WASHINGTON—Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr has announced that Managing Director Mark Stephens will be retiring after decades of outstanding service and that Daniel Daly would be replacing him as Managing Director.
Daly has been Deputy Managing Director prior to this appointment and has two decades of leadership experience in the Office of Managing Director.
The FCC’s Managing Director provides oversight of the agency’s budget and financial programs, human resources, contracts, purchasing, communications, computer services, physical space, security, and distribution of official FCC documents.
“With 35 years of service at the FCC, to say Mark Stephens will be missed at the FCC is a huge understatement,” Carr said. “For the last decade, he has had one job comprised of a thousand jobs: keep the FCC running and in strong fiscal shape. In short: he has succeeded. In fact, he has excelled through the agency’s busy times and shutdowns alike. In the last year, he has been an invaluable counsel to my office, and I want to thank him for his tremendous work and outstanding leadership. I wish him all the best in his retirement.”
After serving Stephens served honorably in the U.S. Navy from 1975 to 1979, he was first hired by the FCC as an auditor in the Common Carrier Bureau in 1991. In 2007, he was named Chief Financial Officer and, in 2016, he became Managing Director.
During his nearly four decades of federal service, he received the 2024 FCBA Excellence in Government Service Award; FCC Meritorious Service Medal (Silver Award) in 2006 for sustained exceptional accomplishments related to the mission and objectives of the Commission; and the FCC Distinguished Service Medal (Gold Award) in 2012 for sustained extraordinary accomplishments related to the mission and objectives of the Commission.
Stephens' replacement Dan Daly has been in the senior leadership of the Office of Managing Director for two decades having served as Senior Counsel for Financial Operations starting in 2006, Chief of Staff starting in 2009, and, most recently, Deputy Managing Director since 2022.
Daly also served as Acting Chief of Staff of the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau in 2008 and as Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform from 2002 to 2006. Dan received the FCC Distinguished Service Medal (Gold Award) in 2024 for sustained extraordinary accomplishments related to the mission and objectives of the Commission. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the College of William and Mary and his law degree from George Mason University School of Law.
