Susan Ness is a former commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission and the founder of Susan Ness Strategies, a communications policy consulting firm. A Senior Fellow at the SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations (Johns Hopkins University), she focuses on transatlantic digital issues, including regulation of hate speech, violent extremism, and malicious disinformation online; privacy and national security; the digital single market; innovation; data flows; and trade. She also convenes the SAIS Global Conference on Women in the Boardroom.
Commissioner Ness served on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission from 1994 to 2001, where she played a leading role on spectrum policy, championed competition, implemented spectrum auctions, advocated educational children’s television programming, fostered new technologies and often represented the FCC at international meetings. She serves on the board of TEGNA Inc, a NYSE-listed media company, and on the board of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an NGO that invests in women’s leadership worldwide.