Oral history interview with Julius Genachowski, 2021
Abstract
Julius Genachowski discusses his personal relationship with Barack Obama and reflects on his contributions to Obama's 2008 campaign, transition, and presidential administration, in which he served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2013. Genachowski remembers becoming friends with Obama while classmates at Harvard Law School, and shares stories about conversatio ns they had about the relationship between politics and new communications technologies, which proved important during the 2008 campaign. Genachowski describes his efforts to expand the 2008 campaign's technology staff, and the focus on using the internet and nascent social media platforms for organizing, communicating, and fundraising. Genachowski also discusses his contribution to the technology, media, and telecommunications policy groups on both the campaign and transition, and outlines how this early work informed his tenure as FCC chair, including by its increased focus on internet and broadband over television and radio, and the inclusion of a provision in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that required the FCC to develop a national broadband plan. Also discussed are the creation of the positions of chief technology officer and chief information officer, their roles in the Obama White House, and Genachowski's involvement in the selection of personnel for the positions
Presidents--United States; Broadband communication systems--Law and legislation--United States; Technology and state--United States; Social media in government--United States; Genachowski, Julius M., 1962-; Obama, Barack; Columbia University Alumni and alumnae; Harvard Law School; United States. Federal Communications Commission; United States; American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009
Format
oral histories
Genre
Interviews
Date
2021
Physical Description
105 pages
Note (Biographical)
Julius Genachowski is an American lawyer and businessman who was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2013. He also worked on the Obama 2008 presidential campaign and for the Obama presidential transition on issues rela ted to technology and the FCC. Before the years of the Obama presidency, Genachowski was a classmate of Barack Obama's at Harvard Law School; a law clerk to Judge Abner J. Mikva on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and to Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan and David Souter; and a legal advisor and counselor at the FCC in the Clinton administration. After leaving the FCC in 2013, Genachowski joined The Carlyle Group as managing director
Note
Interviewed by Mary Marshall Clark on October 7, 2020, and by Julius Wilson on August 26, 2021. This interview is part of the Columbia University: Obama Presidency Oral History
Note (Provenance)
Julius Genachowski, Gift, transferred from Columbia Center for Oral History Research 2023