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Scott Cleland
From SourceWatch
Scott Cleland is the founder and president of Precursor, LLC, a research and consulting firm, specializing in the techcommunications sector, whose mission is to "help companies anticipate change for competitive advantage." [1]
An ardent advocate for an unregulated Internet, Cleland is also Chairman of NetCompetition.org, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Precursor LLC and an e-forum on Network neutrality.
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Corporate backing and "payola punditry" charges
NetCompetition.org and Precursor are funded by a wide range of broadband telecom, cable and wireless companies, including: [2]
- AT&T
- Comcast
- Sprint
- Verizon Wireless
- Qwest
- American Cable Association
- National Cable and Communications Association
In 2009, Cleland "also signed on as a hired gun for Microsoft," reported National Journal. Some have questioned whether Cleland's being "a frequent critic of Google" is encouraged by his corporate backers. [3]
In 2008, Cleland released a controversial report "alleging that Google 'is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth,' the company's share of bandwidth usage is rising rapidly, and its bandwidth use 'is orders of magnitude greater than its payment for its cost.'" Not surprisingly, Google disputed the report, but independent voices like Free Press' Tim Karr also faulted what he called Cleland's "payola punditry." [3] [4]
Background
Scott Cleland has extensive professional and entrepreneurial experience in capital markets. He founded and built the Precursor Group Broker Dealer from scratch to the #1 Institutional Investor-recognized independent research firm in communications in four years. The Precursor Group Inc. served most of the top investment institutions in the U.S, including 39 of the top 50. In 2004 and 2005, Precursor was voted #1 independent researcher in communications Institutional Investor Magazine. In addition, Cleland has been interviewed three different years by Barrons Magazine on the future of the telecom industry. Overall, he has 13 years experience in the institutional investment business including working for Legg Mason and the Schwab Washington Research Group.
Cleland has testified before three different Congressional Subcommittees on different forward-looking capital markets issues. He was the first expert witness to testify before Congress analyzing Enron's collapse. He also testified on both conflicts of interest and accounting tricks that contributed to telecom bankruptcies and fraud during the market bubble. Fortune Magazine profiled Cleland as "ahead of the pack in raising questions about WorldCom's debt, profitability, and survival." Then-WorldCom CEO Bernie Ebbers tried to discredit Cleland's prescient and hard-hitting research on WorldCom by deriding him as the "idiot Washington analyst." Cleland also served as the lead source and primary analyst for Hedrick Smith's Emmy Award winning PBS Frontline Special, "The Wall Street Fix."
Prior to his investment research career, Cleland served President George H.W. Bush as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for telecom trade matters, and served as a Senior Policy Advisor for Legislative Affairs to then Secretary of State James A. Baker III. In addition, he has served as Director of Legislative Affairs for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a Budget Examiner for OMB in the U.S. Executive Office of the President. [1]
Cleland has a Masters of Public Affairs from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin and a BA in Political Science from Kalamazoo College. [1]
Cleland is currently a Member of the United States Department of State, Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy.[1]
Articles and resources
Related SourceWatch articles
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 "Chairman's Bio", NetCompetition.org, accessed December 2007.
- ↑ "About us: Members," NetCompetition.org, accessed June 2009.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Google Critic Paid By Microsoft," National Journal's "Tech Daily Dose," June 16, 2009.
- ↑ Tim Karr, "Sock Puppet Redux," MediaCitizen, February 14, 2007.
External resources
External articles
http://www.precursor.com/documents/SmartMoney_Reprint_071906B.pdf
Precursor specialized in uncovering long-term industry trends. They shunned price targets and earnings models and the other trappings of the standard Wall Street research firm. And that’s what made Precursor such a good resource: Freed of the tyranny of quarterly earnings estimates, they were able to actually sit back and think. And then they’d write concise,fact-packed research notes, generally no more than a single page in length.
