John M. Eger

John M. Eger, holder of the prestigious Lionel Van Deerlin Endowed Chair of Communications and Public Policy at San Diego State University, is President of the World Foundation for Smart Communities. He is also the Founding Director of the SDSU International Center for Communications which established the Japan-U.S. Telecommunications Research Institute with offices in Tokyo, New York and San Diego; and the California Institute for SmartCommunities™, a million dollar educational program to help communities statewide understand the importance of information technology as a catalyst for transforming life and work in the 21st Century. Earlier, Mr. Eger headed CBS Broadcast International which he established, and was Senior Vice President of the CBS Broadcast Group. From 1971-1973, he was legal assistant to the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, and from 1974-1976 served as Telecommunications Advisor to Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford and Director of the White House Office of Telecommunications Policy (OTP). Earlier in his career, Mr. Eger served as a data communications specialist and design director of information systems for the Bell System. Mr. Eger currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the San Diego Data Processing Corporation; Chairman of San Diego Mayor Susan Golding's City of the Future Advisory Committee; and Chairman of Governor Wilson's newly established California Commission on Information Technology. In August, 1997, Mr. Eger assumed the position of President and CEO of the World Foundation for Smart Communities, a 501(c)(3) educational organization, designed to help communities worldwide as they struggle to get on the global information highway.