Intel’s Capitol connection

Peter Cleveland, Intel’s director of global public policy, is leading a
charge from Silicon Valley to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

Intel says a shortage of qualified American engineers has forced the company, and others like it, to import qualified workers from India and China.

“We try to hire Americans first, but we can’t find enough qualified Americans for high-level projects,” Cleveland said. He noted that half the master’s or Ph.D.-level engineering students enrolled at American universities are from other countries.

{mosads}Intel wants Congress to make it easier for students to stay in the United States after graduating.

“We want to hire every Sriram Viswanathan [vice president of Intel’s architecture group]. They create ideas and job base” in this country, Cleveland said.

Intel is hopeful that the recent financial meltdown — and the subsequent downsizing at financial firms — will make it easier for the company to attract top talent. In an interview with The Hill,

Cleveland said the company found it difficult in recent years to lure bright graduates away from lucrative positions on Wall Street.

“We’re seeing more interest in Intel [from graduates],” Cleveland said. “We produce something real, and we manufacture it in this country. It’s an essential part of many products. We’re not producing derivative instruments.”

Cleveland praised the Obama administration for its focus on improving the teaching of science and mathematics in U.S. schools. He said interest in the subjects must be cultivated at an early age, which is why his company has sponsored the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search for high school students since 1998.

“We have to invest in science and math early on. The president gets this. We’re locked arm-in-arm with Obama,” he said.

Cleveland, a native of McLean, Va., left the office of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) more than a year and a half ago when Intel came calling.

“Intel is an American success story,” he said. “I feel extraordinarily lucky to represent a firm that employs 43,000 American workers.”

He said it was unusual for the notoriously insular company to bring in an outsider, perhaps an acknowledgment of the unfamiliarity of its Washington surroundings.

“They knew they needed a different look, perspective and thinking,” he said.

Cleveland said the transition from legislative staffer to K Street representative has taken some work.

“It’s been an adjustment,” he said. “Seventeen years [on Capitol Hill] is a long time. Intel is focused on the right issues; it appealed to me. I’m just getting started, still learning on the job.”

Cleveland, 45, spent his formative years in Seoul, South Korea, where his father was stationed as a Foreign Service officer for the State Department. He eventually returned to the U.S. to attend boarding school at Phillips Academy in Andover, Md., before majoring in history at Columbia University.

After graduating from college in 1988, Cleveland headed to the law firm of former Democratic Virginia Gov. Chuck Robb looking for work. Robb, who was then just starting his campaign for the Senate, kept Cleveland waiting in the lobby for three and a half hours before interviewing him.

“[Robb] said, ‘You can work on my campaign, but I won’t pay you.’ So I got coffee, drove, did the scutwork,” Cleveland said. “I couldn’t have worked any harder or been any lower on the food chain. I worked my butt off.”

That hard work translated to a full-time position when Robb was elected to the Senate. Cleveland worked on Robb’s staff for 12 years, four of which he spent pulling double duty at Georgetown Law’s night school.

“I didn’t tolerate it well; my attendance was poor and we had a child during my first year,” Cleveland said. “I was burning the midnight oil for four years, drinking two lattes and studying until 1:30 a.m. every night.”

Cleveland eventually moved on to Feinstein’s office, where he spent five years and eventually became chief of staff.

He called Feinstein “an impressive figure, gutsy and demanding,” but said he respects centrist senators such as Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Richard Lugar (R-Ind.). He also expressed admiration for the late Sen. Henry “Scoop” Jackson (D-Wash.).

“I’m a great admirer of Scoop Jackson and other people in the center — I believe they can have a meaningful impact,” Cleveland said.

He said meeting directly with lawmakers is the best way to educate them on what policy steps would encourage innovation, at least from Intel’s standpoint. He said lawmakers are very receptive to his input, given Intel’s dominant position in the microprocessor market.

But those talks aren’t always easygoing — Cleveland spent recent months engaged with lawmakers and Obama administration officials on an antitrust suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission that accused Intel of anti-competitive practices. Intel settled the case in August but admitted no wrongdoing.

While he describes himself as a Democrat, Cleveland said he tries to engage with both sides of the aisle while representing Intel. That means the company’s political action committee splits its contributions evenly between Republicans and Democrats, favoring any lawmakers “doing the right thing” for innovation and technology.

“Our efforts to advance policy help innovation and help consumers,” Cleveland said. “I may be a lobbyist, but the issues I work on have an impact across the country.”
Cleveland said good communication skills and the willingness to take the initiative are critical to his success at Intel.

“Experience helps, knowing how lawmakers think. Being able to understand differing points of view,” he said. “I only know in my gut if I’m doing a good job.”