
JOHN M. EGER, Lionel Van Deerlin Endowed Professor of Communications
and Public Policy at
San Diego State University and Director of
SDSU's
International Center for Communications, is President of
the Worldwide Media Group, Inc., a diversified international communications
firm specializing in strategic planning and market development.
A laywer, he is also counsel to the international law firm Morrison
and Foerster.
From 1983 to 1986, Mr. Eger was Senior Vice President of the CBS
Broadcast Group responsible for CBS Broadcast International, CBS
Cable Television Systems, CBS Interconnects (a cable advertising
sales unit), EXTRAVISION (the network's teletext service) and
development of all other new business enterprises worldwide, including:
joint ventures, co-productions, publishing, audio and video cassettes,
merchandising and licensing.
During this period, Mr. Eger introduced the concept of commercial
television to the People's Republic of China and developed a new
marketing strategy involving the barter of advertiser-sponsored
programming that was expanded to Eastern and Western Europe and
Latin America. He was also responsible for the development of
the prize-winning home video documentary series "World War
II with Walter Cronkite;" the inauguration of live and tape-delayed
inflight programming on domestic and international aircraft; and
satellite delivery of "The CBS Evening News with Dan Rather"
to Paris and Tokyo. Earlier, Mr. Eger had been Vice President
and Managing Director of CBS Broadcast International, which he
established, and Vice-President of Strategic Planning and International
Development for the CBS Broadcast Group.
Previously Mr. Eger headed a Washington D.C. public affairs firm
which he founded, specializing in international communications.
This legal research and public affairs firm played a major role
in the restructuring of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company;
was instrumental in the development of laws regarding privacy
and security of information systems; and was responsible for developing
coalitions to remove the barriers to trade and investment in international
communications and information goods and services.
From 1973 to 1976, Mr. Eger was advisor to Presidents Richard
Nixon and Gerald Ford and Director of the White House Office of
Telecommunications Policy, where he served on the Presidential
Initiative on Privacy, the Cabinet Committee on Cable Television,
and the Ad-Hoc Committee on Regulatory Reform. During this time,
Mr. Eger launched the first series of extended bilateral and multilateral
discussions on international communications trade matters; re-examined
U.S. involvement and participation in international regulatory
and policy fora; and initiated the development of an Asian Basin
secretariat on telecommunications which later resulted in the
formation of a private sector, "Pacific Telecommunications
Council," which he helped found in Honolulu in 1977.
Before his White House service, he was legal assistant to the
Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, responsible
for liaison with Congress, the White House and other federal agencies,
and served as special advisor to the General Counsel of the FCC
on the historical "Specialized Common Carrier Proceedings,"
which was instrumental in introducing competition in the telecommunications
industry.
Early in his career, before a stint as a trial lawyer in Chicago,
Mr. Eger held various management and sales positions with the
Bell System. Following his graduation from the Bell System Communications
School in Cooperstown, New York, he served as Director of Information
Systems and was responsible for automating many parts of Illinois
Bell directory operations. He also served as an information systems
specialist to the largest national telecommunications users with
headquarters in the state of Illinois.
Mr. Eger is a past Chairman of "Opt-in-America," a public
policy organization concerned with America's leadership in the
information age; Chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee on 1992,
the date set for economic unification of Western Europe; trustee
of the International Institute of Communications, London; advisor
to the Fletcher School of International Law and Diplomacy at Tufts
University; and on the editorial board of the international quarterly,
Information Society. He also served on the board of the
International Advertising Association; Educom, the association
for information technology in higher education; the Corporate
Affairs Committee of the Japan Society and the Finance Committee
of the Institute for East West Security Studies.
Mr. Eger is a frequent lecturer on the subjects of international
communications, emerging trends in media and marketing, and more
recently, revitalizing communities through the use of telecommunications.
He is also a frequent contributor to trade and industry journals
and general interest publications such as The New York Times,
The Washington Post, and Washington Journalism Review.
He is the author of "Emerging Restrictions on Transborder
Data Flows: Privacy protection or Non-Tariff Trade Barriers,"
Georgetown Journal of Law and Policy in International Business
(1978); "The Global Phenomenon of Tele-Informatics,"
Cornell International Law Journal (Summer, 1981); "Global
Television: An Executive Overview," Columbia Journal of
World Business (Fall, 1987); and of the seminal study: Cities
of the Future: The Role of Telecommunications and Information
Technology.
He is a member of the Foreign Policy Association, the Ambassador's
Roundtable and the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. He is also
a member of the International Advertising Association, the Illinois,
Washington D.C., American, and International Bar Associations.
Mr. Eger currently serves as Chairman of the Board of the San
Diego Data Processing Corporation, as Chairman of Mayor Susan
Golding's City of the Future Advisory Committee, on Governor
Pete Wilson's Special Advisory Panel on Technology, Policy
and Procurement, and the GovernorÌs Council on Information
Technology. He is also President of the San Diego-Baja Communications
Council, a bi-national association of senior executives from every
sector of the communications, entertainment and information industry.
Mr. Eger holds a Juris Doctor from the John Marshall Law School
in Chicago and was a distinguished military graduate of the Virginia
Military Institute. He is married and has four children.
A list of selected speeches, articles and publications is attached.