Online Privacy Revisited:
Examining Its Place in the Larger Debate.
March 6, 2003
Panelists
Overview | Video | Panelist Biographies | One Pagers
Ronald L. Plesser, Partner with Piper Rudnick
Chair, Electronic Commerce and Privacy Group (Moderator)
Ronald L. Plesser focuses on issues that concern international communications, Internet law, legislative matters, telecommunications, privacy, data base companies, publishers, information and software providers and users, marketers and other companies affected by the emergence of new information technologies. This includes matters of wireless and terrestrial communications issues. Clients including trade associations and individual companies are represented before the United States Congress, federal agencies and all federal and state courts. Mr. Plesser has also represented clients in world regulatory organizations.
Mr. Plesser is past-Chair of the Individual Rights and Responsibilities Section of the American Bar Association. He has been an adjunct professor of law at George Washington University (1982-1986). He also was Deputy Director of the Science, Space and Technology Cluster of the 1992 Clinton-Gore Transition. He currently serves on Piper Rudnick's Diversity Committee.
Mr. Plesser is listed as one of Washington's Top High-Tech/Telecommunications lobbyist in Influence - The Business of Lobbying (December 2000).
Mary Culnan, Slade Professor of Management and Information Technology
Bentley College
Mary Culnan is the Slade Professor of Management and Information Technology at Bentley where she conducts research, consults and teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on information privacy. Her current research is addressing how to improve the usability and readability of online privacy notices.
She has published in a number of academic journals including Management Science, the MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, the Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, and Decision Sciences and is a co-author of the Ethics of Information Management (Sage, 1995).
Professor Culnan has testified before Congress and other government agencies on a range of privacy issues. In 1997, she served as a Commissioner on the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection. She is also the author of the 1999 Georgetown Internet Privacy Policy Survey which the Federal Trade Commission used to make recommendations to Congress, and she served on the FTC's Advisory Committee on Access and Security. In March 1999, Business Week's e-biz Web site profiled her as a "Mover & Shaker." Currently she serves on the GAO's Executive Committee on Information Management and Technology.
She was employed for seven years as a systems analyst by the Burroughs Corporation prior to earning her Ph.D. in management from UCLA. Prior to joining the faculty at Bentley in fall 2000, she held faculty positions at the University of Virginia, University of California, Berkeley, the American University and Georgetown University.
Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Director
U.S. PIRG
Ed Mierzwinski is the consumer program director for U.S. PIRG. He often testifies before Congress and state legislatures and has authored numerous reports on consumer and financial issues, from credit bureau errors to skyrocketing ATM and bank fees, as well as on dangerous products, from toys and playgrounds to tobacco. He is often quoted in the national press, has been profiled in The New York Times and has appeared on numerous network news shows. He edited the 1993 edition of AARP's "Your Credit," a guidebook focused on the credit needs of older women. From 1993-1995 he was a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Consumer Advisory Council. Before joining the U.S. PIRG staff in 1989, he was Executive Director of Connecticut PIRG. He is a graduate of the University of Connecticut (BA, MS).
John Scheibel, Vice President of Public Policy
Yahoo!
John Scheibel is the Vice President of Public Policy for Yahoo! He is responsible for representing Yahoo!'s interests on all public policy issues affecting the company. He has had extensive experience in the range of issues relating to the Internet including privacy, intellectual property, service provider liability, database protection and international trade and jurisdiction. Prior to coming to Yahoo!, Mr. Scheibel was the Vice President and General Counsel of the Computer and Communications Industry Association. Previously, Mr. Scheibel worked on Capitol Hill for 9 years, much of that time as Staff Director of the Trade Subcommittee of the House Committee on International Relations. He received his law degree from George Washington University and his BA from the University of Rochester.
Joe Rubin, Director of Congressional and Public Affairs
U.S. Chamber of Commerce
Joe Rubin is Director of Congressional and Public Affairs at the United States Chamber of Commerce, the world's largest business federation, representing more than three million businesses from every size, sector and region of the country. Joe, who was named a 2002 "Lobby Leader" by Influence Magazine, is a senior business community lobbyist, and serves as a liaison between U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Congress and the Administration. His duties include formulating, directing and coordinating legislative strategy and lobbying activity on a wide range of business community issues.
Rubin is the Chamber's Chief lobbyist on technology issues, including privacy, broadband and security. Joe also serves as the lead lobbyist on liability issues, including class action reform, asbestos and terrorism insurance. Joe is also a leading advocate for bankruptcy reform, and he is fashioning a Chamber-led effort to reauthorize the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Joe also serves as a spokesman for the business community, and has appeared in numerous television, print and radio outlets. He has also participated in a number of technology and liability related events, including the National Chamber Foundation's Privacy Summit and FCRA Forum; the Progress and Freedom Foundation's "Cyberspace and the American Dream" Summit; and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's 2001 Tort Reform Summit. He has also been appointed to a number of policy and advisory committees, including the Congressional Internet Caucus; the On-Line Privacy Alliance; and the .US Top Level Domain Policy Council.
Prior to coming to the Chamber, Rubin worked on Judiciary Committee issues for Congressman George Gekas (R-PA), and Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH).
Joe obtained his Juris Doctorate from Emory Law School and graduated with honors from the University of Maryland.