[WSIS CS-Plenary] Talk - Ambassador David A. Gross - "New Technologies and t

[lissjeffrey at sympatico.ca]

Take note that Amb. Gross is not the current US ambassador to Canada.
This is a tremendous ongoing lecture series at the U of Toronto Law faculty, 
endowed by Toronto communications lawyer, Senator Jerry Grafstein. Lawrence 
Lessig spoke two years ago.
==================
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/46292.htm
U.S. Department of State
BIOGRAPHY

David A. Gross,
Ambassador, Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs
Term of Appointment: 08/01/2001 to present

Ambassador David A. Gross, U.S. Coordinator for International Communications 
and Information PolicyAmbassador David A. Gross has served since August 2001 
as the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information 
Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He was nominated by 
President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate.

Ambassador Gross began his career in communications more than twenty years 
ago. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 (BA in 
Economics) and receiving his law degree from Columbia University in 1979, 
Ambassador Gross joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan. While 
at the law firm, he became a partner specializing in communications and 
telecommunications issues. He remained at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan until 
1994, when he was named Washington Counsel for AirTouch Communications. 
AirTouch was the world's largest wireless telecommunications company, with 
extensive interests in the United States, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

In 1999, Air Touch was acquired by Vodafone. In 2000, Ambassador Gross 
joined the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign as National Executive Director 
of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney.

Since joining the Department of State, Ambassador Gross has addressed the 
United Nations (UN) General Assembly and has led U.S. delegations to many 
major international telecommunications conferences, including the 
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2002 Plenipotentiary in 
Marrakech, Morocco, the ITU's 2002 World Telecommunication Development 
Conference in Istanbul, the ITU's 2004 World Telecommunication 
Standardization Assembly in Brazil, and two APEC Tel Ministerials, in 
Shanghai, China and Lima, Peru.  He also has led the U.S. Government's 
participation in the multilateral preparatory work for both phases of the 
UN's "Heads of State" World Summit on the Information Society, and had the 
honor of leading the U.S. delegation to the formal Summit in 2003. That 
Summit was one of the largest U.N. Summits ever held, with more than 10,000 
delegates and a very large number of heads of state and government.

Ambassador Gross is a member of the UN Information and Communications 
Technologies Task Force. He also has led interagency telecommunications 
delegations to many countries, conducted bilateral discussions at senior 
levels with representatives from more than 60 countries, and provided 
commercial and policy advocacy on behalf of U.S. companies in markets around 
the world. Ambassador Gross has had the honor to lecture at many colleges 
and universities around the world, including in the United States, Qatar, 
the UAE, Yemen, Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

For many years, Ambassador Gross has been active with various bar 
associations, including the Federal Communications Bar Association (in which 
he has twice been elected to be an officer, and has often served as co-chair 
of various committees) and the International Bar Association (in which he 
has been vice-chair of the Communications Committee). He currently resides 
in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and son.


Released on May 16, 2003
U.S. Department of State
==================

And some of us will recall:
http://www.us-mission.ch/press2003/1203WSIS.htm
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE

ON-THE-RECORD BRIEFING
Ambassador David A. Gross On World Summit
on the Information Society to be Held in Geneva, December 10-12, 2003

December 3, 2003
Washington, D.C.

(11:00 a.m. EST)

MR. CASEY: Okay, good morning, everyone. Welcome back, I hope, to the State 
Department briefing room. Pleasure to be here with you this morning, and I'd 
like to present to you our speaker, Ambassador David Gross, who will be the 
senior U.S. representative to the World Information Summit in Geneva next 
week. He's going to talk to you a little bit about U.S. positions going into 
the summit and then answer some of your questions.

And with that, Ambassador Gross.

AMBASSADOR GROSS: Thank you very much. And I'm comfortable handling this 
however you all would like. I thought it might be useful if I give you just 
a little bit of background on the summit and then open up for any Qs and As.

[ .........]

Dr J