Comcast announced that it has hired Ryan Wallach as senior deputy general counsel and Madura Wijewardena as senior director, public policy for its Washington D.C. office.
Wallach’s responsibilities include legal analysis and advocacy regarding regulatory and litigation matters, and he will report to Lynn Charytan, vice president legal regulatory affairs and senior deputy general counsel.
“I am excited that Ryan has joined the Comcast legal team after working with us as outside counsel for many years. He brings deep federal and legislative legal and policy expertise and will be a terrific asset to the company,” Charytan said.
Wijewardena is tasked with identifying and analyzing emerging public policy issues of significance to the company, and he will report to Rebecca Arbogast, vice president of global public policy.
“Madura’s background in quantitative analysis combined with a deep understanding of media and technology issues will be a valued addition to Comcast’s public policy staff,” Arbogast said.
Wallach recently served as special consul at Willkie, Farr & Gallagher LLP where he provided strategic guidance to clients on regulatory and legislative policy and compliance issues and initiatives for over a decade. He has served as a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School for the past seven years co-teaching a survey course on developments in communications law. He is an active member of the Federal Communications Bar Association.
Wallach served as a judicial clerk to The Honorable Clyde H. Hamilton at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Columbia, South Carolina and to The Honorable Harold H. Greene at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington.
Prior to joining Comcast, Wijewardena served as the director of research and policy at the National Urban League (NUL) in Washington, D.C. where he used research to develop NUL’s economic policy agenda and managed NUL’s policy interactions in telecommunications and media. Prior to NUL, he worked for a consulting firm in Chicago where he used data analysis to assist governments, foundations and political campaigns to develop policies and influence opinion.
Wijewardena was also part of President Obama’s first campaign in Chicago. For the first eight years of his career, Wijewardena was a corporate attorney in telecommunications and media.
