THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

STATEMENT BY THE PRESS SECRETARY

Today, President Clinton announced that Zoe Baird, Carly Fiorina, and Thomas Kalil will serve as the U.S. representatives to the Digital Opportunity Taskforce.

The Digital Opportunity Taskforce, or "dot force," was created by President Clinton and the other G8 leaders at the Okinawa Summit. The mission of the dot force is to create a strategy to help bridge the global digital divide between developed and developing countries. The dot force is composed of representatives from government, industry, non-profit organizations and international organizations from both developed and developing countries. The first meeting of the dot force will be held in Tokyo on November 27-28.

Zoe Baird is the President of the Markle Foundation. Ms. Baird brings with her more than 20 years of experience as a noted lawyer and business executive in both the private and public sectors. The Markle Foundation seeks to realize the potential of emerging information and communications technologies to improve people's lives, and has recently launched an initiative to help create "digital opportunity" in developing countries.

Carleton (Carly) S. Fiorina is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard Company. Prior to joining HP, Fiorina spent a total of nearly 20 years at AT&T and Lucent. Under Carly's leadership, HP has launched World e-Inclusion, a new business strategy to broaden access to the social and economic opportunities of the digital age to low-income people in developing countries.

Thomas A. Kalil is Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, and is the point person for the White House National Economic Council on a wide range of technology and telecommunications issues. He also serves as the White House co-chair for the Administration's initiative on nanotechnology.

30-30-30