Ambassador Phil Verveer

Philip L. Verveer was confirmed as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy with ambassadorial rank in August, 2009, and served in that capacity through January, 2013. Mr. Verveer has practiced communications and antitrust law in the government and in private law firms for more than 40 years. From 1969 to 1981, Mr. Verveer practiced as a trial attorney in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice, as a supervisory attorney in the Bureau of Competition of the Federal Trade Commission, and as the chief of the Cable Television Bureau, the Broadcast Bureau, and the Common Carrier Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission. Between 1973 and 1977, he served as the Antitrust Division's first lead counsel in the investigation and prosecution of United States v. American Tel. & Tel. Co., the case that eventuated in the divestiture of the Bell System. As a Bureau Chief at the FCC, Mr. Verveer participated in a series of decisions that enabled increased competition in video and telephone services, introduced asymmetric telecommunications regulation, and limited regulation of information services. In 1979, Mr. Verveer became a charter member of the United States Government's Senior Executive Service and in 1980 received the Distinguished Presidential Rank award. Between 1981 and 2009, Mr. Verveer engaged in private law practice in Washington, DC. In 1995 and 1996, Mr. Verveer chaired the Federal Advisory Committee that identified the spectrum requirements necessary to afford public safety organizations efficient and interoperable wireless communications. He has served on the Visiting Committee of the University of Chicago Law School and the Executive Committee of the Alumni Board of Governors of Georgetown University. Mr. Verveer served in the United States Army as a Captain, Military Intelligence, principally at 8th U.S. Army Headquarters, Seoul, Korea. Mr. Verveer is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School (1969) and Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service (1966).