Meredith Attwell Baker

She's a fierce foe of net neutrality, a position that runs counter to that of Obama FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's (D) idea of an open Internet. She fills the seat of former FCC Chairman Kevin J. Martin (R) and her term expires in June 30, 2011.

The former lobbyist has strong ties to Texas, which includes her father-in-law, former Secretary of State James Baker III. Meredith Baker's a veteran of the George W. Bush administration, and led the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) as it managed the coupon program for consumers during the preparation for the national transition to digital television in June 2009.

In May 2011, Baker announced she was leaving the FCC in June 2011 to become senior vice president of Comcast-NBC Universal. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, , this transition created quite a stir since four months before accepting the job offer, Baker was part of the FCC that approved the Comcast-NBC merger.

Though she cannot lobby FCC officials for two years under new ethics rules, under the terms of the Comcast merger there is a lifetime ban against lobbying any executive-branch agency regarding Comcast. But Baker can immediately begin to twist arms on Capitol Hill.

In Her Own Words

"I'm afraid we are endangering a really important agenda. . . by pushing forward with a partisan, big-government regulatory issue [net neutrality] that has no immediate need for us to act," Baker said.

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