Richard Whitt

Richard Whitt is an experienced corporate strategist and technology policy attorney. Currently he serves as Fellow in Residence with the Mozilla Foundation, and Senior Fellow with the Georgetown Institute for Technology Law and Policy. As Co-founder of GLIAnet PRIMER LLC, he advises companies on the complex governance challenges at the intersection of market, technology, and policy systems. He is also president of the GLIA Foundation, and a founder of the GLIAnet Project.

Richard is an eleven-year veteran of Google (2007-2018). Most recently he served as Google’s corporate director for strategic initiatives, working with Vint Cerf, Hal Varian, and other Googlers on policy and ethical issues related to Internet of Things, machine learning, broadband connectivity, digital preservation, and other emerging technologies. A notable achievement was negotiating successfully with the Cuban government for permission to build the country’s first free public WiFi hotspot for Internet access. From 2012 to 2014, Richard was chosen by Google management as the Corporate Vice President and Global Head of Public Policy at newly-acquired Motorola Mobility.

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Prior to his executive role with Motorola, Richard served as Google’s director and managing counsel for federal policy, overseeing strategic thinking on privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, Internet governance, and free expression. Previously he led the Company’s substantive advocacy on issues such as network neutrality, broadband deployment, “unregulation” of Internet applications, and spectrum policy. In particular he headed up Google’s open Internet policy on a global basis, guided the Company’s participation in the FCC’s 700 MHz auction, helped secure TV White Spaces spectrum allocation, and collaborated on the nationwide launch of Google Fiber.

Before joining Google in 2007, Richard spent twelve years in the legal department at MCI Communications. He most recently headed up MCI’s DC office as vice president for federal law and policy.

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Richard is a noted author and speaker on technology strategy, law, and policy. In addition to his published writings, during his career he has spoken at over two hundred industry conferences. He also has been a guest lecturer on various Internet and broadband issues at over twenty law schools and universities, including Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Georgetown University Law Center, University of Pennsylvania Law School, Wharton School of Business, Stanford University, Princeton University, and Cardozo Law School.

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Richard is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center, and a magna cum laude graduate of James Madison University. Richard’s complete bio, including over three dozen professional recommendations, can be found at LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/richardwhitt/). He currently resides in San Francisco.