Reed Eric Hundt (born March 3, 1948) is the chairman, CEO and co-founder of the Coalition for Green Capital.

Biography

Hundt attended high school in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

at St. Albans School, graduating in 1965. He went to

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

, where he majored in history, and worked on the ''

Yale Daily News The ''Yale Daily News'' is an independent student newspaper published by Yale University students in New Haven, Connecticut, since January 28, 1878. Description Financially and editorially independent of Yale University since its founding, th ...

''. Hundt taught school for several years before graduating from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824. The 2020–21 acceptance rate was 4%, the lowest of any law school in the United ...

in 1974. He clerked for Harrison Lee Winter, a Baltimore judge on the

United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a United States federal court, federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the United States district court, district cou ...

, before moving to Los Angeles, where he became the 85th lawyer at

Latham & Watkins Latham & Watkins LLP is an American multinational law firm. Founded in 1934 in Los Angeles, California, Latham is the second-largest law firm in the world by revenue. As of 2022, Latham is also one of the most profitable law firms in the world ...

, one of the top law firms in the world. In 1980, Hundt moved to the Latham & Watkins' Washington, D.C., office. In his litigation career at the firm, Hundt appeared in court in 48 states and the District of Columbia, argued appellate cases in almost all circuits, and handled cases in many topic areas, although he specialized in antitrust. From 1983 Hundt supported

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...

's political career. In 1992-3 he was part of the Clinton-Gore transition team, and chaired the committee that drafted the partly successful

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions from producing goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the hidden Social cost of carbon, social costs of carbon emissions. They are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emis ...

introduced and passed in the House of Representatives in 1993. It was not passed through the Senate. In 1993 President Clinton, whom Hundt had known in law school, nominated Hundt to be chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was confirmed in November 1993. Between 1998 and 2008, Hundt was a senior advisor to McKinsey, the consulting firm. He also served on many technology company boards from 1998 to the present, co-founded four firms (none of which was wildly successful), gave many speeches, wrote five books and numerous articles.

In popular culture

Hundt is referenced by Dale Gribble in Season 4, Episode 10 ("Hillenium") of ''

King of the Hill ''King of the Hill'' is an American animated sitcom created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels that initially aired on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox from January 12, 1997, to September 13, 2009, with four more episodes airing in First-run syndicati ...

'' as the author of a "brilliantly written op-ed piece" about Y2K millennium. In an episode of the original series of

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American Animated series, animated Comedy television, comedy Musical film, musical television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Warner Bros. Television Animation. It originally aired on Fox Broadcasting Company ...

, Hundt is spoofed as "Reef Blundt".

Personal life

Hundt is married to Betsy Katz. They have three children and two grand-children, and live in Chevy Chase, MD, and Portola Valley, CA.

Books

He has written five books, including ''A Crisis Wasted: Barack Obama’s Defining Decisions (2019); Zero Hour:Time to Build the Clean Power Platform (2013); The Politics of Abundance: How Technology Can Fix the Budget, Revive the American Dream, and Establish Obama’s Legacy (2012,'' co-written with Blair Levin); ''In China’s Shadow: The Crisis of American Entrepreneurship (2006); You Say You Want A Revolution: A Story of Information Age Politics (2000).''

References

External links

*
techliberation's commentary on Frontline's public interest comment filed with the FCC

gigaom commentary on Frontline and the spectrum auction

Reed Hundt bio at Public Knowledge
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hundt, Reed 1948 births American chief executives Chairmen of the Federal Communications Commission Clinton administration commissioners Intel people Living people McKinsey & Company people Lawyers from Ann Arbor, Michigan St. Albans School (Washington, D.C.) alumni Blackstone Inc. people Yale College alumni Yale Law School alumni Clinton administration personnel