

Former colleagues and business associates describe his management style as collegial and collaborative and as someone not afraid to take a deep dive into issues. The expression "talking points" drives him crazy, says one former colleague. Robert Hoffman, the top lobbyist for Oracle (ORCL) and the chair of Compete America, the tech lobbying group in Washington, remembers asking him: "How would you like to sit down with a bunch of patent lawyers for a couple of hours? And his response was 'Sure,'" Hoffman said. "Sometimes watching paint dry is more exciting." Some warn not to be misled by his friendly demeanor, that Genachowski can be tough and also fiercely competitive, on all levels. That must be why he still makes his regular Sunday pickup basketball games with old friends from his days clerking at the Supreme Court. And obviously, Genachowski has proved his resilience, having worked for eight years under a taskmaster CEO like Diller.