Washington- Gregory L. Rohde, Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, today announced the appointments of three Associate Administrators and a Chief Counsel.

The Associate Administrators include Becky Burr; William T. Hatch and Kelly Levy. Rohde also appointed Kathy D. Smith as NTIA's Chief Counsel.

Burr has been Acting Associate Administrator of NTIA for International Affairs and a Senior Advisor on Internet policy, international telecommunications and information policies. She has been a member of the Clinton Administration's interagency working group on electronic commerce, and chairs the interagency working group on domain names. Before joining the Commerce Department in June 1997, Burr was attorney-advisor to Commissioner Christine Varney at the Federal Trade Commission, where she worked on competition and consumer protection issues related to the global information industry. Before joining the government, she practiced law at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler and Pickering.

Hatch has been Deputy Associate Administrator for Spectrum Management. As Associate Administrator for Spectrum Management, he will be the Federal Government's principal official responsible for management of the government's use of the radio frequency spectrum. He has 25-years of service in the federal government which includes providing technical guidance and policy advice for U.S. proposals and positions in international forums addressing the allocation of radio spectrum. Before joining the government in 1975, Hatch was a Research Engineer at IIT Research Institute in Annapolis, Md.

Levy will oversee the analysis and development of domestic telecommunications and information policy, filings before the Federal Communications Commission, communications with Congress and the publishing of reports on telecommunications and information issues.

Previously, Levy served as NTIA's Acting Associate Administrator for Policy and was Senior Policy Advisor to the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information. Before joining NTIA, Levy worked for the Washington D.C. law firm of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, specializing in telecommunications law.

Smith, NTIA's Deputy Chief Counsel, has been Acting Chief Counsel since September of 1997. Smith is the agency's chief legal officer with responsibilities dealing with a wide range of legal policy matters relating to the national and global information superhighway. Before joining NTIA, Smith was a partner at the Washington, D.C. law firm of Verner, Liipfert, McPherson and Hand, where she represented broadcasting, cable, satellite and telephone clients before Congress, the Federal Communications Commission and the courts. In private legal practice, she dealt with a wide variety of legal issues relating to interconnection, universal service, media concentration, access to video programming, intellectual property spectrum auctions and antitrust. Smith began her legal career as Legislative Director for Congressman Claude Harris (D-Ala.), who served on the U.S. House of Repesentatives' Committee on Commerce and its Telecommunication Subcommittee.

The National Telecommunications and Information Administration serves as the principal adviser to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international communications and information issues and represents the Executive Branch before Congress, other Federal agencies, foreign governments and international organizations.