Tom wheeler fcc biography of barack

American businessman and politician (born 1946)

For persons of a similar name, see Thomas Wheeler (disambiguation).

Not to be confused with Tim Wheeler.

Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

He was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in November 2013. Prior to working at the FCC, Wheeler worked as a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry, whom the FCC is now responsible for regulating, and holding positions including President of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA). As was customary for the FCC chairman, Wheeler resigned his seat when the new administration of Donald Trump began on January 20, 2017, and was succeeded by Ajit Pai.

Career

Wheeler was born on April 5, 1946, in Redlands, California. He attended The Ohio State University. From 1969 to 1976, Wheeler led the trade group Grocery Manufacturers of America. He then went on to work at the National Cable & Telecommunications Association from 1976 to 1984, becoming president of the trade group in 1979. For a year until its closure, Wheeler was president of NABU Network, before spending a number of years creating or running several different technology startups. In 1992, he became the CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association, a post he held until 2004. From 2005 Wheeler was a technology entrepreneur and executive at Core Capital Partners.

Originally considered a frontrunner for the position, Wheeler was confirmed as the new Federal Communications Commission c

Tom Wheeler is a businessman, author, and was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2013 to 2017. Presently, he is a visiting fellow in Governance Studies at Brookings and a senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

For over four decades, Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services. At the FCC he led the efforts that resulted in the adoption of Net Neutrality, privacy protections for consumers, and increased cybersecurity, among other policies. As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering innovative cable, wireless, and video communications services. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and the Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact President Obama joked made him “the Bo Jackson of telecom.”

Filmmaker Ken Burns described Mr. Wheeler as “one of the foremost explainers of technology and its effects throughout our history.” His most recent book is “TECHLASH: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age?” (Brookings Press, 2023). He is also the author of “From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future” (Brookings Press, 2019), updated and reissued in paperback as “From Gutenberg to Google and On to AI“ (Brookings Press 2024), as well as “Take Command: Leadership Lessons from the Civil War” (Doubleday, 2000), and “Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War” (HarperCollins, 2006). 

Affiliations and external activities

• Actility, S.A. – Board Member
• Gerson Lehrman Group – Consultant 
• Global Counsel – Senior Advisor
• RapidSOS – Advisory Board
• Third Bridge – Consultant
• Harvard Kennedy School – Senior Research Fellow

• Past Positions

  • Chairman, FCC
  • President and CEO, Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA)
  • President and CEO, NCTA

• Education

  • The Ohio State U

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In the aftermath of the deadly Capitol insurrection, Tom Wheeler—a technology regulation advocate and former chair of the Federal Communications Commission—got back to work. “These are the results of platform companies developing services without stopping to consider, ‘What are the consequences?’” he said.Wheeler, who is seventy-four—and, now, a Walter Shorenstein fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School—may be uniquely positioned to effect change.

Leading the FCC under Barack Obama, Wheeler imposed rules for net neutrality, privacy, and cybersecurity. Then Donald Trump took office, and Ajit Pai was appointed FCC head; all of Wheeler’s signature accomplishments were rolled back. “It was painful,” he said. “You have the things you fought hard for and believe strongly in, and then you see the manufacturing of alternative facts that were misleading and designed to do away with these kinds of improvements.”

When his term was up, Wheeler spent three months at the Aspen Institute (“A fermentation process,” he called it), mulling how to build a regulatory framework that could keep up with an industry whose mantra is “Move fast and break things.” He went to the Brookings Institution, then landed at Harvard, where, with two colleagues, he began to come up with an answer. Last August the trio—Wheeler, Phil Verveer, and Gene Kimmelman—released a proposal for a new government body, to be known as the Digital Platform Agency, that could regulate tech platforms just as the Federal Aviation Administration regulates airlines and aircraft builders. 

“What we’re proposing is an agency that is reflective of the fact that internet capitalism is different from industrial capitalism,” Wheeler said. “The solution is not to try and force a square peg in the round hole.” Currently, oversight of technology companies falls to the FCC and the Federal Trade Commission; neither has t

Tom Wheeler became the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on November 4, 2013 and served until January 20, 2017. Chairman Wheeler was appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate.

For over three decades, Chairman Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services, experiencing the revolution in telecommunications as a policy expert, an advocate, and a businessman. As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering innovative cable, wireless, and video communications services. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and The Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact President Obama joked made him "The Bo Jackson of Telecom."

Prior to joining the FCC, Chairman Wheeler was Managing Director at Core Capital Partners, a venture capital firm investing in early stage Internet Protocol (IP)-based companies. He served as President and CEO of Shiloh Group, LLC, a strategy development and private investment company specializing in telecommunications services and co-founded SmartBrief, the internet's largest electronic information service for vertical markets. From 1976 to 1984, Chairman Wheeler was associated with the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), where he was President and CEO from 1979 to 1984. Following NCTA, Chairman Wheeler was CEO of several high tech companies, including the first company to offer high speed delivery of data to home computers and the first digital video satellite service. From 1992 to 2004, Chairman Wheeler served as President and CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).

Chairman Wheeler wrote Take Command: Leadership Lessons of the Civil War (Doubleday, 2000) and Mr. Lincoln's T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War (HarperCollins, 2006). His commentaries on current events have been published in the Washin