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Few people realize Genachowski was at both Columbia College and Harvard with Obama.

Julius Genachowski

***Genachowski not only overlapped with Obama's two years at Columbia College (class of '85), but also was his Harvard law school classmate, working under Obama at the Harvard Law Review (as notes editor).

***Genachowski is credited for spearheading Obama's online campaign strategy, which used social networking and other tools to spread Obama's campaign message and raise record campaign contributions. WaPo

***He was a top bundler for Obama (over $500,000)
Net Neutrality For Campaign Donors ( Top Donor awarded FCC chairman position )

***Proponent of Net Neutrality During the campaign Mr. Genachowski shaped many of Mr. Obama’s telecommunications and technology policies. He advocated an open Internet in the debate over so-called net neutrality, and media ownership rules that promoted a diversity of voices on the airwaves. NYT

Over the last decade, the chairman of the F.C.C. has played a more expansive role in regulating the economy, particularly with the rise of the Internet and wireless communications. Now, as the new administration plans to make the expansion of broadband and Internet services a significant part of its stimulus package, Mr. Genachowski, with his close ties to Mr. Obama, could have a larger role in shaping economic policy than many of his predecessors. NYT

***Genachowski appeared to have visited executive branch offices 47 times between January 20 and August 31 (2009), according the the White House visitors log. By comparison, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner made only five appearances.

BIO Highlights

Born August 19, 1962, Genachowski, the son of Eastern European Jews who fled during the Holocaust, grew up in Great Neck, NY. His father, having fled Nazi-occupied Belgium came to the US and studied engineering at MIT.

Genachowski attended yeshiva (Jewish religious school) through high school and studied in Israel before enrolling in Columbia College.

After receiving his BA in history, magna cum laude, in 1985, Genachowski decided to postpone law school and go to work for then-Congressman Charles Schumer (D-NY). His time on Capitol Hill also included work on the staff of the special Congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair.

Upon receiving his JD in 1991, magna cum laude, from Harvard, he married that same year Boston journalist Martha Raddatz (who was previously married to Ben Bradlee III, son of the longtime Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee). They later divorced.

Genachowski's first position was as clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Obama had turned down a clerkship with Judge Mikva.

Mr. Genachowski later clerked for Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and David H. Souter.

He was chief counsel to Reed Hundt, an F.C.C. chairman during the Clinton administration.

He then worked for eight years as a senior executive at the IAC/Interactive Corporation, run by Barry Diller.

He also founded Rock Creek Ventures, an investment and advisory firm for digital media companies and co-founded the country’s first commercial “green” bank.

Genachowski is currently married to Rachel Goslins, a copyright-lawyer-turned documentary filmmaker. The couple has two children and Genachowski has a son from his first marriage.

SOURCES: NYT, AllGov, Muckety, USA Today

http://www.netcaucus.org/biography/julius-genachowski.shtml

Julius Genachowski is Co-Founder and Managing Director of Rock Creek Ventures, which invests in, launches, and advises digital media and commerce companies. He is also Co-Founder of LaunchBox Digital, a seed-stage investment program for web and mobile entrepreneurs. Previously, he served in senior executive positions for eight years at IAC/InterActiveCorp (Nasdaq: IACI), including Chief of Business Operations, General Counsel, and a member of the Office of the Chairman. Mr. Genachowski joined IAC shortly after it was founded by Chairman and CEO Barry Diller, and was a key player in IAC’s growth to become a multi-billion dollar global e-commerce and media company, comprised of leading interactive businesses including Expedia, Hotels.com, Hotwire, TripAdvisor, Ticketmaster, HSN, LendingTree, Match.com, Citysearch, ServiceMagic, Evite, Interval International and Ask.com.

Mr. Genachowski has served on the Boards of Directors of Expedia, Inc. (Nasdaq: EXPE), Hotels.com (Nasdaq: ROOM), and Ticketmaster (Nasdaq: TMCS). His current boards include Website Pros (Nasdaq: WSPI), and The Motley Fool, and he is a special advisor at General Atlantic.

Mr. Genachowski is part of the founding group of New Resource Bank, a commercial San Francisco-based bank that opened in 2006, targeting the clean-tech, renewable energy, organic food and similar sectors, the country’s first ‘green’ bank. He is on the Board of Directors of Common Sense Media, and has served on the Board of Advisors of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2).

Before joining IAC, Mr. Genachowski was Chief Counsel to Chairman Reed Hundt of the Federal Communications Commission. He has served as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and, before that, to retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. Mr. Genachowski worked in Congress on the staff of the Select Committee investigating the Iran-Contra Affair and also for then-U.S. Representative, now Senator, Charles E. Schumer.

Mr. Genachowski holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School (1991), where he was Co-Notes Editor of the Harvard Law Review; and a B.A. from Columbia College (1985).

Biography last updated January 2008

“Upon receiving his JD in 1991, magna cum laude, from Harvard, he married that same year Boston journalist Martha Raddatz (who was previously married to Ben Bradlee III, son of the longtime Washington Post editor, Ben Bradlee). They later divorced.”

http://townhall.com/blog/g/971043fb-b301-4684-8e44-b333881a4523?comments=true

Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Is It a Friend Thing?
Posted by: Carol Platt Liebau at 10:09 PM
Both James Robbins at The Corner on NRO and James Taranto at Best of the Web Today have observed that Martha Raddatz of ABC News somehow managed to find American soldiers fighting in Iraq, all of whom just happened to support Democrats — with fully 80% for Obama. This is noteworthy, of course, because (as Brent Baker at Newsbusters recalls) President Bush and Republicans enjoyed solid support from the military in 2004 . . . not that the media reported it.

So how was Ms. Raddatz able to locate such an outspoken group of Obama supporters? Could be that the army is riddled with them, of course . . . or is there another explanation?

I do not know Ms. Raddatz. I do know that as of 1991, Julius Genachowski — a good friend of Barack’s from The Harvard Law Review and, it seems, currently a technology expert and advisor to Barack — was engaged to her. And from this item, it appears that the marriage went through and produced a child, although the relationship is apparently no longer intact.

Given Barack and Julius’ friendship, it seems reasonable that Martha Raddatz would have known Barack quite well, at least back in the early ‘90’s and for some period thereafter. Were they friends, and are they still?

Obviously, there’s nothing inherently unethical about Ms. Raddatz covering Barack even if so. But it might help to explain her remarkable ability to find this group outspoken Obama supporters in Iraq.

http://www.thewrap.com/ind-column/correspondents-dinner-guest-list-starts-leak-15854

Correspondents Dinner Guest List Starts to Form (updated)

Published: March 31, 2010

EXCERPT

ABC News guests for the dinner include “Hurt Locker” director Kathryn Bigelow and writer Mark Boal, a network spokeswoman said Thursday. They will be the guests of Martha Raddatz, now the network’s senior foreign affairs correspondent.

“Genachowski’s first position was as clerk for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Obama had turned down a clerkship with Judge Mikva.”

http://www.chicagobusiness.com/cgi-bin/blogs/hinz.pl?plckController=Blog&plckScript=blogScript&plckElementId=blogDest&plckBlogPage=BlogViewPost&plckPostId=Blog%3A1daca073-2eab-468e-9f19-ec177090a35cPost%3Acf97d174-0212-488a-9153-b09a1e0c9fe7&sid=sitelife.chicagobusiness.com

Ab Mikva talks about his ex-clerk Elena Kagan
Posted by Greg H. at 5/10/2010 10:41 AM CDT on Chicago Business

Ab Mikva’s grin almost came through the phone this morning when I asked him about Elena Kagan.

The former U.S. Appellate Court judge and White House counsel knows Ms. Kagan about as well as anyone in the government, having been her boss in both of those positions, when she clerked for him as a judge and served as his deputy when he was the chief White House lawyer in the Clinton administration.

(snip)

http://www.chicagojewishnews.com/story.htm?sid=212226&id=252218

OBAMA AND THE JEWS: A look at why some Jews love him and some don’t trust him; and at the key role Chicago Jews played in getting him to where he is
By Pauline Dubkin Yearwood (10/24/2008)