Switched-on ambassador

The US ambassador to the EU has close ties to Obama and a background in telecommunications.

US President Barack Obama may have come to power talking of overcoming domestic bipartisan politics, but his appointment of William Kennard to the post of ambassador to the EU fell solidly in line with a long bipartisan tradition of awarding plum positions to those who help get a candidate into the White House: a long-time political supporter and adviser to Obama, Kennard had raised at least half a million dollars for the presidential campaign. Kennard’s previous position as a managing director at the Carlyle Group, a private equity group packed with alumni from previous administrations of both political parties, underscored the sense that the old ways persist. 

But there is a policy match between Kennard and his new post. His experience – as a former head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) – may have played into the calculations made by Obama, a self-declared devotee of modern telecommunications (especially his Blackberry).

Kennard’s expertise will surely come into play in his defence and promotion of digital-based services, one of the few sectors where US companies remain globally competitive. The transatlantic market – the world’s biggest, currently worth some €600 billion annually – will also give him plenty of opportunity to apply the skills and experience gained as a lawyer, regulator and investor.

Kennard, 53, was the first Afro-American to head the FCC and his father, Robert, was also a trailblazer, as one of very few Afro-American architects. Kennard left Los Angeles after school, heading first to Stanford University, to study communications, and then to Yale, where he studied law. At Stanford, he had shown an interest in journalism and his first position after Yale – a year-long legal fellowship at the National Association of Broadcasters in Washington, DC – brought together the strands of law, media and technology. At the Washington, DC-based law practice Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand (now known as DLA Piper), he continued to specialise in technology issues, focusing on regulatory issues. He stayed for nearly a decade, during which time he married a fellow lawyer, Deborah, whom he met at Yale (they have a son).

His next move seemed natural – he became the FCC’s general counsel. There, he developed a passion for the economic potential of digital communications and made a name for himself. Five years later, Bill Clinton appointed him as chairman of the FCC for the last three years of his presidency.

When his (and Clinton’s) term was over, Kennard moved to the Carlyle Group, currently the world’s second wealthiest private equity group. Here, too, his responsibility was communications: he was managing director of its portfolio of telecommunications interests, a position that gave him seats on many boards. Media was the second element of that portfolio and, at the time of his appointment to Brussels, he was a member of the board of the New York Times.

But it is time at the helm of the FCC that perhaps gives most sense of the threads of a policy agenda that he may establish with the EU. During his tenure, Kennard shaped a regulatory environment that brought the internet into most US homes and stimulated billions of dollars of investment in new broadband technologies.

Both Kennard and Obama are fans of the notion of ‘empowering’ people with access to technology. In campaigning remarks to the press in 2008, for example, Kennard said an Obama administration would support the mandatory extension of internet services to rural areas, regulatory intervention to rein in any ‘big business only’ agenda, protection of children on the internet and, finally, public investment in IT research and innovation. These are practically identical to EU policy goals in these areas.

Fact File

Curriculum Vitae

1957: Born, Los Angeles
1978: Degree in communications, Stanford University
1981: Degree, Yale Law School
1981-82: Legal fellow, National Association of Broadcasters
1982-83: Associate at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand 1983-84: Assistant general counsel, National Association of Broadcasters
1984-93: Partner at Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson & Hand
1993-97: General counsel, Federal Communications Commission
1997-2001: Head of Federal Communications Commission
2001-09: Joins Carlyle Group, becoming managing director of its telecoms and media group
2009-: US ambassador to the EU

Conversely, the European Commission’s revised package of telecom liberalisation measures aims for a degree of rough-and-tumble competition across the 27 member states that Washington long ago imposed on its own telecoms sector.

But transatlantic tensions could flare up if Kennard tries too hard to influence the EU’s competition policy. A predecessor, Boyden Gray, gained a less-than-rosy reputation for what was viewed as excessive arm-twisting to persuade EU authorities to back down or soften their pursuit of Microsoft for anti-competitive behaviour. In the end it did no good, with the Commission slamming the software giant with a whopping €899 million fine.

“If Kennard attempts anything approaching that style, he’ll get nowhere,” a long-time US consultant in Brussels says. “But right now, we’re just waiting to see who he is and what he does.”

Aside from the current battle with the European Parliament over a US-EU deal to share financial data, there has been little to test Kennard’s mettle since his appointment in December. And, so far, Kennard has appeared to be holding his cards close to his chest and biding his time. The few speeches he has given in Brussels so far have been anodyne, bland and predictable in their thrust.

These quiet days may not last. Kennard acknowledges the policy challenges that accompany his appointment. “The stakes are extraordinarily high,” he told an EU policy audience in January. Referring to the US deficit, the financial crisis and terrorism, he said: “I can’t think of a time when a US president has inherited so many challenges, domestically and abroad, at the same time.”

At the same time, he insists that “there’s never been a better time to reinvigorate the transatlantic relationship” and says the US public wants a more engaged and multilateral foreign policy for their country. “The view at the highest level of our government is that we need Europe more than ever: we will only make progress toward our goals if we have a strong relationship with it,” he said.

Kennard has indicated that one way he intends to strengthen that relationship is through the Transatlantic Economic Council, created in 2007 to promote stronger economic integration. Not surprisingly, Kennard says he intends to get involved in the work of the Council’s so-called innovation dialogue.

“The role of innovation will be central to our discussions of the financial crisis and the climate, for example. My experience at the FCC taught me the importance of understanding how a regulatory environment can attract or discourage capital investment,” he has said. There needs to be dialogue between policymakers and business, he stressed. Kennard is a man with a history in both communities. Where he has yet to write a history is in international politics, and so far he has given little indication of how he wants to write it.

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