Former White House Advisor joins Effort to Bring High Speed Broadband to New Rochelle

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Bill Mooney, President and CEO of the Westchester County Association, announced Monday that Blair Levin, Executive Director of Gig.U: The Next Generation Network Innovation Project and a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Brookings Institution, has joined the WCA’s Blueprint for Smart Growth team as a volunteer advisor to the WCA’s Gigabit Broadband initiative.

The WCA’s Smart Growth Gigabit public-private initiative, launched on Oct. 6, aims to bring ultra-speed gigabit broadband to every home and business in Mount Vernon, New Rochelle, White Plains and Yonkers first (with more to come).

“To attract someone of Blair Levin’s stature is a real coup for the Westchester County Association and its Blueprint for Smart Growth partners,” Mooney said in a statement. “As we embark on the three- to five-year process of bringing gigabit broadband to Westchester’s four largest cities, his advice and counsel will be invaluable.”

Levin will be the featured speaker at a luncheon organized by the WCA Nov. 10 at Tappan Hill Mansion, Tarrytown. For tickets, visit westchester.org.

Gig.U is a broad-based group of over 30 leading research universities from across the United States, designed to accelerate the deployment of ultra high-speed networks to leading U.S. universities and their surrounding communities. The object is to attract high-tech startups in fields like health care, energy and telecommunications to the areas near the universities, and create the digital ecosystem that will attract new companies, ideas, and educational models.

Mooney quoted Tom Friedman, a columnist with The New York Times, who said about Gig.U: “The best of these ecosystems will be cities and towns that combine a university, an educated populace, a dynamic business community and the fastest broadband connections on earth. These will be the job factories of the future.”

Levin served in the Obama administration where, from 2009-10, he oversaw the development of the FCC’s National Broadband Plan. Levin also served in the Clinton administration as Chief of Staff to the Chairman of the FCC. An attorney who graduated summa cum laude from Yale College and is a graduate of Yale Law School, he lives in Washington, D.C.

The WCA is committed to business advocacy, economic vitality and to providing a strong and clear voice for the interests of businesses on the regional, state, and national levels. Its key objectives are to: drive economic vitality and development in Westchester and the region; stimulate new business creation; provide a strong and clear voice for the interests of businesses of all sizes on the regional, state, and national levels; and be an information resource center for its members. For more information, visit www.westchester.org

Photo: Blair Levin joins WCA’s gigabit broadband effort as Voluntary Advisor. / contributed