Joel Thayer is President of the Digital Progress Institute, a Senior Fellow for AI and Emerging Technology Policy at the America First Policy Institute, a Senior Fellow at the Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator for Political Economy and Regulation (“VPA”), and a tech and telecom attorney. Mr. Thayer previously was an associate at Phillips Lytle LLP. Before that, he served as Policy Counsel for ACT | The App Association, where he advised on legal and policy issues related to antitrust, telecommunications, privacy, cybersecurity, and intellectual property. His experience also includes working as a legal clerk for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and FTC Commissioner Maureen Ohlhausen and as a congressional staffer for the Hon. Lee Terry and the Hon. Mary Bono. He has testified before both the Senate Judiciary Committee on advancing a national privacy framework and the House Energy and Commerce Committee on protecting children online.
