ANOTHER TWO BITE THE DUST — Markle Foundation’s Zoe Baird and Mozilla’s Mitchell Baker both indicated that they intend to step down from their roles as co-chairs of the Commerce Department’s Digital Economy Board of Advisors, in separate notes obtained by POLITICO. “It is the moral responsibility of our leaders to unite Americans by respecting the diversity and inclusion that enables our country to generate new opportunity and celebrate freedom,” Baird writes, in a letter to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross. “In order to preserve these cherished values, there must never be equivocation in denouncing hate, bigotry, violence and racism.” The inaugural members of the advisory board were appointed in March 2016 under former Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker, with the aim of providing private sector input on the agency’s work on digital issues. Its membership has been comprised of an array of leaders in tech and telecom including Microsoft’s Brad Smith, YouTube’s Susan Wojcicki, Lyft’s John Zimmer, AT&T’s James Cicconi, Comcast’s David Cohen and Handy’s Oisin Hanrahan. The appointees were originally due to serve two-year terms.
