Friday, February 10, 2012

PFF's Thierer Assumes Top Job

October 16, 2009

pffthierer.jpgThink tankers at the Progress and Freedom Foundation will play musical chairs on Friday as the group's president, Ken Ferree, steps down to become a senior fellow and longtime senior fellow and director of PFF's Center for Digital Media Freedom Adam Thierer assumes the top job. Ferree, a former chief of the FCC Media Burea, became president of PFF in November 2007 after an executive-level exodus. Thierer formally joined PFF in 2005 but has been involved with group since its creation 16 years ago. He is an expert on content regulation and child safety, Internet governance, and intellectual property.

PFF Chairman and co-founder George "Jay" Keyworth said Thierer is "the perfect choice" to lead the group and said under Ferree's leadership, PFF has "played a leading role in the debate about technology policy issues in Washington issues." Ferree had been splitting his time between D.C. and Lake Tahoe, Calif., where he moved his family in 2007. Thierer said he looks forward to continuing the organization's vision of defending individual liberty, free markets, freedom of speech, and property rights.

The group is also working to re-launch its annual tech policy summit after PFF cancelled this year's event, which was to be held in August at Robert Redford's swanky Sundance Resort in Utah, Thierer said. Ferree cited the nation's ongoing economic woes as the rationale for pulling the plug on the popular outside the Beltway soiree. The summer retreat for lobbyists and policy experts had been held in Aspen, Colo. for 14 years before the group decided to relocate for 2009. The 2010 conference will be held in the Beehive State.

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Juliana Gruenwald

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Juliana Gruenwald has been covering tech and telecom issues for more than a decade for National Journal, Interactive Week, BNA and Congressional Quarterly. This is her second stint with National Journal. She was recruited by NJ in 1998 to help launch its first tech policy publication, Technology Daily. She left in 2000 to cover international tech and telecom issues for Ziff Davis Media's Interactive Week magazine. She started her career at United Press International as the wire service's first Helen Thomas Intern. She has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Minnesota. A Minneapolis native, she misses the lakes but not the cold.


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Josh Smith covers technology policy as a staff reporter for National Journal. He previously interned at National Journal Daily, a Senate press office, and the Deseret News in Salt Lake City where he covered the state legislature, courts, and crime. In 2009 he graduated with honors from Southern Utah University after managing an award-winning student newspaper as editor-in-chief. Josh has received state, regional and national awards for his political and policy reporting, including first place in CapitolBeat’s 2009 Best of Statehouse Reporting college competition. A native of drop-dead-gorgeous Utah, Josh lives in Virginia with his wife, Amber.