Julius Genachowski

Chairman, FCC

Julius Genachowski became Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission in June 2009 and has since focused the agency on unleashing the opportunities of wired and wireless broadband. He has successfully pursued policies to promote investment and job creation, drive innovation, foster competition, and empower consumers.

During Genachowski's tenure, the FCC developed and is implementing the National Broadband Plan, an ambitious strategy to harness the opportunities of high-speed Internet, promote U.S. global competitiveness, and bring the benefits of 21st century communications to all Americans.

The Commission under Genachowski's leadership developed a bold "incentive auctions" initiative to deploy market forces to reallocate broadcast spectrum from inefficient uses to flexible mobile broadband, which was signed into law in February 2012. The Commission also ordered the largest release of unlicensed spectrum in 15 years, building on the approach that gave us Wi-Fi.

As chief executive of the FCC, Genachowski oversees over 1,700 employees, an agency budget of about $400 million per year, and universal-service and other programs disbursing about $10 billion annually.

Prior to his FCC appointment, Genachowski spent more than a decade working in the technology and media industries as an executive, investor, and board member. He was Chief of Business Operations and before that General Counsel at IAC/InterActiveCorp; Special Advisor at the private equity firm General Atlantic; and co-founder of the technology incubator LaunchBox Digital.

Genachowski's confirmation returned him to the agency where, in the 1990s, he served as Chief Counsel to Chairman Reed Hundt, as well as Special Counsel to General Counsel William Kennard (later FCC Chairman, 1997-2001). He has served as a U.S. Supreme Court law clerk for two years, for Justice David Souter and Justice William J. Brennan, Jr., and as a clerk for Chief Judge Abner Mikva of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Genachowski worked in Congress on the staff of the House select committee investigating the Iran-Contra affair, and for then-U.S. Representative (now Senator) Charles E. Schumer.

Genachowski received a J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1991, and served as co-Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review. In 1985, he received a B.A. from Columbia College, magna cum laude, where he was Editor of Columbia Spectator's Broadway Magazine; re-established Columbia's oldest newspaper Acta Columbiana; and was a writer and researcher for Fred Friendly, former President of CBS News. He was also a certified Emergency Medical Technician, served on the Columbia Area Volunteer Ambulance, and taught cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

A son of immigrants, Genachowski is married and has three children.