A Conversation with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai

Ajit Pai is the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. He was designated Chairman by President Donald Trump in January 2017. He had previously served as Commissioner at the FCC, appointed by then-President Barack Obama and confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate in May 2012. Earlier in his career, he served in various positions of increasing responsibility at the FCC, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the U.S. Senate. Before becoming a Commissioner, he worked as a Partner at the law firm of Jenner & Block and served as in-house counsel at a telecommunications company. Since taking the helm at the FCC, Chairman Pai has championed regulatory modernization, updating rules to match marketplace realities and aiming to deliver consumer value through market-based solutions instead of preemptive regulation. He also has made the FCC more transparent, nimble, and accessible.

Chairman Pai graduated with honors from Harvard University in 1994 and from the University of Chicago Law School in 1997, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review and won the Thomas R. Mulroy Prize. In 2010, Pai was one of 55 individuals nationwide chosen for the 2011 Marshall Memorial Fellowship, a leadership development initiative of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. The son of immigrants from India, Chairman Pai grew up in Parsons, Kansas.

Strauss Zelnick, a partner in ZelnickMedia since 2001, became Chairman of Take-Two in March 2007 and Chief Executive Officer in January 2011. Mr. Zelnick is currently Chairman of ITN Networks and serves on the boards of directors of Naylor LLC, Alloy, Inc. and Starwood Property Trust, Inc. In August 2013, Mr. Zelnick was elected Vice Chairman of the Entertainment Software Association, the interactive entertainment industry’s trade association. In 2014, Mr. Zelnick was elected Chairman of the Entertainment Software Association, the interactive entertainment industry’s trade association.

Prior to forming ZelnickMedia, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment, a $4.7 billion music and entertainment company. Mr. Zelnick's appointment as President and Chief Executive Officer of BMG Entertainment followed his tenure as President and Chief Executive Officer of the company's North American business unit from 1994 through 1998. Before joining BMG Entertainment, Mr. Zelnick was President and Chief Executive Officer of Crystal Dynamics, a leading producer and distributor of interactive game software. Prior to that, he spent four years as President and Chief Operating Officer of 20th Century Fox, where he managed all aspects of the worldwide motion picture and distribution business.

Previously, he spent three years at Vestron Inc. as a senior executive, and rose to become President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Zelnick also served as Vice President, International Television for Columbia Pictures.

Mr. Zelnick holds an MBA and a JD from Harvard University and a BA from Wesleyan University. He is an associate member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, has served on the Board of Directors of the Recording Industry Association of America and the Motion Picture Association of America and is a Trustee Emeritus of Wesleyan University.