The Honorable Gregory L. Rohde
Gregory L. Rohde is the President of e-Copernicus (www.e-copernicus.com) – a telecommunications consulting firm providing broadband and telecommunications project financing, business development services, and government affairs representation in legislative and regulatory areas. Clients include multi-national corporations, small companies and start-up firms, non-profit organizations, and municipal governments.
Rohde also serves as the Executive Director of the E9-1-1 Institute (www.e911institute.org) – a not-for-profit organization that supports the Congressional E9-1-1 Caucus in promoting E9-1-1 and emergency communications development and public policy education.
Rohde is the former Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and the Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the telecommunications and information service policy agency of the United States government and manager of the federal radio magnetic spectrum. As the head of NTIA, he served as the principal advisor on telecommunications and information policies, domestic and international, to the President of the United States and was the lead voice of the Administration on matters before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and on international telecommunications policy issues.
While at NTIA, Mr. Rohde was the Administration’s point person on efforts to close the “digital divide;” promote innovation and development of wireless technologies; and advance pro-competitive international telecommunications policies in important areas such as Internet charging arrangements and privacy protection. Mr. Rohde spearheaded the Administration’s effort to implement the agreement on advanced wireless services, otherwise known as Third Generation wireless services (3G). Mr. Rohde, working closely with Congress, doubled funding for the Technology Opportunities Program (TOP), a grant program which brings telecommunications and local organizations emphasizing cutting technologies to underserved populations and the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program (PTFP), another federal grant program which funds digital broadcast conversion for non-commercial broadcasters. Mr. Rohde also established a strong record of enhancing national security and public safety needs related to spectrum use and promoting innovative wireless technologies.
Mr. Rohde’s public service career began in 1988 with U.S. Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) for whom he worked for more than 10 years as chief policy advisor for all areas of jurisdiction under the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation. Mr. Rohde played a key role in major legislation such as the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Internet Tax Freedom Act, and the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999.
Born in Pierre, South Dakota in 1961, Mr. Rohde graduated from North Dakota State University, where he graduated in 1985 with a B.S. in Education with Sociology and Philosophy majors. He holds a graduate degree in Theology from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. where he graduated in 1988.