Michael D. Gallagher (born January 23, 1964) is an American businessman and political advisor. He held positions in the

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

White House, including in the

United States Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...

. He was the president and CEO of the

Entertainment Software Association The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is the trade association of the video game industry in the United States. It was formed in April 1994 as the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA) and renamed on July 21, 2003. It is based in ...

, the trade association representing the computer and video game industry from 2007 until 2018. He is now the CEO of the

Washington Policy Center The Washington Policy Center (WPC) is a think tank based in the state of Washington. The organization's mission statement is "to promote sound public policy based on free-market solutions." It has a statewide staff of 25 and offices in Seattle, ...

Career

Gallagher received his B.A. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and his J.D. from the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. Gallagher served as administrative assistant to

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

Congressman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

Rick White and co-chaired the government relations practice group at the law firm of

Perkins Coie Perkins Coie is an American multinational law firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1912, it is recognized as an Am Law 50 firm. It is the largest law firm headquartered in the Pacific Northwest and has 20 offices across the Un ...

. He was managing director for government relations at

AirTouch Communications AirTouch Communications was an American wireless telephone service provider, created as a spin-off on Pacific Telesis on April 1, 1994. Its headquarters were in One California in the Financial District, San Francisco, California. After a serie ...

, which was

merged Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of companies, other business organizations, or their operating units are transferred to or consolidated with another company or business organization. As an aspect ...

with

Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the div ...

. After the merger, he was vice president for state

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...

at Verizon. On November 2, 2001, Gallagher was appointed Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications & Information (NTIA) and on October 14, 2003, he was appointed Assistant Secretary for Commerce and Information via a

recess appointment In the United States, a recess appointment is an appointment by the president of a federal official when the U.S. Senate is in recess. Under the U.S. Constitution's Appointments Clause, the President is empowered to nominate, and with the advi ...

, bypassing

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

approval. He was later confirmed by the Senate on November 20, 2004 and left the Commerce Department in 2006. On May 17, 2007, the

(ESA) named Gallagher as their 2nd president, replacing founder

Doug Lowenstein Douglas Lowenstein is the founder and former president of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). He resigned on February 12, 2007 to head up the newly formed Private Equity Council. Lowenstein graduated from Washington University in St. ...

. He stepped down in October 2018 following an internal investigation led by Robert Altman and Phil Spencer, then the chair and vice-chair of the ESA's board of directors, respectively. In 2019, ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' reported that Gallagher had lost the confidence of the board over a number of related issues in the preceding years. His office was characterized as a

toxic work environment A “toxic workplace” is a colloquial term used to describe a place of work, usually an office environment, that is marked by significant personal conflicts between those who work there. Such infighting can often harm productivity. Toxic workplac ...

in which he pitted his subordinates against each other and sent them belittling messages. He also fired an experienced high-level employee in favor of a new employee he preferred. With the 2016 election of

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

, Gallagher attempted to publicly align the ESA with Trump's policies, such as the

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 The Act to provide for reconciliation pursuant to titles II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018, , is a congressional revenue act of the United States originally introduced in Congress as the Tax Cuts and Jobs A ...

, which was unpopular with members of the association. These issues eventually led to the investigation and his ouster. Following his ouster, he founded a consulting firm for technology startups in 2019. In 2022, Gallagher took over as President & CEO of the

, a conservative

think tank A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governmenta ...

in Washington state. He also serves as Chairman of the US Board of Advisors for NTT Docomo. In March 2022, Gallagher took over as President & CEO of the

, the leading free market think tank in Washington State.

Internet governance

Gallagher has opposed the proposals by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

Working Group on Internet Governance The Working Group on Internet Governance (WGIG) was a United Nations multistakeholder Working group initiated after the 2003 World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) first phase Summit in Geneva failed to agree on the future of Internet gove ...

to remove the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

and the

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

(DNS) from the United States' control. The proposals were discussed at the

World Summit on the Information Society The World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) was a two-phase United Nations-sponsored summit on information, communication and, in broad terms, the information society that took place in 2003 in Geneva and in 2005 in Tunis. WSIS Forums have ...

in November 2005. Gallagher believes in

private sector The private sector is the part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is owned by private groups, usually as a means of establishment for profit or non profit, rather than being owned by the government. Employment The ...

control of DNS.

References

''Portions of this biography were taken from the White House'
biography of Gallagher
'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Gallagher, Michael 1964 births Living people People from Arcadia, California United States presidential advisors University of California, Berkeley alumni UCLA School of Law alumni People associated with Perkins Coie