Commerce Sec Penny Pritzker Announces Appointees to Inaugural Digital Economy Board of Advisors

US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker announced the appointment of 17 distinguished leaders with a wide range of expertise on digital policy and economic issues to serve on the US Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors, which will provide recommendations on ways to advance economic growth and opportunity in the digital age.

November 2015, Sec Pritzker committed to creating a Board of Advisors as a mechanism for ensuring private sector input and support for the Department’s new Digital Economy Agenda, which is focused on promoting innovation, a free and open Internet, trust online, and Internet access for all Americans. Zoë Baird, CEO and President of the Markle Foundation, and Mitchell Baker, Executive Chairwoman of Mozilla, will serve as co-chairs of the new digital economy board. The appointees, who will serve two-year terms, were chosen from a large pool of highly-qualified applicants from industry, civil society and academia to provide expertise from a variety of viewpoints. The board will provide recommendations to the Secretary of Commerce through NTIA, which is responsible for advising the President on telecommunications and information policy issues. Alan Davidson, the Commerce Department’s Director of the Digital Economy who helped develop the board, will engage with the board on its agenda and work with the Secretary and NTIA to implement the board’s recommendations.