Dublin woman Gail Slater leaves senior White House role

Dublin native Gail Slater, the only Irish person working in the Trump White House, has left the administration to take up a senior position with Fox.

Ms Slater has been appointed senior vice president for policy and strategy at Fox Corporation, the parent company for media brands such as Fox News and Fox Sport. She begins her position on May 9th.

The Irish lawyer has held the position of special assistant to US president Donald Trump for technology, telecommunications and cyber security since February 2018. In this capacity she worked closely with the director of the national economic council, Larry Kudlow, and his predecessor Gary Cohn.

Prior to her appointment to the Trump administration she was general counsel for the Internet Association, the main industry body for companies including Google, Facebook and other tech giants.

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Announcing the appointment, Fox’s head of government relations welcomed the news. “Abigail Slater has been a technology policy maker at the highest levels of government and industry and will use that expertise to craft and communicate Fox’s policy priorities,” said executive vice president Danny O’Brien.

Ms Slater shaped White House policy on a range of issues facing the tech sector including the roll-out of 5G networks and data privacy.

Ms Slater said it was an "honour and a privilege" to work for the National Economic Council and the White House. In particular she highlighted the administration's work on 5G technologies, and the competitive challenge posed to the US by China.

“Winning the race to 5G is important for the US economy,” she said. She also noted the changes in the sphere of data privacy, highlighting the work of the National Economic Council in reviewing the existing US data privacy framework with a view to modernisation in light of the entry into force of the EU’s GDPR data protection regulation.

Responding to the news of Ms Slater’s appointment to Fox, the chair of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, tweeted:

“When the history of American efforts on #5G is written, [Gail Slater] should be given significant credit. She’s been a tireless champion [at] the White House National Economic Council of forward-thinking policies to advance US leadership on #5G. Thank you for your public service, Gail!”

Ms Slater holds degrees from University College Dublin and Oxford University. She was honoured at last month's Ireland Funds St Patrick's Day Gala which was attended by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar where she was presented with the Leadership in Government award.