Wayne A. Leighton, Ph.D., Partner

Wayne A. Leighton is Partner at Empiris LLC and an Adjunct Professor and U.S. liaison with Francisco Marroquín University in Guatemala.

Dr. Leighton joined Empiris in January 2009, after ten years of service in senior advisory positions at the Federal Communications Commission and in Congress. Most recently, he was the special advisor for wireless and international issues to FCC Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate, with a portfolio that covered commercial wireless, satellite, public safety, and other services.  In that capacity, he advised the commissioner on rules and oversight of all spectrum auctions, including the largest spectrum auction in U.S. history, the 700 MHz band licenses, which raised $19 billion for the U.S. Treasury.  He also advised the commissioner on numerous high-profile mergers and acquisitions, including AT&T/Dobson, Goldman Sachs/Alltel, Sirius/XM, Verizon Wireless/Rural Cellular Corp., Sprint/Clearwire, and Verizon Wireless/Alltel. Prior to joining Commissioner Tate’s office, Leighton was a senior economist in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau, where he held a leadership role in drafting early versions of the service rules for the 700 MHz band.  He also helped develop rules to facilitate secondary markets in commercial wireless licenses and co-authored a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking designed to promote service in rural areas.

Dr. Leighton has published in academic journals in the areas of telecommunications policy, political economy, and management theory.  He has taught seminars on market-based management, undergraduate courses on political economy, public finance, and the use of knowledge in economics and management, and a graduate level course in business, government and the international economy.

Dr. Leighton earned a B.B.A. in marketing and B.S. in economics from Texas A&M University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from George Mason University. (en Español)

Contact: 202.747.3610 |
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