October 14, 1998
                                
ELLIOT MAXWELL, DEPUTY CHIEF OF FCC'S OFFICE OF PLANS AND POLICY,     
      NAMED SPECIAL ADVISOR TO THE SECRETARY OF COMMERCE 
                    FOR THE DIGITAL ECONOMY

     Elliot Maxwell, who has served as Deputy Chief of the FCC's Office of Plans and
Policy since February 1996, has been named the Special Advisor to the Secretary of
Commerce for the Digital Economy. 

     In that position he will be coordinating Commerce Department activities regarding
electronic commerce.   The Department has a wide range of interests in that area, including
privacy, reform of the Uniform Commercial Code to accomodate electronic contracts, privacy, 
consumer protection, formation of technical standards,  and protection of intellectual property. 

 
     This is not Maxwell's first time at Commerce.  From 1993 to 1996 he worked at
Commerce as Director of International Technology Policy.  In that position he led efforts to
ensure that U.S. international policies serve to promote the development and diffusion of U.S.
technology and to increase the access of U.S. private sector firms to foreign technology and
foreign government technology programs.  Before  assuming that position at Commerce, he
spent nearly ten years working for Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco, supervising a
multidisciplinary staff charged with integrating business, technical and public policy planning.

     Prior to his time at PacTel, he served at the FCC as Special Assistant to the Chairman;
from 1980 to 1981 he was Deputy Chief of the Office of Science and Technology (now called
the Office of Engineering and Technology).

     FCC Chairman Kennard said, "I am sorry to see Elliot go but his new position at
Commerce will allow him to continue to use his unique talents in the service of our country.  
Elliot's broad understanding of both technology and business has served the FCC well in the
time he has been here.   I wish him well."
 
          Maxwell received his B.A. cum laude from Brown University and his J.D. from Yale
University where he was a member of the Yale Law Journal Board of Editors.  He also is the
recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship for study  of telecommunications technology and policy in
Japan.

                                           - FCC -