Personnel Notes

Justin Amash, the freshman Michigan state representative, used Facebook to announced his candidacy for Congress Tuesday.

"I am committed to bringing restraint, accountability, and transparency to the federal government," he said on his political Facebook page. "The president and Congress are spending our money and our children's money to bail out failing companies and reward irresponsibility. Government should not be entangled in our private industries and personal lives."

His announcement simultaneously went live on Twitter.

Amash, 29, announced his candidacy just hours before the man he wanted to unseat, 76-year-old Rep. Vern Ehlers (R-Mich.), announced his retirement.

Ehlers is ranking member of the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Research and Science Education. He is a vocal advocate of a federal ban of online poker. With a PhD in nuclear physics, he is also known as a valuable friend to the technology industry and increased support for science, math and engineering training.

Amash has also used technology make a name for himself, using social media and online video to stay connected with the younger set of conservative voters in Michigan.

Another former Google employee has joined the Obama administration.

The Department of Defense last week appointed Sumit Agarwal to the Senior Executive Service. Agarwal was previously head of mobile product management for Google in Mountain View, Calif.

He is now deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for outreach and social media in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

That's a muddy title-- and his actual job description is also fairly vague. We'll look into it.

Agarwal is the fourth Googler to join the government's ranks since President Barack Obama took office.

Disney has promoted Richard Bates to run its government relations operations in Washington.

Bates will replace Preston Padden, who will have been with the company for nearly 30 years when he retires next year. Padden plans to become a senior fellow and adjunct professor at University of Colorado Law School.

Bates, who has served as Padden's No. 2, has been with Disney for 19 years. Before joining Disney, he was executive director for the Democratice Congressional Campaign Committee.

His promotion ends speculation that Bates would replace Dan Glickman, who stepped down as head of the Motion Picture Association of America. Bob Pisano has been named interim CEO while MPAA searches for a replacement.

The Office of Personnel Management's new federal job site, USAJobs.gov, got a makeover today. It now eerily resembles Google's spartan homepage with two simple search fields.

Google isn't the only tech company from which OPM took cues.

OPM Director John Berry visited Facebook's Palo Alto headquarters not too long ago to gather ideas and advice about the new site. Berry also met with Facebook's human resources department and with employees to talk about their perceptions of government jobs.

And now job-hunters can share information from USAJobs.gov with others on Facebook.

The government is expected to increase its hiring over the next two years, and the recession has prompted tens of thousands of job seekers to apply through the site.

Dan Glickman will step down as the head of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) on April 1 but his permanent replacement has not been found yet.
 
It was announced Friday that Bob Pisano, president and chief operating officer at MPAA, will jump in to serve as interim CEO for the business association that represents the movie industry while the search will continue for Glickman’s replacement.

Glickman, a former nine-term Democratic congressman from Kansas and Agriculture secretary during the Clinton administration, has been MPAA’s CEO since 2004. He previously announced that he would not seek to renew his contract beyond September 2010 and has worked with the trade group to find its new leader. Glickman will move on to Refugees International, where he will be president. Read more...

Andrew Reinsdorf has been promoted to DirecTV's senior vice president of government affairs. He will now oversee the company's federal and state legislative lobbying efforts. He will also lead efforts for DirecTV's Political Action Committee.

Reinsdorf has been with the satellite company's Washington office for five years, working on legislative strategy. Before joining DirecTV, he worked at the National Association of Broadcasters, Nestle USA and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

He's currently the chair of the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association.

Google has hired the head of communications for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) 2008 presidential campaign to lead its corporate communications .

Jill Hazelbaker will work from the search engine’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters, the company said.

Hazelbaker most recently worked on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's reelection campaign and has been called a Republican "Press Pro."

She received some negative attention from the press when she was accused of astroturfing in 2006.

While serving as press secretary for Tom Kean Jr.'s campaign for Senate in New Jersey, she was accused of using a pseudonym to post negative comments about incumbent Democrat Robert Menendez. The IP address used to post those comments was traced back to Kean's campaign office, and the New York Times reported at the time that the same IP address had also been used to send emails signed by Hazelbaker.

An IP address is like a telephone number and is usually specific to individual computers. Hazelbaker and Kean both denied her involvement with the alleged astro-turfing, and Hazelbaker called the accusations "nonsense." Kean was ultimately defeated.

Hazelbaker has plenty of ties in Washington-- good news for a company that increasingly finds itself under the watchful eye of lawmakers. A native of Oregon, Hazelbaker worked on Sen. Gordon Smith's 2002 reelection campaign. Gordon is now head of the National Association of Broadcasters.

Jamie Hedlund will soon take over as ICANN's lobbyist, replacing Paul Levins who is moving back to his native Australia.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which manages domain names and Internet's underlying infrastructure, is experiencing a lot of change. In September, an agreement was reached with the Commerce Department to shift more control of the system to other governments, causing some in Congress to worry about the reduced U.S. influence. ICANN is also planning to introduce new top level domain names, like .eco, .food, .wine, etc., which is controversial with Web-based companies who don't want to have to buy a whole host of new domain names to prevent cyber-squatting.

Hedlund is now vice president for regulatory affairs at the Consumer Electronics Association. It's a good thing Hedlund is switching jobs until the end of the month--he's probably needed at CEA's major event--the Consumer Electronics Show--taking place in Las Vegas right now.

Before that, he was director of public policy for Yahoo after serving as a staff attorney at the FCC.

Condoleezza Rice is on the board of directors for a new energy company hoping to take advantage of cap-and-trade legislation.

The former secretary of state, who has been teaching political science at Stanford University since the end of the Bush administration, is taking a leading role in a start-up straight out of the university known for its technological prowess. The stealth start-up, called C3, is hoping to make carbon cap-and-trade systems for businesses, according to TechCrunch.

Rice isn't the only politically connected player on the board. C3 also counts former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham.

The company is the brainchild of Thomas Siebel, founder of Siebel Systems, which was bought by Cisco in 2005 for $5.7 billion. Siebel is no political slouch himself — he took a lead role in introducing vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to California.

Rice's involvement in the company could suggest it is planning on going international, leveraging her experience and relationships on a global scale.

Little is known about the company, which is keeping much meaningful information under wraps. But according to filings with the SEC, it has secured about $26 million in private funding.

Of course, the company's future viability depends on whether Congress adopts a cap-and-trade system, which the Obama administration has been pushing for.

Frank Cavaliere, who has been senior counsel of federal affairs and policy at the Motion Picture Association of America, will be joining Microsoft to lead the company's lobbying efforts in the Senate.

At MPAA, Cavaliere handled issues before Congress and the FCC. Prior to MPAA, he was vice president of federal and regulatory affairs at Vonage. Before that, he served as deputy legislative director in the senatorial office of George Allen, handling technology, telecom and science issues.