News Release

September 15, 2004

Media Contact: (202) 789-5200

Cato welcomes new director of information policy studies, Jim Harper

WASHINGTON -- The Cato Institute is pleased to announce the addition to its staff of Jim Harper as director of information policy studies. Harper is the editor of the Web-based privacy policy think tank Privacilla.org, and a former counsel to committees in both the U.S. House and Senate.

In his new position, he will continue his research and writing on privacy and promote free-market perspectives on similar information policy issues, such as cyber-security, online consumer protection, commercial communications, and credit reporting, as well as intellectual property, Internet governance, new technologies, and many others. Harper will work closely with Adam Thierer, Cato's director of telecommunications studies.

Immediately before joining the Cato Institute, Harper was the principal of his own consulting firm, focusing on technology, telecommunications and e-commerce. Harper holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the University of California-Santa Barbara and he earned his Juris Doctorate from Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco, where he was editor-in-chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.

"Regulators are threatening to take the United States off the leading edge in information and digital technology," says Cato Executive Vice President David Boaz. "Jim Harper's background in Internet law and technology, his experience on Capitol Hill, and his foundation in constitutional law make him the ideal person to keep Cato's research both forward-looking and deeply rooted. Jim will help us show that the `Hands Off the Net' credo still makes sense and deserves to be taken seriously by lawmakers."

Harper is available to comment on all technology, Internet, and information policy issues. To reach him for comment, please contact the Cato media relations office at 202-789-5200.