Larry Irving Speaker & Booking Information

Larry Irving, one of the nation's leading thinkers on technology and innovation, is Vice President for Global Government Affairs at Hewlett-Packard Company.

Before joining HP in the fall of 2009, Larry Irving was founder and President of the Irving Information Group, a firm providing strategic advice and market development services to international telecommunications and information technology companies, non-profit organizations and foundations.

Prior to forming the Irving Information Group, in October 1999, Larry Irving served for almost seven years as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information, where he was a principal advisor to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on broadcasting, cable, telecommunications and information technology issues, domestically and internationally.

As a member of the Clinton Administration's technology team, Irving was a tireless advocate of efforts to use telecommunications and information technologies to address social and economic issues and to improve the quality of life in America and abroad.  Irving is widely credited with coining the term “the digital divide” and sparking a global debate about the growing problem it represents. He initiated and was the principal author of the landmark Federal survey, Falling Through the Net, which tracked access to telecommunications and information technologies, including telephones, computers and the Internet, across racial, economic, and geographic lines.  Irving also was a key proponent in the Clinton-Gore Administration of policies to protect the diversity of voices in the commercial broadcast arena and to promote increased opportunities for minorities, women and rural Americans in the emerging digital economy.

In recognition of his work to promote policies and develop programs to ensure equitable access to advanced telecommunication and information technologies, Irving was named one of the fifty most influential persons in the “Year of the Internet" by Newsweek Magazine, which described him as the "Conscience of the Internet."  Irving was proclaimed a "Technology Champion" by the Congressional Black Caucus and received the James Madison Award from the American Library Association and the Mickey Leland Humanitarian Award from the National Association for Minorities in Communications.  He also was recognized for his efforts to bridge the digital divide by, among others, the Alliance for Public Technology, the National Association of Telecommunications Professionals and the Indigenous Broadcast Center of Anchorage, Alaska.

Before joining the Clinton administration, Irving worked for a decade on Capitol Hill, including as Senior Counsel to the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance and as Legislative Director for Congressman Mickey Leland (D-Texas). Prior to his work with Congress, Irving spent three years with the law firm Hogan and Hartson, where he specialized in communications law, antitrust law, and commercial litigation.

Irving received a B.A. from Northwestern University in 1976 and a J.D. from Stanford University School of Law, where he was President of the Class of 1979.

Irving currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors Reliability First Corporation and EDC; the Advisory Councils for the Law, Science and Technology Program at Stanford Law School and the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California; and the Board of Visitors for the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences of Northwestern University.