Personnel Notes

Former Sen. Dodd will become MPAA chairman, one of the most prestigious lobbying jobs in Washington, on March 17.

Facebook announced this week that former National Republican Senatorial Committee staffer Katie Harbath will join its Washington office to help with outreach to elected officials.

Harbath most recently served as the NRSC's chief digital strategist. Prior to that she worked at the public affairs firm DCI Group. She helped manage online outreach for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign and for the Republican National Committee.

At Facebook, Harbarth will assist Adam Conner in helping lawmakers and campaigns use the social network to connect directly with the public. She will be focused on developing relationships with the 2012 presidential campaigns and helping them leverage the site to appeal to voters.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke appointed Teresa Stanek Rea as deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on Thursday.

“Teresa has an impressive track record of success across several disciplines and will be a tremendous asset to the USPTO,” Locke said.

“Her leadership will be instrumental in the USPTO's efforts to foster economic growth and job creation by reducing the backlog of patent applications, enhancing patent and trademark quality, and becoming more efficient.”

Commerce described Rea, currently a partner in Crowell & Moring LLP’s Washington office, as a leading attorney in the field of intellectual property in a release. She has more than 25 years of legal experience and has served as president of the American Intellectual Property Law Association.

Rea will lead the office that encourages innovation and helps businesses protect intellectual property from piracy and deception in the marketplace. In her new role she will work alongside USPTO Director David Kappos.

“Director Kappos has assembled a hard-working and highly talented team at the USPTO, and I am pleased to have the opportunity to join them in working to improve the agency,” Rea said.

A Republican-leaning lobbying firm is quickly establishing itself as a power player in the world of Washington tech lobbying, adding two of Silicon Valley’s biggest names to its client sheet in the course of a single month.

The D.C. firm Fierce, Isakowitz & Blalock has been hired by Facebook to lobby on “legislative and policy issues related to technology and Internet policy, including personal privacy, protecting children, and advancing online security,” according to a disclosure form filed Tuesday.

The registration with Facebook took effect on Feb. 1, the same day the firm began lobbying for Apple Inc. on “innovation” issues, according to disclosure records.

The Federal Communications Council announced six new members will joint its Technical Advisory Council on Monday including former Four-Star General Wesley Clark.

“These are first-rate business leaders," said FCC chairman Julius Genachowski. "I am confident they will help the FCC spur job creation, investment and American competitiveness through technology innovation and the expansion of broadband services.”

The council consists of of industry leaders who will provide the chairman with recommendations for how the Commission can ensure the Internet and the nation's digital infrastructure continue to evolve.

The council was revived last year and held its first meeting in December, where they identified regulatory hurdles for broadband providers and providing incentives for retiring legacy systems as other areas the Commission should address to stimulate broadband innovation.

The list of new council members and their official biographies are after the jump.

The Obama administration's point man on health information technology, David Blumenthal, is stepping down to return to his teaching post at Harvard Medical School.

As national coordinator for health IT, Blumenthal's main task has been to come up with rules for how physicians and hospitals can qualify for the $27 billion in incentives for the adoption of electronic medical records included in the Recovery Act.

He has also spent the past two years focused on outreach and raising the visibility and importance of the transition to electronic medical records, which supporters believe will eventually reduce healthcare costs and improve the quality of patient outcomes.

The healthcare IT industry has been a strong supporter of the administration's efforts to boost adoption, while critics have noted the grants do not cover the entire cost of implementing an e-health record system and could be viewed as simply a subsidy for the health IT industry.

Managing the Office of the National Coordinator has been another challenge, as the stimulus funding has swollen the office's budget and the scope of its mission by several orders of magnitude. The Department of Health and Human Services is reportedly conducting a nationwide search for Blumenthal's successor.

Apple has hired security expert and former National Security Agency analyst David Rice to be director of global security starting in March, according to a report from All Things D.

Rice, who is widely respected in the cybersecurity committee, currently serves as director of the security firm Monterey Group and as a faculty member for the SANS Institute and the Institute for Applied Network Security. He also authored the book Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software.

Rice previously served as an Global Network Vulnerability Analyst for the National Security Agency and a Special Duty Cryptologic Officer for the United State Navy.

He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1994 and earned a Master of Science in Information Warfare and Systems Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Dell announced Monday that Richard Pineda has been promoted to lead the unit that sells consulting services to the federal government.

Pineda will lead the Fairfax, Va.-based Federal Government Services organization, formerly Perot Systems, after serving as vice president and chief operations leader. Pineda joined Perot Systems in March of 1997 and previously led the Department of Defense division. He is also a member of the board of the Professional Services Council.

“In this era of next generation technologies, Federal agencies have an opportunity to take a fresh approach to their IT operations and implement newer solutions that will yield greater efficiencies and long-term, mission-enabling benefits," Pineda said in a statement.

“Richard brings with him exceptional financial management expertise and proven leadership ability to his new role as Vice President," said Dell public sector services vice president Chuck Lyles. "He has the energy and vision to help us drive increased growth while continuing our excellent service delivery to Federal customers.”

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs announced Monday he will be taking a medical leave of absence but will continue to serve as CEO.

"At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company," Jobs said in a letter to employees.

In the letter Jobs failed to explain the nature of his illness, but he took a leave of absence in 2004 to undergo treatment for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He has made fewer public appearances in the subsequent years.

Jobs's absence comes as Apple's stock is at an all-time high and poised to climb thanks to the recent announcement that Verizon will begin selling the iPhone. Chief operating officer Tim Cook will take over day-to-day operations until he returns.

"I have great confidence that Tim and the rest of the executive management team will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans we have in place for 2011," Jobs said.

Few, if any, corporate leaders are as closely identified with the companies they lead as Jobs, whose return to Apple in 1997 reversed the struggling technology firm's fortunes and lead to one of the most successful and influential companies in the world today.

The Public Interest Registry, which manages the .org domain, announced Friday that Brian Cute has been named chief executive officer.

"PIR's core mission is to serve the public interest and provide a safer, more secure Internet. Those primary values echo throughout Brian's work and general approach," said Maarten Botterman, chairman of PIR's board and interim CEO.

"As Chairman of the Accountability and Transparency Review Team at ICANN [Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], Brian has constructively advanced the ongoing debate of getting the Internet industry to function more explicitly and effectively."

Cute has extensive experience in the domain name system (DNS) industry, having previously worked for Network Solutions as director of policy, and leading registry firm VeriSign as vice president of government relations until 2003.

Prior to joining PIR he served as vice president of discovery services for Afilias, a leading Internet infrastructure provider and the registry systems provider to PIR for the .org domain.

"I have long admired the work being accomplished by PIR and am eager to work alongside its team to promote and achieve a safer Internet as well as advance .org's position as a leading domain among registries, for registrars and as a trusted resource for Internet users," Cute said.