Commissioner Michael O’Rielly of the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) was our guest for the fifth Next Practices Live. We at PURC are grateful that he took time out of his overly busy schedule to share what the FCC is doing and learning during this unprecedented pandemic.

In addition to describing the FCC’s responses to COVID-19, Commissioner O’Rielly discussed what leadership practices he finds most important in times like this, how a regulator provides leadership working across business and government boundaries, how the FCC updates its learning and adapts its strategies, and what lessons it is learning.

Our earlier sessions examined how telecom providers in the Caribbean are mobilizing and how regulators and industry can provide leadership. Later this week our sessions will examine electric utility responses in Uganda and leadership challenges for water utility executives.

I have known Commissioner O’Rielly for some time and have great respect for his abilities and record. He has led work at the agency on reforming universal service policies, providing light-touch regulation for the internet, and preventing misuse of funding, for example with emergency service programs. Prior to joining the agency, Commissioner O’Rielly spent almost 20 years working in prominent Republican communication policy and leadership positions for the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

We presented this session utilizing an online Zoom meeting.