Julius Genachowski ’91, who served as chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 2009 until May of this year, will teach a course to students from Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School in the fall semester.
The course, ‘Running a Federal Agency: Lessons from Business, Technology and Game Theory,’ will be offered jointly by the two schools. At HLS, Genachowski will be the inaugural holder of the Steven and Maureen Klinsky Professorship of Practice for Leadership and Progress. At HBS, he will be a Visiting Scholar.
As chairman of the FCC, Genachowski focused the agency on unleashing the opportunities of wired and wireless broadband, successfully pursuing policies to promote investment and job creation, drive innovation, foster competition, and empower consumers. Genachowski’s tenure at the FCC saw a strengthening of America’s tech-related global competitiveness and strong improvement in key broadband metrics, including record-setting private investment, significant increases in broadband speeds, and unparalleled innovation in networks, devices and applications. Genachowski also expanded the FCC’s international engagement, visiting 22 countries and concluding several international agreements.
Earlier he worked for many years in senior positions in the private sector, helping build IAC/InterActiveCorp, which owned and operated multiple Internet and media businesses including Expedia, Ticketmaster, and USA Network, working as an investor, and serving as board members of public and private companies. Genachowski is now a Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute, the non-partisan leadership and policy organization based in Washington DC, with its Communications and Society Program.
“Julius spent more than a decade working in the technology and media industries,” said HLS Dean Martha Minow, “as an executive, investor, and board member; as general counsel and then chief of business operations at IAC/InterActiveCorp; as special adviser at the private equity firm General Atlantic; and as co-founder of the technology incubator LaunchBox Digital. Then he accepted the challenge to assume the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, which under his leadership, developed the National Broadband Plan to harness the opportunities of high-speed Internet for education, business, public safety, and new frontiers in communications that touch every person around the globe, every day. It will be fabulous for his colleagues and students to learn from Julius about his thinking behind incentive auctions using market forces to reallocate broadcast spectrum for mobile broadband, the largest release of unlicensed spectrum in 15 years, preserving Internet freedom for innovation, the ongoing challenges to balance protections for speech and protections against cyber-threats, the impact of technology and economics on mergers in media, telecom, and technology, reform of complex regulatory systems from telephone to broadband, and the accomplishments and opportunities in ensuring access to technology and media for people with disabilities. On behalf of the students and faculty at Harvard who will reap the rewards of this gift, I give my emphatic thanks to Steve and Maureen, and delighted welcome to Julius!”
Said Genachowski: “What a privilege to become affiliated with Harvard, and to have the chance to engage with Harvard students and faculty. As I return to the private sector after the honor of four years in government, I’m grateful to Harvard’s Law and Business Schools—and particularly Dean Martha Minow—for encouraging me to share my insights about the way technology-driven changes are affecting our economy and society, businesses and people all over the world. The opportunities and challenges of technology are vast, and this is just one of many steps Harvard is taking to focus on them. I’m also very grateful for the foresight and generosity of Steve and Maureen Klinsky in endowing a position to encourage visiting leaders from fields beyond law to bring their experience and perspective to Harvard.”