FCC Chairman Wheeler Names Adm. David Simpson Public Safety Chief

WASHINGTON – Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler announced his intention to name Rear Adm. David Simpson as chief of the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau. Adm. Simpson brings more than 20 years of information and communications technology experience supporting the Department of Defense, working closely with other agencies to provide secure communication services and improve cyberdefense readiness.

Adm. Simpson was most recently the vice director of the Defense Information Systems Agency, where he helped lead an organization responsible for planning, developing, and providing interoperable global communications for the Defense community. He also served as a senior delegate to the 2012 ITU World Radio Telecommunications Conference, and the World Conference on International Telecom.

From 2009 through 2010, as director for Communications and Information Services for U.S. Forces Iraq in Baghdad, he synchronized strategic and operational-level communications for U.S. Forces and assisted the Government of Iraq in building capacity for the information and communications technology sector. Simpson’s extensive career includes assignments with responsibility for Networks, IT and Crisis Communications for afloat and other deployed forces in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

Simpson is a native of Burbank Calif. and a 1982 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and received a master's degree in Systems Technology from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Chairman Wheeler today also announced that David Turetsky will take on a new role, and will serve as Coordinator of the FCC’s informal task force on the FCC response to international disasters such as Typhoon Haiyan, drawing from his experience dealing with U.S. disaster response.

Chairman Wheeler praised Mr. Turetsky’s tenure as head of PSHSB: “Under David Turetsky, PSHSB took a leadership role in working to promote the availability and reliability of current and next generation communications to make people safer in emergencies, and crafted the FCC’s response to several significant natural disasters, such as the Derecho in 2012 and Superstorm Sandy. I think David for his contribution to the Bureau and I am looking forward to working with him in his new role.”