Robert M. Pepper Ph. D (b. February 10, 1948 in New York City) is a specialist in communications policy.
He received his BA. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. and held faculty positions at the University of Iowa, Indiana University, and Pennsylvania University, and was a research affiliate at Harvard University. Following this he was Director of the Annenberg Washington Program in Communications Policy.
He was subsequently Chief of the Office of Plans and Policy and Chief of Policy Development at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and office now known as OSP.[1] At the FCC , he worked on issues such as implementing telecommunications legislation, planning for the transition to digital television, designing and implementing the first U.S. spectrum auctions.[2] He has also been Acting Associate Administrator at the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and initiator of a program on Computers, Communications and Information Policy at the National Science Foundation.[3]
He is head of Government Affairs at Cisco’s International, having joined the company in 2005. He is responsible for the international aspects of the company's advanced technology policy, working in areas such as broadband, IP enabled services, wireless, security and privacy and ICT development.
He serves on the board of directors of the U.S. Telecommunications Training Institute (USTTI) and the advisory boards for Columbia University and Michigan State University, and is a Communications Program Fellow at the Aspen Institute. He is a member of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Spectrum Management Advisory Committee, the UK’s Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board and the U.S. Department of State’s Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy