Career
Service in the Obama Administration
On April 20,2009,President Obama nominated Kerry,and on May 21,2009,he was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate as the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of Commerce. In this role,Kerry was the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and third-ranking secretarial officer. He served as the department's chief legal officer and oversees the work of over 325 lawyers in 14 offices. Kerry also served as the department's chief ethics officer,and co-chaired the secretary's Internet Policy Task Force,which brings together Commerce agencies with expertise on the internet in the 21st-century global economy. [4]
Kerry was appointed acting United States Secretary of Commerce on June 1,2013, [5] and resumed his position as general counsel on June 26,2013,when Penny Pritzker was sworn in as the 38th Secretary of Commerce. As the General Counsel of the Department of Commerce,Kerry was the principal legal advisor to the Secretary of Commerce and third-ranking secretarial officer. He resigned his position on September 4,2013. [6]
Brookings Institution and AI governance
In December 2013,Kerry joined the Governance Studies program and the Center for Technology Innovation as the first Ann R. &Andrew H. Tisch Distinguished Visiting Fellow with the Brookings Institution. [7] [8] [9]
At Brookings,he leads two efforts:The Privacy Debate,a convening and publications series on U.S. privacy legislation, [10] and The Forum for Cooperation on AI (FCAI),a series of roundtables seeking to identify avenues of cooperation on international AI regulation,standards,and research and development. [11]
Kerry co-founded and helps lead FCAI,a collaboration between Brookings and the Centre for European Policy Studies. [12] [13] FCAI convenes senior officials and experts from seven jurisdictions:Australia,Canada,the European Union,Japan,Singapore,the United Kingdom,and the United States. [14]
Kerry remains active in the public debate on AI standards and data governance. [15] [16] In 2024,his report Small yards,big tents:How to build cooperation on critical international standards drew coverage from the American National Standards Institute and policy media for recommending stronger U.S. and allied engagement in international standards bodies. [17] [18] In 2025,an essay co‑authored with Joshua P. Meltzer,Andrea Renda,and Andrew W. Wyckoff argued for a distributed,networked approach to global AI governance and standards and was cited in independent outlets. [13] [19]
From 2014 to 2019 Kerry served as senior counsel with Sidley Austin. [20] [21] Since 2013,he has been a visiting scholar with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab. [22] He also serves on the board of the National Archives Foundation since 2018. [23]
Political involvement
Kerry has worked in several of his brother John Kerry's political campaigns,including in 1982 he served as campaign director for John Kerry for Lieutenant Governor,and in 1972,he served as strategy director for John Kerry for Congress.
During John's 2004 presidential campaign,Kerry traveled across the United States to discuss his brother's views on Israel,campaigning with Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz,writer-comedian Larry David,and Jewish elected officials. [24] According to contemporary news reports,Kerry also served as an advisor and campaign surrogate. [25]
In 2006,Kerry was reported to have considered a run for Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts,but he declined after the Democratic incumbent William F. Galvin announced that he would seek re-election. [26]
During the 2008 presidential campaign,Kerry served as the vice chair of the National Jewish Democratic Council and defended Democratic nominee Barack Obama in the Jewish press. [27]
This page is based on this
Wikipedia article Text is available under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
