Richard Whitt - Participant

Richard S. Whitt is Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy and Government Relations with Motorola Mobility, a Google Inc. company.

Since moving to Motorola in May 2012, Rick has overseen all of Motorola’s public policy thinking and interactions with government policymakers around the world.  Previously, he spent five and a half years with Google's public policy team based in Washington, D.C., where he was responsible primarily for telecom and media policy issues.  Among other achievements he led Google’s advocacy on open Internet, broadband deployment, and spectrum policy, and helped guide the Company’s efforts regarding the 700 MHz spectrum auction, TV White Spaces, and Google Fiber.  Most recently Rick had served as Google’s director and managing counsel for federal policy, overseeing strategic thinking on privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, Internet governance, free expression, and international trade.

Prior to joining Google in 2007, Rick founded and headed NetsEdge Consulting, a public policy consulting firm that provided legal analysis, regulatory strategy, and advocacy counsel to Web companies.  From 1994 to 2006, Rick worked in the legal department at MCI Communications, where he served as vice president for federal law and policy.  Rick previously spent over five years as an associate attorney in the communications practices of two large Washington, D.C.-based law firms.

Rick is a 1988 cum laude graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center, and a 1984 magna cum laude graduate of James Madison University.  He is a resident of Washington, D.C. with his wife Cathy and three well-maintained felines