Columbia Capital hired John Leibovitz, ex-FCC, as venture partner ... Yahoo promotes April Boyd to head-global public policy, and said Charles Schwab resigned from the board "due to his other professional commitments and demands on his time, and not due to any disagreement with Yahoo on any matter related to Yahoo’s operations, policies or practices" ... Edelson, plaintiffs’ class-action law firm that works on technology and privacy cases, elects as partners Roger Perlstadt and Eve-Lynn Rapp, who also is hiring partner ... At Ericsson, which said it starts IoT initiative to license standardized technology to device makers, the new platform is headed by Kasim Alfalahi, who was chief intellectual property officer and head-IPR & Licensing ... Participant Media promotes Pivot TV executives Jerry Blake, to executive vice president-business and legal affairs, and Carla Lewis-Long, to senior vice president-distribution ... Viavi hires Oleg Khaykin, ex-Silver Lake Partners, as president-CEO and board member, succeeding interim President-CEO Richard Belluzzo, who remains chairman.

FCC hires Marc Paul, ex-Lukas Nace, as legal adviser to Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel, with primary responsibility for media issues ... Harris Wiltshire promotes Bill Wiltshire, a founding member, to managing partner, succeeding Mark Grannis, who remains on executive committee ... USTelecom promotes Sarah Versaggi to lead government affairs team as senior vice president, succeeding Alan Roth, retired (see 1510140044) ... T-Mobile US promotes to vice presidents Steve Sharkey for government affairs, technology and engineering policy, and Cathleen Massey, federal regulatory affairs ... MasterCard hires Alexander Niejelow, ex-National Security Council, as senior vice president-public policy, working on cybersecurity, data management, privacy and other tech issues.

NAB's renamed Pilot tech initiative names John Clark, ex-University of North Carolina, executive director ... Ashkan Soltani, who left the FTC in December to become senior adviser to White House Chief Technology Officer Megan Smith, said he left Office of Science and Technology Policy after he couldn't get security clearance; OSTP didn't comment Monday ... Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions hires Mike Nawrocki, ex-Verizon, as vice president-technology and solutions ... At Starry, which said it's introducing nationwide fixed wireless broadband network with speeds up to 1 Gbps, executives from Aereo include Chet Kanojia, co-founder and CEO; Joe Lipowski, co-founder and chief technology officer; Alex Moulle-Berteaux, chief marketing officer; and Virginia Lam Abrams, senior vice president-communications & government relations.

Intelsat hires Jacques Kerrest, ex-DPC Data, as executive vice president-chief financial officer ... Alston & Bird hired Ted Schroeder, ex-aide to Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., as counsel-Legislative & Public Policy Group; he has worked on intellectual property and telecom issues ... Grant Thornton hires cybersecurity expert Vishal Chawla as managing principal-Cyber Risk Advisory Services practice ... Sky board appoints James Murdoch chairman, to succeed Nicholas Ferguson when he departs as chairman and director at the end of April; Martin Gilbert appointed deputy chairman; Andrew Sukawaty re-assumes his former role as senior independent director ... Damballa hires Dale Gonzalez, ex-Concurrent, as chief product officer.

ARRL directors elect Tom Gallagher, ex-TV cameraman and then investment banker, CEO-secretary, effective April 18, succeeding David Sumner, and, effective Feb. 29, Gallagher joins staff as CEO-elect ... National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox joint venture National Geographic Partners hires Laura Nichols, ex-MPAA, as senior vice president-chief communications officer, new position ... Newsy, over-the-top video news service, starts Washington office in bureau of its parent company Scripps, led by Director-News Zach Toombs ... EMC promotes Denis Cashman to chief financial officer, effective March 1, when he succeeds Zane Rowe, who on that day becomes CFO of the company's VMware, which EMC noted will remain a public company after EMC's takeover by Dell ... Riverbed Technology hires Subbu Iyer, ex-EMC, as senior vice president-chief marketing officer.

Comtech EF Data hires Mark Toppenberg, ex-Teledyne Microwave Solutions, as senior vice president-sales and marketing strategy, new position at the company where he used to work ... Verve hires Pratiksha Patel, ex- Centric Digital, as chief people officer, new position ... CenturyLink adds Martha Bejar, ex-Flow Mobile, to board, from which Joseph Zimmel resigned ... IBM adds Mark Fields, Ford, to board, from which Alain Belda and William Brody are retiring.

NPR promotes Stephanie Miller to oversee operations and staff of Digital Services, where Jason Butler expands responsibilities ... Entravision promotes Lilly Gonzalez to executive vice president-integrated marketing solutions, East Coast, and Humberto Hormaza to senior vice president-integrated marketing solutions, Orlando ... Gannett hires Michael Kuntz, ex-Gawker Media, as senior vice president-digital revenue, USA Today ... Twitter hires Leslie Berland, ex-American Express, as chief marketing officer; leaving company are Senior Vice President-Engineering Alex Roetter, Senior Vice President-Product Kevin Weil, Vice President-Global Media Katie Jacobs Stanton and Vice President-Human Resources Brian Schipper ... Time Warner hires Corinna Keller, ex-Viacom, returning to CNN, as vice president-advertising sales, Americas, CNN International Commercial.

Discovery Communications hires Suzanne Kolb, ex-E! Entertainment, as executive vice president-general manager, overseeing Web brands and series, digital development, Discovery VR and social partnerships ... Univision Communications hires Alejandro Nieto Molina, ex-Cadena SER, as senior vice president-general manager, radio, new position ... F5 Networks hires Mike Convertino, ex-CrowdStrike, as chief information security officer, new position ... LiveIntent, email-based advertising platform, hires Jason Kelly, ex-Rapt, as president ... Interactive Advertising Bureau board elects: Lauren Wiener, Tremor Video, chair; she's succeeded by Jim Norton, Verizon's AOL, as vice chairman; new to board are John Frelinghuysen, Disney/ABC Television Group, Jed Hartman, Washington Post, Robb Richter, Media General, Michael Rubenstein, AppNexus, Rick Welday, AT&T AdWorks, and Joe Zawadzki, MediaMath; ex-officio board members include: Stu Ingis, Venable ... ATSC board elects Richard Friedel, Fox Networks, as chairman, succeeding Glenn Reitmeier, NBC Universal, who remains on ATSC board.

HTC promotes Jason Mackenzie to global executive vice president, and André Lönne to president, HTC Americas ... Time Warner promotes Valerie Immele to senior vice president-business, Turner Sports, and names Amit Chaturvedi, ex-Taykey, senior vice president-revenue operations and platforms, Turner ... Lobbyist registrations: Akin Gump on behalf of Federated Wireless, The Roosevelt Group, effective Jan. 1 ... American Broadband and Telecommunications Co., Kelley Drye, effective Dec. 1 ... CenturyLink, Ernst & Young, effective Oct. 7 ... Charter Communications and Intel, The Raben Group, both effective May 31 ... Comcast, Scrivner Leon Group, effective Jan. 4 ... ITTA, Mercury Strategies, effective Nov. 16 ... Raytheon, American Continental Group, effective Nov. 1.

Kerbey Harrington hires John Raposa, ex-Verizon, as of counsel ... Among those Comcast adds in Twin Cities Region are Dan Gillan, promoted to vice president-sales & marketing, and Rachel Williams, ex-General Dynamics, as vice president-engineering ... LifeLock promotes Hilary Schneider to CEO, and she joins board, succeeding Todd Davis, who becomes executive vice chairman; director Roy Guthrie becomes chairman, effective March 1 ... Internet Infrastructure Coalition names Christian Dawson, who now no longer is chairman, its first full-time executive director; David Snead, chairman of public policy working group, named the coalition's chairman ... At Microsoft, Jenny Lay-Flurrie moves to chief accessibility officer, succeeding Rob Sinclair, leading accessibility efforts in Windows and Devices Group; Susan Hauser moved to corporate vice president-new Business and Corporate Responsibility Group.