Michael Powell

Michael Kevin Powell (born March 23, 1963) is an American attorney and lobbyist who served as the 24th chairman of the Federal Communications Commission from 2001 to 2005.

Since leaving office, Powell has since worked as the president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA), a broadband industry trade association.

Michael Kevin Powell was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on March 23, 1963, the first child of Colin and Alma (née Johnson) Powell.

Because of his father's military career, Michael grew up in various places in the U.S., including Dale City, Virginia; Fort Campbell, Kentucky; and Burke, Virginia, graduating from Lake Braddock High School in Burke in 1981.

He graduated from the College of William & Mary, where he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi, on an ROTC Scholarship.

Powell later received a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center

Powell served as an armor officer in the United States Army.

He spent the majority of his active service with the 3rd Squadron, 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment in Amberg, Germany, serving as a cavalry platoon leader and troop executive officer.

In 1987, Powell was seriously injured during a training mission.

He and his unit were traveling in a convoy on the autobahn.

Powell was riding in a jeep at the time.

Due to heavy rain, the jeep crashed and Powell was ejected from the vehicle.

After he hit the pavement, the jeep bounced and crashed down on Powell's midsection.

After his rehabilitation he served as an expert advisor to the Secretary of Defense.

and clerked for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit.

He then worked for a year and a half as a private attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of O’Melveny & Myers.

From 1996, Powell served in the Clinton Administration as chief of staff of the Department of Justice Antitrust Division.

As the chairman of the FCC, Powell led the charge to open up markets in VoIP, Wi-Fi, and Broadband over Powerline (BPL).

His approach believed that these new communications technologies would allow small companies to take on established corporations, and that regulations often stood in the way of progress.

Powell's deregulatory policy coincided with a period of significant consolidation in the communications market.

He advocated an updating of media ownership rules to reflect new communications technologies such as the Internet, a move that critics derided as increasing rampant media consolidation.

Powell was appointed to the FCC by President Bill Clinton on November 3, 1997, and was chosen by President George W. Bush to serve as chairman of the commission on January 22, 2001.

Powell is the son of former Secretary of State Colin Powell and his wife Alma Powell.

During his tenure as chair, he spoke at the University of California, San Diego on January 26, 2004.

In the talk, Powell spoke about the policymaking process in Washington, and about how ultra-wideband might impact telecommunications.

While at the FCC, Powell was also the FCC's defense commissioner and oversaw all National Security Emergency Preparedness functions for the Commission.

Powell opposed applying telephone-era regulations to new Internet technologies, a move critics charged would deny open access to communications facilities.

Powell was later vindicated by a D.C. Circuit Court decision on March 2, 2004, that struck down Martin's order.

Three months later, the U.S. Supreme Court let the D.C. Circuit decision stand.

When Powell resigned, Kevin Martin, who served Bush's presidential campaign in Florida, was named the FCC's new Chairman.

Martin subsequently purged the FCC of many of Powell's staff.

Some of Powell's initiatives were challenged in federal court.

Notably, the FCC's BrandX cable modem service decision, which declared cable modem should be free from telephone service regulations, was overturned in the Ninth Circuit case but was reinstated by the Supreme Court.

The FCC's Broadcast Flag proceeding was overturned by the D.C. Circuit Court as an inappropriate exercise of FCC jurisdiction.

The FCC's Media Ownership rules were likewise blocked by federal court and the television ownership cap set directly by the U.S. Congress.

A defining moment of his tenure as FCC chairman was the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show controversy, in which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed on live-broadcast television.

This high-profile incident increased public attention toward the FCC's enforcement of indecency rules, which had already stepped up following Bono's use of an expletive on live TV.

He articulated a policy of network neutrality, and in March 2005 fined Madison River Communications for blocking voice over IP applications, the first-ever government action of its kind.

Powell worked so consumers could keep phone numbers when switching wireless carriers and championed the National Do Not Call Registry.

In a notable confrontation over the FCC's local telephone competition rules, Powell was outflanked by Republican Kevin Martin, who formed a majority with the FCC's two Democratic commissioners.