Business as Usual: Ajit Pai

So good afternoon, everyone. This is Audrey Russo, President and CEO, the Pittsburgh Technology Council and always joined here by Jonathan kersting. He's vice president of all things media and marketing storytelling for the tech Council. And today is our 200th episode of business as usual, and I can't not only is that cool for us, hopefully cool for all of you. But I'm thrilled to have today's guests because in many ways, we're actually bookending his career. And in a moment, I'm going to introduce him. And if you see me doing a lot of oohs and ahhs over him, it's real, it's real. I've been a huge fan of his, for the entire time that he's been in his role as chairman of the FCC. And he, you are going to be just thrilled to see him now. So I'm pretty excited. So first of all, I want to give a shout out to Huntington bank, thanking them for believing in us and being a big supporter of all things that we experiment with, particularly in communication and marketing and telling stories. They've just been a champion of ours. And if you don't know them, get to know them, also want to give a shout out to at&t, we've been partners with them for a really long time. And they have helped us in so many different ways, particularly in areas of public policy, and making sure that we have the tools that we need to forge ahead in this new economy of tech and information. They've been great partners, and 40 by 80. That's the longitude and latitude of Pittsburgh. And that is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Pittsburgh tech Council. It's our nonprofit arm, our 501 c three. And we focus on all things that are related to work force pipeline development, and entrepreneurship. So we have muted your mics. If you've been on the show before we have lots of opportunities for you to chat with our guests. Jonathan's going to monitor that. And lastly, this isn't an opportunity to sell your wares. That's not what today is about. This is an opportunity to just to sit back, enjoy, listen, understand that we are a global community. We are a national community. And Pittsburgh is a magical place. And we have an opportunity now to bring on Chairman Ajit Pai, who has led the FCC for the last wait four years, right? That's right. That long, I know, hard to believe. But why this is so exciting, is that when Chairman actually kicked off his tour, he kicked it off in Pittsburgh, and we did it with Carnegie Mellon University. We did a live stream all across the nation. And the chairman has been just incredible in terms of his support of Pittsburgh, there was a time he came and we hung out with a whole bunch of entrepreneurs and East liberty. And he we couldn't we couldn't peel them away. Couldn't peel them away. And I don't think I'm making that up. Right, chairman?

That's right. No, your guide is always

I'm not always to come to you. I'm blind. So you have that you actually the the pathways and the end the relationship and leadership that you've had, since, you know, since these past four years has just been tremendous. But I want everyone to understand who is chairman pi, who is a Jeep? Because he has an interesting background. He really has an interesting background. And you have been with the FCC for a total of eight years, right?

That's right, eight years. chair or years before that as a staff, right? 12 in total,

right. So you've just had such a great understanding of just the whole complexity of what's happening in Washington and beyond on you know, every side of the table. So we're really thrilled. So it's eight years, four years as chairman, but Gee, tell everyone tell everyone a little bit about your roots because the entrepreneurial community, I think you will, if you haven't heard this before, you really should hear this now.

Oh, you're too kind, Audrey. Thank you, as I said, for hosting me, thanks to you to Brian to Jonathan, the entire Pittsburgh Technology Council for giving me this platform. I'm literally my last full day in this position. I feel so blessed. Throughout my life. And especially throughout my professional career. My parents were the entrepreneurs of our family. They came to the United States in 1971 from India, with literally nothing in their pocket other than $8, a transistor radio and a belief that the American dream would be within reach, they moved to Buffalo and didn't know anybody had no safety net, no friends and family etc. But they had me in 1973, my sister in 1977, and we ended up moving to rural Kansas where I then spent the bulk of my childhood and every time I go back home and I speak to my grade school teachers and my high school friends et cetera, I just tell them you only in America, it's such a great country that allows people to come from wherever they are on the planet they might be from, and just create something here in the United States. And I tried to be, of course worthy of my parents sacrifice in the years since. And now of course, being in this position, having been appointed by two presidents to serve in these leadership roles. It's just been the honor of a lifetime, especially to be the first Indian American to be in this position. So to me, at least I leave with a very full heart, not for the title in the fancy office and all that but more for just the chance to serve the American people. It's been the ride of a lifetime,

really has and so how, how are you different from when you entered eight years ago?

Well, I think the most discernible differences are a lot more gray hair and about 20 pounds. But in terms of the intangibles, I think, you know, I certainly have become much more keen on the importance of setting the strategy and just executing aggressively, which is what we've done over the past four years. And also, just the management of the agency, you know, that you don't really learn in college or in grad school, at least I didn't in law school, about managing a big organization and around certain key goals and to be able to leverage the SE C's best asset, which is it's amazing staff, and focus them on things like you know, closing the digital divide American leadership in 5g, protecting consumers from robo calls. And establishing 988 is a three digit number for suicide prevention and mental health. And also just transforming how the agency operates, making it more transparent and nimble and responsive. That is something that I've learned a lot about over the last four years and happy to say, I've been drawing a lot of lessons from you. Over my time, it's everything started with you and the PTC back in 2012, as you know, and I'm a lot wiser now because of it.

Well, let's let's think about this what people tend to not understand. And I love this whole piece about entrepreneurship. But you know, you are in many ways, you know, running FCC, and being the voice of that is one thing, but then you're also operationally responsible. So what has it been like to work for you? I

would like to think if you asked any of the FCC staff with me off camera, of course, they would tell you that we work hard, but we work exceptionally in a collegial way. We've been more productive than any FCC in recent history, twice as productive over the last 30 years, we've actually tally that up. But we've also been much more bipartisan than ever before. 88% of our votes, for example, have been unanimous, which is unusual in FCC history is below 50%. Over the years before that, but also, just in terms of thinking about where to move it. Typically the agency has been more backward looking, we try to fit new technologies and ideas into the categories we already know. But one of the things I try to encourage our staff to think about was, if you were starting from scratch, how would you craft a regulatory framework and the best example here would be our subsidy programs for broadband. Typically, this involves us just cutting a check to real telephone companies and saying vaya con Dios, but we thought no, any company using any technology should be allowed to compete for that funding, so long as they can meet our service thresholds. And that's why you've seen companies like SpaceX, not Leo, low Earth orbit satellite companies participating electric utilities, fixed wireless companies using unlicensed spectrum. That's just one of many, many different examples where we've encouraged the staff, you think about where the marketplace is going. And let's try to catch up and encourage that future now, instead of just waiting for it to happen. And so

what do you think where do you see the FCC continuing to play a role in solving, you know, the problem, a lot of the problems in the coming years? I mean, you set the framework? Yeah, I partisan leadership role. So talk about that.

I do think our core initiatives have been bipartisan in nature, for example, closing the digital divide, we've started, of course, the real digital Opportunity Fund a $20 billion funds to get broadband access to over 10 million Americans who don't have it, we started a companion fund for 5g, the 5g Fund, which will be a $9 billion program, to make sure that those areas that are unlikely to see private investments will have federal support to encourage a business case in those areas. And that's just on the subsidy side, on the regulatory side. Some very found reforms that might seem arcane, but for example, encouraging companies to migrate from copper to fiber, one touch make ready so that competitive fiber providers instead of having to ask the incumbent cable company and electric utility for permission to attach the fiber to a utility pole, they can do that work themselves and be very powerful reduction in the cost element. So those types of things I think, are going to continue into the future. They were all pretty much bipartisan in nature. And I think the pandemic, if anything is underscored the importance of making sure that every American gets connected and soon.

I mean, listen to you faced, you know, the pandemic that's nothing that anyone had on our clock that we anticipated. And you know, the the obvious issues around the digital divide became quite profound in a very, very short period of time. Yeah, and pretty Particularly for communities of color rural Americans, you've been an advocate. So, you know, I'm gonna quote from from report from the Brookings Institute real quick, while lower income African Americans and Hispanics have similar levels of smartphone ownership, as actually whites in the United States, they are more likely to depend on mobile services for online access, which is why 5g networks must be widely available, affordable, and able to support emerging texts that, you know, technologies that address public interests and concerns. So they're talking about the notion that so many low income families, you know, don't have access to broadband only through their mobile device, right? That's the case around the world in many places, right? Isn't it similar? Like, if you go to Africa, and you go to South America, that's the same. That's very, very similar. So with this, what what do you want to how can we encourage this rollout? This whole 5g rollout? What what are some? What's your wisdom on that?

Well, I think one thing is continuing to execute the FCC s 5g fast plan, which I rolled out back in 2018. And you can get more information@fcc.gov slash 5g. But in a nutshell, it involves making more spectrum available for the commercial marketplace, making it easier to deploy wireless infrastructure like small cells, and modernizing our regulations to encourage the deployment of fiber. And as a sign of how aggressive we've been, we just finished the largest auction in American history of the so called C band spectrum, which raised $80 billion for the US Treasury. And so that's a sign I think that companies are interested. But that's just licensed spectrum. We've also changed the game in terms of unlicensed spectrum which people use for things like Wi Fi, compared to when I came into office, there's now five x increase in the amount of unlicensed spectrum that any innovator or entrepreneur can use, you don't have to come to the FCC and ask for permission to use it, you can use it yourself. And that's going to be a game changer for American consumers, especially low income consumers who can now benefit from that spectrum, in through fixed wireless services, or through being able to connect many more devices at home, it's going to be a game changer. And we're now seeing the ecosystem from wireless routers to devices, and blossom, because now companies entrepreneurs have the certainty they have that that Wi Fi spectrum is going to be there. So it's a really exciting time in the spectrum field. And hopefully that too, will continue in the time to come. The other thing I'll mention briefly, by the way is I've encouraged Congress for about a year now, to give lower income consumer give the FCC authorities to set up a low income consumer program. And they just did that a couple of weeks ago with emergency Coronavirus legislation. So they've set up an emergency broadband benefit which we've started the process of administering. But it'll be up to the next FCC to make sure that those dollars go into the hands of consumers, low end consumers and cheaper services or cheaper devices.

Well, we have a bunch of questions that are out here that we're gonna we're sure that but before we do, I really people often speak about 5g in terms of it's 100 times faster. Right. But that's not really what what the, you know, impact is.

I agree. I agree. I mean, I think of course, that's the easy tagline for those who view 5g solely through you how much faster is my phone going to be, but to me, at least, it's going to be transformative in terms of the verticals, how it disrupts in a positive way healthcare, for example, through the delivery of telehealth, how it disrupts things like remote learning through high definition video and the like, how it transforms gaming, which is going to be incredibly important in terms of the bandwidth and the lower latency, and things that people might not think about precision agriculture, for example, I've visited a number of farms and ranches across the country over the last four years, they need some metric conductivity to be able to upload data from combines, you process it in the cloud using AI, and then download it very quickly. That's exactly what a 5g network is tailored to do. So more in terms of the sectors of the economy, I think that's where the real pop is going to be. Even if the thing that gets most to play on commercials on TV or whatever is, hey, you've got a faster phone. That's nice, but I don't think that's where 5g is really going to pop.

And so can you talk about agriculture a little bit?

Yeah, absolutely. So I remember one of the last trips I took before the pandemic ended our travel was to a corn farm in Nebraska. And I remember that we were starting to South Dakota, Nebraska was the end stop. And so we were looking at this farm in is a cornfield. And the farmer was describing Yes, now we want to be able to use precision ag because every square yard, we want to know how much fertilizer was applied last year, how much what's the soil moisture content, etc? What was the yield last year? What do we want it to be this year? All that information is essentially just data, but he can't process it locally on the combine even though it's a smart calm, Brian that's guided by GPS and it doesn't really need a human. What he needs is the ability to upload that data into the cloud. Have someone process it and then tell them okay, for this square yard, this is how much fertilizer has to be applied or you know, you can manage the comment this way or that way and much higher yields, which is going to be incredibly important. The other thing is much more environmentally sustainable. Obviously, we don't want to just blanket you know, these fields with fertilizer and pesticides, etc. And they can do much more textured analysis of how the field is and where it needs to be. So it just one example. Another one is I, ranchers, I visited a ranch in Colorado, very entrepreneurial woman who set up her own online auction system for cattle. And she sells to some of the biggest groups and ultimately get ends up selling to restaurants, high end restaurants, and she's using a 4g LTE platform, which is nice. But she said that, because each cow has an RFID tags, she would love to be able to essentially convey a lot more information a lot more quickly. so that people know exactly what did the cow eats the last year, how's it fed, what was the chain of custody, all that sort of stuff. It might sound kind of arcane, but to me at least empowering women like her to do what they do best, which is raise these cattle and bring them to market in a healthy way. That's great. And that's something that 5g can enable. And that's what people want actually, people want to understand as much information about what they what they what, where they get it from and how they're supporting people. And then that sort of transition into this new world about finding information about origins. And point to point

yeah. What about gaming? What are you seeing in gaming?

So to me, I think gaming is the tip of the spear in terms of the need for high speed connectivity. latency, obviously, is one of the critical factors there the responsiveness of the network when you move the press a button or whatever, but also just the bandwidth, the sheer amount of bandwidth, and we're talking about high definition video. So typically, in the case of wireless is going to be higher bandwidth, mid band or high band or millimeter wave spectrum. Additionally, it's going to require a lot more fiber deployment. And I think about a visit I did to Las Vegas where CenturyLink had deployed wireless, sorry, fiber, gigabit fiber to an apartment complex, and they didn't know marketing at all. And somehow, within days, word got out. And now of the 30 units that are available in that complex, 28 of them are gamers and two are doctors who do radiology and want to scan things in high definition. That's just an example of if you build these high speed networks, gamers can really benefit. And so we want to make sure that both with respect to wireless and wired networks, we have the strongest possible infrastructure to enable them to play and to succeed.

And then I'm going to go through a couple of others because I know that you know this information. What about like traffic management?

Absolutely. So here, I think we're making a tremendous strides. Over the last four years, we've made more spectrum available for one thing for connected vehicle to everything or CV to x as it's called. So a car is going along will sense other cars, pedestrians, traffic, signage, and the like. And because all these cars will be interconnected, they now have dedicated spectrum the five gigahertz band to be able to communicate with each other and all the automakers now have certainty, we also freed up a massive amount of spectrum from 76 to 81 gigahertz, almost four gigahertz in total in that band, for vehicular radar. And that's now being used for things like collision avoidance and the like. So that's just on the spectrum side in terms of infrastructure, we've worked with the Department of Transportation and others, to see if there are ways to work to make sure that these communities, transportation networks are seamless, obviously, you can have some smart cars on the road, everyone needs to be on the same page. So that that's going to be a complex task in the years to come. So hopefully, our successors at both agencies can figure it out along with the automakers. What

about some of your predictions? I mean, what are some other predictions, you think that you think that maybe we're really at the cusp of that's going to change how we live? And he gave us some great examples there. But I know and we, you know, ride sharing, there's been so much innovation that has occurred from this three to to 5g period of time, what else are you seeing? Are you seeing that? Because you're you're an entrepreneur, and you know, you have an eyeball for that. So you have seen a lot of these trends? What are you seeing your gender is

I'm just the one pushing paper, your members, the ones actually doing the heavy lifting to deliver value as entrepreneurs. But what I would say is that the pandemic has underscored the nature of work, the changing nature of work. So now I think with so many people working remotely, you know, the FCC itself has been remote for the last 10 months, I think people have come to the realization that obviously in person interaction is great, and we don't want to discount that. But the norm going forward for many people may be working from home. And so to the extent that broadband becomes more ubiquitous, and high speed, that changes everything, I mean, obviously the nature of the work itself, but also the commercial real estate sector, and what is the need for sort of big buildings in densely populated urban cores. If you have all these people working remotely, even where people live, I mean, I've talked to some co workers who've been working from South Carolina or Florida or even one case, even rural Montana, they're still able to get the job done. They're just working where they want to be. And so I think that's going to be a tremendous change for society. The other one is going to be remote learning. I mean, now, especially with so much of the learning going virtual, I think there's going to be an opportunity there to figure out how do we best educate our kids, wherever they happen to be, and a lot of exciting development there. And telehealth, too, I think that's going to be the most dramatic change. I think in the next couple of years. Now that the model of healthcare delivery is being inverted, with care being delivered where the patient happens to be, as opposed to where the bricks and mortar healthcare facility happens to be, we're on the cusp of some major changes. And here, we actually got authority from Congress a year ago on this, instead of a COVID-19 telehealth program, I just give an example. One of the grantees firma, that program was the University of Pittsburgh Children's Hospital, where they are now having child transplant patients connected remotely. So they don't have to come in when they're immunocompromised. And that's already delivering huge benefits in terms of health outcomes, and also just a reduction, the anxiety and stress that parents might have so that they don't have to worry, is my child going to be at risk? If we have to go back into the UPMC? That's not something that they have to worry about. So anyway, sorry, to blather on. But I think the future is incredibly bright for all these technologies.

I agree with you. And I love hearing that what your view is, in terms of the working world, as well as the health care world, I don't think we're going back, right, I don't think we're going back to how it was do we're going to have human interaction, obviously, we're going to do some amazing things. And we're going to have events, and we're going to do that kind of stuff. But I think that this has been, you know, sort of a switch this pivot is and we're not returning to it.

Yeah, I agree. And I hope that coming out of the pandemic, knock on wood, hopefully, we will soon, some of the things that we've learned will continue into the future. For example, with respect to telehealth, some of the relaxation of Interstate medical licensure will continue. That's not something that we have jurisdiction over. But now I think everybody appreciates that if you're a physician in Maryland, you should be able to deliver health care to a patient in Pittsburgh, it shouldn't matter that you're crossing state lines, your expertise is what matters, not the piece of paper saying where you're certified. And so that's the kind of thing that I hope we can continue into the future.

I think so too. And the same thing with work, as you described before, other kinds of knowledge workers and workers. Yeah. So we talked about, you know, as we talk about 5g, right, how we can avoid the complex issues, right, that it faces in the rollout of the I mentioned that before, which is local regulation. So is currently on the small list of cities, that's falling behind other parts of the country and deployment of 5g. There are many sticking points in the current discussion. And I know, we only have a few minutes on this, but the issue of permits and fees is currently high, high on that list. What can the FCC do to help us to make you know, to make this, you know, much more an ease of use. And, you know, we want to make sure that we are at the epicenter, and you know, future proofing as much as we can our region and our city. So on the other hand, what, you know, what can business and economic development organizations do to try to try to help?

It's a great question. I mean, over the last four years, we've been pretty aggressive on this front. So for example, we issued an order streamlining the process for local permitting, allowing me to spell these to recover the reasonable costs, but setting a limit in terms of what those costs can be. Same thing with respect to timing, you're giving them reasonable time to make a decision, but they have to make a decision, they can't just sit on things. And if effectively impose a moratorium, in addition to those types of reforms, which are upheld by the courts by overwhelm, very strongly. We've also created model codes. So for those municipalities, that are interested in delivering high speed networks for the benefit of their constituents, they can take the model codes that we've created over the last four years and tweak them as suits local conditions, but use that as a blueprint for broadband deployments. And we've had very good partnerships with some municipalities like the city of Los Angeles, for example, or smaller towns like the city of Sioux Falls in South Dakota. And as a result, they seem to dramatically increase the amount of wireless infrastructure that they've been able to deploy, especially less conspicuous 5g infrastructure. These tend to be smaller cells that the size of a pizza box, they're relatively conspicuous and are much more environmentally friendly. So at the end of the day, I hope we can convince local leaders, we're all on the same page. We want our constituents to get connected. Let's make sure that we have a regulatory framework that protects your legitimate prerogatives, but doesn't stand in the way of next generation services being delivered in Pittsburgh. When down the road and zelienople. Everyone is benefiting from these high speed networks. We want everyone to get digital opportunity together.

Wait a second, how do you know zelienople

I visited there. So I went there to visit a broadband project and it was in the middle of the winter. I remember and one of the workers was telling me how difficult it can be when there's a network outage. You have to get to some of the some of these hubs and figure out where the problem is. It's a challenge and say It was great. Yeah, went to permittees. On the way back after that, I do remember that. My cardiologist is probably on speed dial after that. But the folks in zelienople were great. And it to me whether it's a big city or a small town, I think we want to make sure that everybody gets connected. And I tried to demonstrate through my travels that I care about this very deeply. No, you

always do you always make sure that you're in an urban area, and in a less urban area. And absolutely. So I know we're coming up to the end. And I know there might have been questions, and I so apologize. Is there any question out there, Brian, or Jonathan, maybe one that you want to pick? Before I asked him What's next?

I think there's a good one here earlier in our conversation from Jason hunt, and it's so cool to have you here today. And I'm looking forward to what you do next. That's for sure. And hopefully, you'll still hanging out with the tech Council. So Jason wants to know, what is the one thing you think that the SEC should do to expand broadband broadband internet, with other tools that federal government could be deploying to achieve this goal? Great question. So in my first major speech as chairman in March of 2017, in Pittsburgh, I said that I hoped the Congress would allocate substantial funding to the FCC to build up broadband 50 billion $60 billion, whatever that number is, I thought it should be substantial. Imagine now, almost four years later, had Congress given us that funding, how much even stronger our broadband networks would be, I hope that they will tackle this in a bipartisan way in the future. You know, I think the second thing is making sure that the SEC has more authority to make some substantial changes. For example, we don't have jurisdiction over utility poles that are owned by municipalities, or by railroads, just two big examples. And that dramatically increases the cost of a broadband network, because if you're a fiber provider, especially competitive one, you don't have the wherewithal to pay 1000s of dollars to the railroad or to the city for each and every utility pole and listen to the types of reforms I'd like to see, in terms of reforms for us that we could do ourselves, I think we've done a pretty good job, pushing a lot of spectrum out there for licensed and unlicensed. I'd love to see the FCC having uniform authority over spectrum, the federal government, some might not no holds the bulk of usable spectrum for wireless use. But they don't actually use it that optimally. That spectrum is being managed by the Department of Commerce, not by the FCC. And so we're a relative outlier in terms of that bifurcation, I would love to see unified authority at the FCC so we can deliver even more value to consumers, especially lower income consumers in areas like rural Pennsylvania, or in urban cores, where wireless providers have to really carefully think about the ROI. And if it's not there, they want to play those networks.

Know what next for you? What's next for you? What do you think I know that you're going to sleep on the 21st? But then you're going to wake up on the 22nd? And what are the big problems that you'd love to focus on or plan to focus on or the next stage of your career?

Great question. I'm not sure I still have been sprinting to the finish line, I haven't had a chance. But on the 21st when I wake up and take a swig out of this good old mug here, my trusted cow. Over the last four years, I'll be starting to think about what the different options are. And I don't know what it will be. But what I do hope is that it will provide the same intellectual stimulation and interest in technology and also the ability to deliver value for the American people. And, you know, to me, at least I know I'm biased. The ICT sector is just incredible. You know, when the last visit I did before the pandemic was to the Wind River Reservation in rural FET, Wyoming and I had a chance to visit with tribal elders and the Wind River internet company, which is a tribally owned broadband provider, because of sec funding back in 2018, and 2019. They've now deployed gigabit fiber to members of the tribe including connecting the tribal health clinic, the tribal school, and it's in look at the faces of those members of the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone tribes, and know that we had a part and then finally having access to what I called Digital opportunity. It was the best feeling I've ever had. And so whatever the next job is, I hope that's something that gives me the ability to connect people with the outside world through the use of technology. We'll see what it might be but stay tuned. I've joked to the to the Kansas City Chiefs need a washed up 47 year old slot receiver and the Super Bowl can run either guy but barring that kind of extraneous possibility. I'll be focusing on something in tech I hope

Yeah, we don't have to talk football. Okay, you don't have to talk.

You guys had a great season especially the heads of Cleveland my god it's of all the teams to lose do

i know but Kansas City is certainly held their own so I know that you feel strongly about that. So we can you move to Pittsburgh. Do you think you can move to Pittsburgh?

You know, I God's honest truth. I love Pittsburgh, my in laws are from Youngstown. So you know whenever we fly in there, we fly to Pittsburgh, and I'm just so impressed by the resilience of the city as you might remember, nine almost nine years ago My first major speech, I marveled at the fact that what had been called the Steel City and had been written off for decades thereafter, has completely reinvented itself through the use of technology. And I still remember visiting some of those entrepreneurs in places like Duolingo, or the new Ben new Google office that had just opened up. And it's incredible how the whole city has been revitalized. And there's a sense of energy there, in addition to, of course, the history of the Steelers, and the beautiful layout of the city, etc. So I think you've been a blueprint for the rest of the country, on how technology can be used to improve the economy, improve the standard of life, deliver hope for the community, and the I will see what my wife thinks she's a big Browns fan. So just a principle, she might not want to move to Pittsburgh, but, but I'd love to set up shop there. And in some capacity.

We are all fans, we deeply appreciate the work and the leadership that you've had over these eight years. And then, as leader over the last four years, you've been a good friend to the community. And we're gonna keep in touch with you, you're not going away. So I appreciate everyone for joining us today. This is an honor to bookend the amazing career, but it's only one chapter of your career, right? It's only one chapter of your career. And chairman of GE pie, I assume I can call you Chairman From now on, right?

Just a gene. I'm not big on the titles. My kids certainly don't call me. But I can tell you that. You know, as for the next chapter in my career, I think my mom's way of putting that as finally a cheat. You have no more excuses not to go to medical school. So we'll see. Oh, my

gosh, is there a chance you can go to medical school? Oh,

my God, I still have blaze in my brain is the scar tissue from my chemistry lab freshman year thinking? I can't do this for the rest of my life. So I will say maybe things have mellowed out a little bit. And I've got still have some aptitude for it. But I don't see myself taking the MCAT anytime soon.

Well, we are going to keep tabs on you. We're going to be close, I see someone Brian put out there that we're having a civic hackathon coming up. If you want to join us and be a judge, we'd love that. But we can work on the side. I want you to rest this weekend. I want to rescue you to rest this weekend. But we're gonna keep tabs on you. I want to thank everyone for joining us and for being champions on the issue at hand, we're not going to give up in terms of what it looks like for the future. I want to thank at&t for their long standing partnership with us and in terms of public policy, and being amazing colleagues, with us as we try to move the region forward along with Huntington bank. So I can't thank you G. We are going to stay connected. Thank you everyone and tomorrow. Jonathan, who do we have the new executive director of life x?

We do and I'll be interviewing him because you will be in a board meeting tomorrow. So I will be the new host tomorrow. Everyone beware. It's gonna be a lot of fun.

Well, gee.

You're the best Adri Jonathan Brian, everybody in PTC. Thanks so much. Again. It's been the ride of a lifetime and I'm glad that you are along for it.

We are we will, we will stay connected. Thanks, everyone. Glad you're safe. Stay safe. And you'll and Jonathan will be here tomorrow with the new executive director of life x

Transcribed by https://otter.ai