FCC Names New TAC Members

The Federal Communications Commission announced the appointment of six members to its Technical Advisory Council (TAC).

The TAC members consist of leaders in their respective fields who will share ideas and provide recommendations to the FCC Chairman on issues relevant to the FCC's work and ongoing efforts to harness technological innovations in today's competitive business landscape. The new members span a range of expertise, including the financial sector, system integrators and leading broadband technology companies.

The new Technical Advisory Council members are:

1. Shahid Ahmed, Network Practice Lead, Accenture: Mr. Ahmed is the global lead for the Wireless Technology Consulting Practice and manages the North American Practice for the Accenture Cisco Business Group, a joint partnership between Cisco and Accenture. Mr. Ahmed has spent more than 15 years helping enterprise and mobile operators worldwide achieve high performance operation.
2. General Wesley Clark (U.S. Army, ret.): Serves as Chairman and CEO of Wesley K. Clark and Associates, a strategic consulting firm. General Clark also serves as Chairman of Rodman and Renshaw Investment Bank. He built an illustrious military career, retiring at the rank of Four-Star General.
3. Paul Mankiewich, Chief Architect, Mobility Solutions, Juniper Networks: Mr. Mankiewich is the former CTO of Americas for Alcatel-Lucent and is now Chief Architect, Mobility Solutions for Juniper Networks. He has received numerous awards for wireless innovation and has published more than 80 papers on the subject.
4. John Marinho, Director, Enterprise Mobility Solutions, Dell, Incorporated: In his current role, Mr. Marinho is responsible for bringing end-to-end wireless solutions to market. Prior to his position with Dell, Inc., Mr. Marinho held leadership positions at several companies including Bell Laboratories, where he was the recipient of the Bell Labs President's Award for Innovation. He holds multiple patents in the field of communications technology.
5. Deven Parekh, Managing Director, Insight Venture Partners: Mr. Parekh has held a senior level position with Insight for the past 10 years. He was previously a Principal at Berenson Minella & Company, a New York based merchant banking firm where he served on the firm's M & A Committee. Prior to Berenson Minella, Mr. Parekh was with The Blackstone Group, where he was involved in both M & A advisory and principal activities. He is a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.
6. Russ Gyurek, Office of the CTO, Cisco Systems: Mr. Gyurek leads the Global Technology Leadership Team under Padmasree Warrior, Cisco's CTO. In this role, Mr. Rgyurek manages multinational, multidisciplinary teams driving broadband policies and technologies for the Internet. Prior to Cisco, he managed advanced technology deployment initiatives for BellSouth.

The newly reconstituted TAC held its first meeting in December 2010 and identified a number of areas where FCC action could stimulate the nation's broadband evolution benefiting both innovation and job creation. These areas include 1) opportunities for greater infrastructure sharing among different industry sectors, such as: smart grid and healthcare; 2) reducing impediments to construction of next generation infrastructure; 3) ensuring that the nation's Internet continues to evolve competitively to next generation features such as IPv6; and 4) providing incentives for accelerating the retirement of legacy technologies and systems.