High-Tech Group Makes Surprise Pick For President
As CongressDaily reported on Thursday, the Information Technology Industry Council surprised some tech policy watchers by announcing that longtime president Rhett Dawson’s successor will be Dean Garfield, who is currently chief strategic officer for the Motion Picture Association of America. Garfield will take the helm at ITI when Dawson retires in December. Garfield took a moment during ITI's board meeting in California to chat with us about his new gig.
Q: What experience do you bring to the job, particularly from MPAA?
A: Over the last three years I've spent lot of time doing strategic planning and working on the convergence between media and information technology. The combination of those two things will serve us well at ITI. An important part of what I do with my work is looking at how we can make sure ITI remains and grows into a thought leader for IT issues in the U.S. and globally. I have learned from my time at MPAA that in this world of growing convergence, it's impossible for media to be successful on its own. Much of our success is due to IT.
Q: What do you say to those who question a content industry executive's appointment to a leadership post at a high-tech trade group?
A: I spend lot of time being creative and one thing I know is that in a time of change, the old rules don’t always work and the old alliances don’t always work. They remain valuable but you have to work hard at building new relationships. Sure, we may have had our policy differences on various issues but I've tried to instill a belief in being pragmatic and not making it personal. As time goes on, trust that my interest will be consistent with stakeholders at ITI.
ITI Board Chair Laura Ipsen, who is senior vice president for global policy at Cisco Systems, also weighed in on Garfield's selection, saying she had a long list of reasons why he was the ideal candidate. "Dean is someone who I think is a creative thinker and strategist. When we met he'd just been to China and testified in Brussels. He has a comfort level with our technology and a deep knowledge of policy issues. He's already made the connection with our world," she said.
Join the Discussion
The National Journal Group has the right (but not the obligation) to monitor the comments and to remove any materials it deems inappropriate.
Comments powered by Disqus