Roger Fingas
Apple is searching for a new director of public policy as it looks to both influence and react to government policies and regulations worldwide, according to an official job listing discovered by AppleInsider.
The person will be responsible for developing and guiding Apple's public policy agenda, the listing states, as well as keeping track of international legal and political developments in order to inform upper-tier Apple executives and provide them with options. Reaching in the other direction, the role also involves consulting with senior and mid-level managers to find out what the impact of government policies might be.
Perhaps more significantly the new director will be responsible for crafting letters, position papers, and testimony with the goal of persuading lawmakers and regulators to adopt policies friendly to Apple's business practices and profits. The successful candidate will in fact be expected to appear at public hearings, whether to give testimony or only provide advice.
A more specific duty involves implementing strategies that "ensure that participation in various international trade associations is maximized."
On its website, Apple says that it "engages in policy discussions" on matters like privacy, the environment, and intellectual property, with strategic guidance overseen by top-level Apple executives including CEO Tim Cook. The company has its own government affairs group, but also hires outside lobbyists to influence all levels of government.
The company adds that it doesn't run a PAC (political action committee) or donate money to specific candidates or parties, but that it does sometimes contribute to various initiatives and ballot measures. One of the most famous cases involved Apple financially backing the "No" campaign for Prop 8, a California ballot measure that sought to ban gay marriage. The measure passed regardless, but was later overturned in a series of court rulings that escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Malcolm Owen
Christine McKee
Amber Neely
15 Comments
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Difficult to blame them after the vote/Bromwich tag team scandal.
This presumably has something to do with Lisa Jackson being promoted on Wednesday to include VP of public policy in her duties.
Quote: "Perhaps more significantly the new director will be responsible for crafting letters, position papers, and testimony with the goal of persuading lawmakers and regulators to adopt policies friendly to Apple's business practices and profits." In other words, Apple is looking for someone to help create new loopholes like those it and a host of other giant corporations used to evade EU taxes%u2014taxes that struggling little corner groceries could not afford to evade. In the 1990s, I heard dot-com entrepreneurs describe their scheme. Its essence was simple. When the risks were small and the profits large, a small clique would make all the investments and rake in all the sure money. Only when the risks became great, meaning the media hype would end and their idea have to actually generate profits, would their scheme go public. The public would get high risks and, at best, far lower profits. That's the essence of the dot-com bubble and not that removed from the sub-prime one. I was tempted to tell those in that clique, "When the revolution comes and they're marching people like you to the wall, don't ask me to hide you." Some people don't deserve sympathy. I feel much the same about Apple's executives. No level of profits will cause the company not to seek ways (like this public policy director) to avoid taxes that others will be forced to pay. Note that'd precisely what Apple wants. It wants "policies friendly to Apple's business practices and profits" and not to policies friend to business in general, large and small. At Apple, the "me" is all that counts. Apple's executives given every indication of being heartless, soulless lot rendered all the worse for regarding themselves has exceptional and superior. That also explains their Confederate flag mess. They leapt hoping to give the appearance of being virtuous at little cost (a few apps not sold) and have ended up looking like bumbling fools. That is hardly surprising. People who don't struggle daily with doing the right thing%u2014indeed, people who don't struggle with it at all%u2014often blunder when they try to feign ethics. You don't get good ethics reading the NYT, listening to NPR, and leaping into the latest hysteria.
In other words, Apple is looking for someone to help create new loopholes like those it and a host of other giant corporations used to evade EU taxes%u2014taxes that struggling little corner groceries could not afford to evade.
Everyone has one of these "VP, Government Affairs" types. Often, at least two, with one in DC and the other in Brussels. It would be stupid of Apple to compete with one hand tied behind its back (or expect the company to do so).