MMTC 2026 Former FCC Leadership Symposium Speaker & Moderator Bios

Hon. Olivia Trusty

Hon. Olivia Trusty was nominated to serve as a Commissioner of the FCC by President Donald J. Trump. She was confirmed by the United States Senate in June 2025.

Prior to joining the Commission, Commissioner Trusty served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services under the leadership of U.S. Senator Roger F. Wicker. She previously served as a Policy Director on the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a Legislative Assistant in the Office of U.S. Senator Roger F. Wicker. Before her tenure as a Senate aide, Commissioner Trusty served as a Professional Staff Member on the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce and a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Congressman Bob Latta. Commissioner Trusty began her career in the private sector.

Commissioner Trusty received her B.A. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and her M.A. from Georgetown University.

Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein

Hon. Jonathan S. Adelstein serves as the Executive Vice President, Chief Strategy, and External Affairs Officer at TWN Communications. Prior to joining TWN Communications, Adelstein served as a Managing Director with DigitalBridge, a successful asset manager focused on digital infrastructure, including fiber and wireless broadband. Before DigitalBridge, he served for 10 years as the President and CEO of the Wireless Infrastructure Association. His previous experience includes serving as the head of the USDA’s Rural Utilities Service, seven years as an FCC Commissioner, and as a key staff member in the U.S. Senate.

Adelstein holds an MA in History and a BA with honors in Political Science from Stanford University. He attended Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University and served as a Teaching Fellow at Harvard and a Teaching Assistant at Stanford.

Hon. Mignon Clyburn

Hon. Mignon Clyburn is President of MLC Strategies, LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, a position she has held since January 2019. Previously, Ms. Clyburn served as a Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2009 to 2018, including as acting chair. While at the FCC, she was committed to closing the digital divide and championed the modernization of the agency’s Lifeline Program, which assists low-income consumers with voice and broadband service. In addition, Ms. Clyburn promoted diversity in media ownership, initiated Inmate Calling Services reforms, supported inclusion in STEM opportunities and fought for an Open Internet. Prior to her federal appointment, Ms. Clyburn served 11 years on the Public Service Commission of South Carolina and worked for nearly 15 years as publisher of the Coastal Times, a Charleston weekly newspaper focused on the African American community.

Ms. Clyburn is a director and member of the Compensation Committee and Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee of Charah Solutions, Inc. (NYSE: CHRA) since March 2019.

Hon. Reed Hunt

Hon. Reed Hundt is co-founder, former chairman and CEO of the Coalition for Green Capital, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports, and advocates for green banks to invest in the clean power platform.

Hundt was chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 1993 to 1997. Previously he was a partner at Latham & Watkins, an international law firm. He is a member of the District of Columbia bar. Since 1997 he has advised several venture capital and private equity firms, and served on more than two dozen for-profit and not-for-profit boards and commissions, including 19 years on the board of Intel Corporation (2001-20) and seven years on the board of the Connecticut Green Bank (2011-18). He also taught at Yale Law School and the Yale School of Management.

Hundt has written many articles and four books: A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama’s Defining Decisions (Rosetta, 2019); Zero Hour: Time to Build the Clean Power Platform (Odyssey, 2013); The Politics of Abundance: How Technology Can Fix the Budget, Revive the American Dream, and Establish Obama’s Legacy (Odyssey, 2012); In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (Yale University Press, 2006); You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (Yale University Press, 2000).

Mr. Hundt has a B.A. from Yale College (1969) and J.D. from Yale Law School (1974). He lives in Chevy Chase, MD., and Portola Valley, CA. He is married to Elizabeth Katz and has three children: Adam, Nathaniel, and Sara.

Hon. Robert McDowell

Hon. Robert McDowell is chair of Cooley’s global communications practice group, and he advises telecommunications, media, space technology and satellite clients – including private equity and venture funds – on their most significant regulatory, legal and business matters. As a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and a highly regarded industry leader, McDowell has been at the forefront of the most complex and groundbreaking issues facing the telecom-media-tech sector.

He was appointed to the FCC by President George W. Bush in 2006 and was reappointed by President Barack Obama in 2009. He was unanimously confirmed both times by the US Senate. During his tenure, he led efforts to expand consumer access to spectrum through his work on the two largest wireless auctions in US history at the time. He also played a key role in the 2009 digital television transition, he and led efforts to establish the first federal civil rights rule in a generation by creating a ban on racially discriminatory practices in broadcast advertising, among many other accomplishments.

While at the FCC, McDowell worked extensively on several large and complex mergers, including Sirius and XM; Comcast and NBCUniversal; Verizon and Alltel; AT&T and Dobson; Sprint and Clearwire; Verizon and SpectrumCo; and AT&T and T-Mobile. At Cooley, he represents clients on transformative deals before the FCC, Congress, the White House and other regulatory bodies.

His representative matters

• Advised T-Mobile in its merger with Sprint
• Counseled Gray Television in its acquisition of Raycom for $3.6 billion
• Advised Ribbon Communications on cross-border investments
• Represented TWN before the FCC regarding the Rural Digital Opportunity Fund
• Advised Iridium Communications in its acquisition of Satelles
• Counseling T-Mobile on strategies regarding spectrum auctions and license acquisitions
• Representing Gray Television in its appeal of an FCC enforcement order before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
• Advised Microsoft and its Airband project to secure regulatory approval of technical spectrum proposals to enable the creation of a broadband ecosystem using unlicensed television channels, or “TV white spaces,” to help serve unserved and underserved portions of the US
• Counseling Iridium Communications in its regulatory spectrum advocacy to support its global voice, data and navigation satellite services
• Helping clients navigate policy and advocacy processes before regulatory bodies, the executive branch, Congress and strategic third parties
• Represented Gray Television in its amicus appearance before the US Supreme Court in Prometheus v. FCC
• Advising Sixth Street Partners on FCC proceedings and spectrum arbitrage opportunities
• Counseled GI Partners in its acquisition of Rise Broadband
• Advised private equity funds managed by affiliates of Apollo Global Management in the $3.484 billion acquisition of the broadcast television businesses of Northwest Broadcasting and Cox Media Group, CMG’s radio station portfolio, CoxReps, the United States’ largest national television rep company, and Gamut, a national advertising business

McDowell is an advocate for internet freedom, serving on the official US diplomatic delegation to the 2012 World Conference on International Telecommunications and exposing an international bid to regulate vital aspects of the internet through multilateral treaty-based organizations. He authored an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal opposing multilateral internet regulation that led to a resolution passed unanimously in the House and Senate, as well as the ultimate defeat of the international bid at a treaty negation in Dubai later that year.

He often is called upon for speaking engagements and frequently appears on TV and radio. He has written opinion pieces for many publications, including The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post.

Hon. Michael O'Rielly

Hon. Michael O'Rielly is currently principal at MPORielly Consulting, LLC, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute’s Center for the Economics of the Internet, and a senior fellow at the Media Institute.

A leading subject matter expert on policy related to technology, telecommunications, and communications, he most recently served as a commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2013 through 2020. Before being unanimously confirmed to the FCC, O’Rielly held a variety of leading staff positions during twenty years on Capitol Hill in both the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, ending as policy advisor in the Office of the Senate Republican Whip, then led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn.

He previously worked for the Republican Policy Committee in the U.S. Senate as a policy analyst for Banking, Technology, Transportation, Trade, and Commerce issues from 2009 to 2010. Prior to this, he worked in the Office of U.S. Senator John Sununu, as legislative director from 2007 to 2009, and senior legislative assistant from 2003 to 2007. Before his tenure as a Senate staffer, he served as a professional staff member on the Committee on Energy and Commerce in the United States House of Representatives from 1998 to 2003, and telecommunications policy analyst from 1995 to 1998. He began his career as a legislative assistant to U.S. Congressman Tom Bliley from 1994 to 1995.

O’Rielly received his B.A. from the University of Rochester.

Hon. Deborah Taylor Tate

Hon. Deborah Taylor Tate, a two-time former Presidential appointee, previously served as a Commissioner on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) 2006-2009.

As an FCC Commissioner, Tate was a policy leader in international media, telecommunications, and broadband policy serving as a U.S. World Radio Conference Presidential Designee, Chairman of both the Joint Federal-State USF and the Advanced Telecommunications Boards.

Known as the “Children’s Commissioner,” Tate was named the first “Special Envoy” to the International Telecommunications Commission for Child Online Protection, co-recipient of the world Telecommunications and Information Society Day Laureate and also co-chaired the Healthy Media Commission with Geena Davis. She has served over a decade on the Board of Directors of Healthstream, Inc. (Nasdaq: HSTM). Tate has been a champion for mental/behavioral health issues and most recently as the former Administrator for the Tennessee Supreme Court and CEO of the state court system, was appointed Co-chair of the National Judiciary Opioid Task Force, logging over 25,000 miles to combat the opioid crisis. Last month she helped launch the first TN Justice Bus to bring legal services to rural Tennesseans and received the Justice Holder Access to Justice Award. Ms. Tate has been a Vice Chair of MMTC since 2009, is a member of the Bar of the U.S. Supreme Court, Tennessee Bar, a certified Mediator and served on numerous nonprofit boards and commissions including the Free State Foundation, the Aspen Institute, and the Vanderbilt Institute for Public Policy Studies. She is a frequent lecturer and adjunct professor at universities and law schools.

Robert E. Branson

Robert E. Branson is the President and CEO of the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC), a non-partisan, national nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and preserving equal opportunity and civil rights in the mass media, telecom and broadband industries, and closing the digital divide.

Prior to MMTC, he was an Associate General Counsel with Verizon.

He has been the General Counsel of the Association of Local Television Stations and of Post-Newsweek Stations. He also has worked at the Federal Communications Commission as a Senior Legal Advisor.

Branson has served as President of the Federal Communications Bar Association. He is a two-time recipient of the FCBA Distinguished Service Award. He has championed diversity and inclusion in the Bar and has led several efforts to expand the pipeline my mentoring and working to assist the careers of numerous people in the industry and government. In part based on these efforts, he has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from MMTC.

He has served on the Board of Trustees at Simmons University in Boston and was a member of the Boards of the Ridley Scholarship Fund at the University of Virginia.