Larry Irving

Larry Irving joined ZMC as an operating partner in 2015 and was named Chief Public Policy and ESG Advisor in 2020. Mr. Irving consults and advises ZMC and ZMC portfolio company executives on policies and procedures that reflect ZMC's commitment to implementing standards in support of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues that are critical to success including Diversity and Inclusion, Environmental Sustainability, and Corporative Governance.

Prior to founding the Irving Group in 1999, Mr. Irving served for almost seven years as Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information and Administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), where he was a principal advisor to the President, Vice President and Secretary of Commerce on domestic and international telecommunications and information technology issues. Mr. Irving also served on the Clinton-Gore and Obama Biden Transition teams as a senior member of their technology policy groups.

Mr. Irving was one of the principal architects and advocates of the Clinton Administration's telecommunications and Internet policies, and was a point person in the Clinton Administration's successful efforts to reform the United States telecommunications law, resulting in passage of the most sweeping change in America’s telecommunications laws in 60 years. In large part due to his work to promote policies and develop programs to ensure access to advanced telecommunications and information technologies, Mr. Irving was named one of the fifty most influential persons in the "Year of the Internet" by Newsweek Magazine. In 2019 Mr. Irving was elected to the Internet Hall of Fame for his pioneering efforts identifying the "digital divide" and advocating for domestic and international policies to increase more equitable access to the Internet and related technologies.

Mr. Irving currently serves as a member of the Boards of Directors of Education Networks of America (a ZMC portfolio company), The Texas Tribune and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation. He also serves as a member of Northwestern University's Board of Trustees, as president of Northwestern's Alumni Association, on the Board of Visitors for the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences of Northwestern University and the Board of Visitors for Stanford Law School.

He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University and is a recipient of the University’s Alumni Merit Award for distinguished professional achievement and is a Salute to Excellence Honoree of the Northwestern University Black Alumni Association. He is also a graduate of Stanford University School of Law, where he was elected President of his graduating class and is a Stanford Associate.