Michael Fitzpatrick is Head of Global Regulatory Affairs at Google. Prior to joining Google, he was Head of Regulatory Advocacy at GE where and a member of the GE Global Government Affairs and Policy senior leadership team. His focus includes emerging digital industrial policy issues affecting the internet, data privacy and governance, additive manufacturing, the industrial internet of things (IIOT), artificial intelligence (AI), automated and unmanned aerial transportation, spectrum, and the Future of Work. He also has experience in regulatory matters across many domains, including energy and environmental, transportation, and healthcare.
Mr. Fitzpatrick also handles advocacy on international regulatory cooperation and standards issues. He is a membe of the Advisory Board of the AI Forum and serves on the U.S. government’s International Trade Advisory Committee (ITAC). In 2016, he was elected as a Fellow to the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA).
Prior to joining General Electric, Mr. Fitzpatrick served for three years as the Associate Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) where, as the office’s number two official, he helped to lead the Obama Administration’s development of regulatory policy and White House review of significant Executive Branch regulatory actions. In addition, in 2009 President Obama appointed Mr. Fitzpatrick to the Governing Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). Mr. Fitzpatrick stepped down in December 2011 after departing government service, but rejoined ACUS as a Public Member in 2012.
During his tenure as the number two official at OIRA, Mr. Fitzpatrick led the Obama Administration’s efforts on international regulatory cooperation, heading multiple U.S. delegations in meetings on regulatory issues with the European Union, the UK, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and the OECD. He was instrumental in developing and launching the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) and the U.S.–Mexico High Level Regulatory Cooperation Council (HLRCC), and served as the Administration’s lead on the U.S.–E.U. High Level Regulatory Cooperation Forum. Mr. Fitzpatrick served as the Executive Branch liaison to the American Bar Association’s (ABA) Administrative Law Section, as well as a liaison to the President’s Jobs and Competitiveness Council and the White House Business Council. Mr. Fitzpatrick has participated in numerous symposia and panels, given many speeches, and been quoted frequently in the press on a wide variety of regulatory and public policy issues. He has guest lectured at The Brookings Institution, Harvard’s Kennedy School, Georgetown University Law School, American University Law School, George Washington University, University of Connecticut Law School, Wharton School of Business, and the Canadian School of Public Service.
During the Obama Presidential Transition, Mr. Fitzpatrick served as deputy lead of the Executive Office of the President and Government Operations Agency Review Team. From 2001 to 2009, Mr. Fitzpatrick was in the Washington, DC office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, where he was a partner in the Litigation Practice Group. Before joining Akin Gump, Mr. Fitzpatrick served as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, DC, and as a Senior Advisor to the Administrator of OIRA during the Clinton Administration. Mr. Fitzpatrick clerked for Judge William Norris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after graduating, with distinction, from Stanford Law School (Order of the Coif). He received his M.A. in American History from the University of Virginia and his B.A. from Brown University (Phi Beta Kappa; Magna Cum Laude). He currently serves as Vice President of Board of Directors of The Woolly Mammoth Theater.