Dale N. Hatfield is the Chief of the Office of Engineering and Technology at the Federal Communications Commission. Prior to assuming his current position, Hatfield was Chief Technologist at the agency. Before joining the Commission in December 1997, he was Chief Executive Officer of Hatfield Associates, Inc., a Boulder, Colorado based multidisciplinary telecommunications consulting firm. Before founding the consulting firm in 1982, Hatfield was Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Deputy Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. Before moving to NTIA, Hatfield was Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy at the FCC.

Hatfield was the founding director of the Telecommunications Division at the University College at the University of Denver and, for many years, taught telecommunications policy at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently he is teaching a graduate course in telecommunications technology at Georgetown University. Hatfield holds a BS in electrical engineering from Case Institute of Technology and an MS in Industrial Management from Purdue University.