Reed Hundt

Biography

Hundt attended high school in Washington D.C. at St. Albans School, graduating in 1965. He went to Yale College, where he majored in history, and worked on the Yale Daily News. Hundt taught school for several years before graduating from Yale Law School in 1974. He clerked for Harrison Lee Winter, a Baltimore judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, before moving to Los Angeles, where he became the 85th lawyer at Latham & Watkins, 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'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 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 as the author of a "brilliantly written op-ed piece" about Y2K millennium.

In an episode of the original series of Animaniacs, 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

References

1. Shriver Jr., Jube. (May 10, 1994). "FCC Chairman's Information Vision : Reed Hundt Says He Wants Technology Accessible to All". [[Los Angeles Times]].