Counselor Bios

We are honored to be working hand-in-hand with many of the Internet industry’s authorities and privacy experts in further driving the standards for governing the practices of responsible online downloadable software companies and the desktop advertising space.

Christine A. Varney, Partner Hogan & Hartson LLP

Christine Varney is a partner in Hogan & Hartson LLP’s Washington, D.C. office and heads the firm’s Internet practice group. She is Zango’s lead attorney for consumer protection matters.

Richard Purcell, CEO Corporate Privacy Group

Richard Purcell ranks among the original chief privacy officers in the U.S. He created the position at Microsoft in the late ‘90’s, becoming a leading voice in addressing consumer privacy and data protection, domestically and internationally.

As Microsoft’s chief privacy officer, Richard designed, developed, implemented and oversaw one of the world’s largest and most advanced privacy programs, spanning software development, Web deployment, infrastructure management, workforce management, and consumer data handling practices. He developed and monitored a distributed team of privacy managers throughout the corporation and its global subsidiaries. Richard was a leading advocate of the Platform for Privacy Preferences, or P3P, publicly committing Microsoft’s support in 2000 and working closely with the Internet Explorer development team on incorporating the specification into IE v6.

In 2003, Richard left Microsoft to form Corporate Privacy Group, an independent privacy consulting firm focused on establishing sustainable, affordable privacy programs in corporations, agencies and institutions. Privacy Directions™, a training curriculum for corporations designed to institutionalize privacy awareness, practices, and compliance throughout their organizations is a notable early offering.

Richard is the immediate past chairman of the Board of Directors for TRUSTe, an independent trust authority for privacy on the Web. He was appointed to the Department of Homeland Security’s Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee in 2005. Richard advises Fortune 100 corporations, leads privacy training seminars, and lectures extensively.

He is a former member of the Int'l Association of Privacy Professionals, or IAPP, and on their Advisory Board for Privacy Certification. Richard is an IAPP-certified information privacy professional. He is a founding member of the Conference Board's Council of Chief Privacy Officers and served on the Federal Trade Commission's Advisory Committee on Online Access and Security.

Elizabeth Frazee, Principal Frazee & Associates

In February 2003, Elizabeth Frazee opened the doors of Frazee Associates, a public policy consulting and lobbying firm located in the nation’s capital. With more than 20-years of government affairs and industry experience, including most recently vice president of public policy at AOL Time Warner and also director of government relations at the Walt Disney Company, Elizabeth has earned a reputation of providing valuable representation to corporations and nonprofits.

Through the years Elizabeth has developed a wide network of contacts in the Washington community and nationwide that allows her to practice across the spectrum of public policy and serve a diverse portfolio of clients with a special emphasis on technology and entertainment issues. Her strong contacts with key lawmakers and their staff on both sides of the aisle in the House and Senate serve her clients well.

Before entering private practice, Elizabeth spent more than 12-years on Capitol Hill. Beginning as a staff member for a U.S. Senator from her native state of North Carolina, Elizabeth rose through the ranks on Capitol Hill, serving as Republican press secretary for the House Energy and Commerce Committee and Representative Tom Bliley where she developed media expertise. She later served as legislative director and chief counsel for Representative Bob Goodlatte, current co-chairman of the Congressional Internet Caucus and chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture. As Goodlatte’s top legislative aide for almost five years, Elizabeth handled the Congressman’s work on the House Judiciary Committee and was heavily involved in many of the bipartisan cutting edge technology and intellectual property issues of the 1990’s including patent reform, Internet liability, privacy and digital copyright issues.

Elizabeth earned her law degree from the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America, while working full-time for Congress. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Mike May, Founder The Acorn Group

Mike May founded and runs The Acorn Group, a small marketing consultancy focused on programming, producing and developing strategy for interactive media, marketing, commerce and advertising events; and creating, executing trade marketing strategy for companies in the interactive media and marketing industry.

His clients (recent and current) include MediaPost’s OMMA Conferences, Shop.org, WOMMA (Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association), IAB and IAB Canada, Jaffe, LLC and Digital Media Wire; and Hitwise, Freewebs and Zango.

Before starting The Acorn Group, Mike built the events business at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and ran that for two years. Previously, he ran Jupiter Events for a year before joining the IAB.

Mike was a Jupiter senior analyst and research director before that, covering marketing, commerce and advertising. Before joining Jupiter he was a marketing manager at Avon Products, part of the small team that launched Avon.com and responsible for all of the site's advertising, promotion, search marketing and email.

Mike earned a B.A. in English from Colgate University, a M.A. in English from the University of British Columbia and a MBA in Marketing and Management from NYU.