WASHINGTON-John Bohn has been sworn in as the newest member of the California Public Utilities Commission, likely giving GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger the majority he needs to revamp or repeal the controversial bill of rights for telecom consumers.
Bohn, who was appointed after high-tech entrepreneur Steve Poizner withdrew his name from consideration for a seat on the five-member agency because of conflict-of-interest complications, took the oath of office from CPUC President Michael Peevey in San Francisco Thursday morning.
“I am grateful for the opportunity given to me by the governor to serve the people of California,” said Bohn, 67, and a Republican. “I believe my business and management background and experience will help me get up to speed on the issues facing the commission and the economic impacts that those issues have on the state’s families and businesses. I hope my expertise brings an added perspective to those issues as I join my new colleagues in working for the betterment of the state.”
Since 2001, Bohn was chairman of GlobalNet Venture Partners, a global financial advising and consulting firm. He was previously the co-founder and executive chairman of Chematch (now Chemconnect), an Internet-based petrochemical trading exchange, from 1997 to 2000, and a managing director of the public relations firm Burson-Marsteller from 1997 to 1998. Bohn also served for more than seven years as president and chief executive officer of Moody’s Investors Service, beginning in 1989. Prior to that, he was appointed special assistant to U.S. Treasury Secretary Don Regan in 1981 and was subsequently made U.S. Ambassador and executive director of the Asian Development Bank. In 1984, Commissioner Bohn was appointed vice chairman of the Export Import Bank of the United States and in 1985 was made chairman, president and CEO. He was an international banker for Wells Fargo from 1967 to 1981 and practiced law in California, Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific from 1964 to 1967.
Bohn is chairman of the board of directors of The Center for International Private Enterprise, a non-profit affiliate of the National Endowment of Democracy and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that funds and assists the development of market-based democratic institutions throughout the developing world. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations of New York, a director of the World Affairs Council in San Francisco, and a director and member of the executive committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
