David Sutphen

David Sutphen has been co-chair of the Internet Innovation Alliance since October 2009.  He has held significant leadership positions in Congress, the entertainment industry and trade associations.

Sutphen is currently a partner at Brunswick Group LLC, a strategic communications firm.  Prior to joining Brunswick, David was the Senior Vice President of Government Relations at Viacom, the parent company of MTV Networks, BET Networks and Paramount Pictures.  While at Viacom, he was a leading advisor to senior corporate and divisional executives on policy, political and CSR matters.  He also served as co-chair of the Viacom Corporate Responsibility Council and as its representative on the Board of the Copyright Alliance.  David joined Viacom from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), where he was Senior Vice President of Government and Industry Relations and represented the major record labels before Congress, regulatory agencies and in the media. 

Before the RIAA, David spent six years on Capitol Hill as General Counsel to Senator Ted Kennedy on the Senate Judiciary Committee, where he handled civil rights and telecom issues, and Chief of Staff to former Congressman Harold Ford.  David began his career as an associate at Covington & Burling, following a clerkship on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and positions at the NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

David is a graduate of Michigan Law School—where he was a member of the Editorial Board of Law School—and an honors graduate of Amherst College.  He serves on the Board of Directors of The U.S. Soccer Foundation and LAYC, a Washington D.C.-based non-profit serving more than 4,000 at-risk youth.