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Former FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell Joins Cisco Board of Directors TMCnet Assignment Editor Two years after Michael Powell resigned as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, he finds himself in a familiar backyard: He is now on the board of directors at Cisco. The network equipment giant announced Powell’s appointment on Thursday. His political clout in Washington and his deep involvement in drafting and upholding telecom regulations will no doubt make him a tremendous asset to the Cisco board. Powell, 43 - the son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell - was nominated to a Republican seat on the five-seat FCC (News - Alert) by President William J. Clinton in 1997, and was appointed chairman by President George W. Bush in 2001. He is currently a senior advisor of Providence Equity Partners and chairman of the MK Powell Group. He is also a member of the board of trustees of the RAND Corporation and the Aspen Institute. Additionally, he serves on the boards of ObjectVideo and CMWare, Inc. Previously, Powell served as the Chief of Staff of the Antitrust Division in the Department of Justice. Before joining the Antitrust Division, he was an associate in the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, and just prior to joining the firm clerked for the Honorable Harry T. Edwards, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Before starting his legal career, Powell served as a policy advisor to Secretary of Defense Richard B. Cheney. His experience also includes military service as an armored cavalry officer in the United States Army. He holds a bachelor’s degree in government from the College of William and Mary and a JD degree from the Georgetown University Law Center. As chairman of the FCC, Powell was a staunch proponent of deregulating communications – more specifically, sparing Internet communications from the clutches of government regulation. In his view, excessive regulation only stifles technological innovation. Hence, he led the charge to open up markets in VoIP  , WiFi (News - Alert) and Broadband over Powerline (BPL), believing fully that these new technologies would allow small companies to take on established corporations.However, during the period he served as chairman, the telecom industry saw significant consolidation – and partly as a result of that, these emerging technologies made little headway. Powell was frequently criticized for embracing a free-market approach – and, naturally, this criticism only increased when he began advocating an updating of media ownership rules to reflect the emergence of the Internet as a new communications medium. During his chairmanship, the FCC ruled that the government was not required to impose open-access requirements on cable broadband. In addition to being a supporter of free markets, Powell was also a supporter of network neutrality – the notion that network operators should be prohibited from blocking or degrading Internet services, or blocking access to certain websites. In fact, in March 2005, the FCC fined Madison River Communications for blocking VoIP - the first-ever government action of its kind. Powell’s position on net neutrality is arguably in contrast with Cisco’s stated philosophy that the Internet should be left open, but that the government should not be involved in regulating it. Interestingly, Cisco also recently appointed Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo!, who is one of the most vocal advocates of network neutrality, to its board of directors. Perhaps this brings better “balance” to the board, in terms of having two members who take different approaches to the net neutrality debate. “We are extremely pleased to welcome Michael Powell to Cisco’s board of directors,” said John Chambers, chairman and CEO of Cisco, in a statement. “Michael’s broad experience with the communications sector - from his support of affordable, widespread broadband deployment in the United States while FCC Chairman, to his understanding of the enormous possibilities created by the convergence of data, voice and video - makes him an invaluable addition to the board.” -------- Patrick Barnard is Assignment Editor for TMCnet and a columnist covering the telecom industry. To see more of his articles, please visit Patrick Barnard’s columnist page. |