David A. Gross

Ambassador David A. Gross has served since August 2001 as the US Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate.

Ambassador Gross began his career in communications more than twenty years ago. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1976 (BA in Economics) and receiving his law degree from Columbia University in 1979, Ambassador Gross joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan. While at the law firm, he became a partner specializing in communications and telecommunications issues. He remained at Sutherland, Asbill & Brennan until 1994, when he was named Washington Counsel for AirTouch Communications. AirTouch was the world's largest wireless telecommunications company, with extensive interests in the United States, Europe, Asia, and elsewhere.

In 1999, Air Touch was acquired by Vodafone. In 2000, Ambassador Gross joined the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign as National Executive Director of Lawyers for Bush-Cheney.

Since joining the Department of State, Ambassador Gross has addressed the United Nations (UN) General Assembly and has led US delegations to several major international telecommunications conferences, including the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) 2002 Plenipotentiary in Marrakech, Morocco, the ITU's 2002 World Telecommunication Development Conference in Istanbul, and the APEC TEL Ministerial in Shanghai, China.

He's also leading the U.S. Government's participation in the multilateral preparatory work for the UN's "Heads of State" World Summit on the Information Society.

Ambassador Gross is a member of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force. He also has led interagency telecommunications delegations to seven countries, conducted bilateral discussions at senior levels with representatives from more than 50 countries, and provided commercial and policy advocacy on behalf of US companies in markets around the world.

For many years, Ambassador Gross has been active with various bar associations, including the Federal Communications Bar Association (in which he has twice been elected to be an officer, and has often served as co-chair of various committees) and the International Bar Association (in which he has been vice-chair of the Communications Committee). He currently resides in Bethesda, Maryland with his wife and son.

Source: Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs [1]