John Muleta, Chief of FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, Joining Venable

    WASHINGTON, March 15 /PRNewswire/ -- As the telecommunications industry
 gears up for a new leader at the Federal Communications Commission, Venable
 LLP is expanding its strong industry presence with the addition of John
 Muleta, head of the FCC's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau.  Mr. Muleta will
 be joining as a partner in the firm's Washington office, and will become
 co-chair of Venable's Communications Group.
     Mr. Muleta, who previously served as Deputy Bureau Chief in the Common
 Carrier Bureau and also Chief of the Enforcement Division during a four-year
 stint at the Commission in the mid-1990s, has led the Wireless Bureau since
 January 2003.  He has also held senior management positions with several major
 telecom businesses over a 20-year career in the sector.
     "We are delighted that John Muleta has decided to come to Venable," said
 James L. Shea, managing partner of Venable. "John is a true telecom
 renaissance man, with broad experience in all levels of the industry,
 internationally as well as in the United States.  His tenure at the FCC has
 coincided with a number of milestone developments in telecommunications,
 including wireless broadband deployment, spectrum leasing/secondary markets,
 cell phone number portability, enhanced 911 and public safety initiatives, and
 the advent of the wireless Internet."
     Mr. Muleta will be joining Venable during a time of significant upheaval
 and growth in the communications sector. This year has already seen a number
 of major mergers and acquisitions among the key telephone industry companies.
 Every major phone company in the United States has witnessed double-digit
 increases in their wireless revenue year after year while at the same time the
 traditional business models of mass media firms are being challenged by the
 ascendancy of wireless services to over 1.5 billion people worldwide.
     "The communications industry is converging into a broadband multi-media
 platform.  The winners are going to be the ones that provide consumers with
 the greatest level of customer service wherever the consumers are," said Mr.
 Muleta.  "I joined Venable because it is extremely well placed to help
 companies deal with these challenges. In addition to having a great telecom
 practice in place, the firm also operates at the intersection of consumer
 electronics; advertising, marketing and consumer protection issues; and
 intellectual property law.  The increasing interaction of these different
 areas of law and business will undoubtedly shape the communications industry
 for years and Venable is uniquely situated to meet those needs."
     "John's reputation extends well beyond U.S. borders," added Frederick M.
 Joyce, chair of Venable's Communications Group.  "Service providers, software
 developers, hardware manufacturers, and major users of communications services
 will benefit from John's depth of understanding on these matters as he
 combines his extensive regulatory knowledge with front-line operating
 experience."
 
     Prior to his most recent appointment at the FCC, Mr. Muleta was the
 president and CEO of Source 1 Technologies LLC, a privately held systems
 integration firm based in Washington, D.C. He was also a cofounder of OI
 Systems Inc., a Washington-based management-consulting firm. Mr. Muleta worked
 at PSINet, Inc. from 1998 to 2000, where he held the position of president for
 PSINet Ventures Inc. and, prior to that, was president of PSINet's Global
 Facilities Division and president of its India, Middle East and Africa
 Division.
     From 1994 to 1998, Mr. Muleta served in a variety of positions in the FCC,
 including the Deputy Bureau Chief in the Common Carrier Bureau and Chief of
 the Enforcement Division of that bureau. He began his career at GTE
 Corporation and later worked at Coopers & Lybrand Consulting, LLC, before
 joining the Commission in 1994.
     Mr. Muleta received his B.S. in Systems Engineering at the University of
 Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Sciences in 1986 and his MBA and
 J.D. from the University of Virginia's Joint Degree Program in 1993, where he
 received the Shermet Scholar Award for outstanding scholarship.
     As one of America's top 100 law firms, Venable LLP has lawyers practicing
 in all areas of corporate and business law, complex litigation, intellectual
 property and government affairs. Venable serves corporate, institutional,
 governmental, nonprofit and individual clients throughout the U.S. and around
 the world from its base of operations in and around Washington, D.C.  For
 more, visit http://www.venable.com .
 
      Contact:  Joshua Spivak or Allan Ripp  510-849-1663 jspild@aol.com
                Sarah Gudsnuk                202-344-8523 sgudsnuk@venable.com
 
 

SOURCE  Venable LLP