Bartlett Cleland

Managing Director, Madery Bridge Associates

Bartlett Cleland is the Managing Director of Madery Bridge Associates, public strategy firm specializing in public policy, thought leadership, advocacy, messaging, advertising, coalition building, strategic planning, and tactical advice for corporations, trade associations, and non-profit organizations.  Madery Bridge is adept at navigating the world of policy, law, economics and politics, in the states, locally and nationally.  The firm has broad policy experience, but also deep knowledge of communications policy, technology, intellectual property, health IT and tax, amongst others.

Bartlett is also the Policy Counsel for the Institute for Policy Innovation, a free-market “think tank” dedicated to promoting lower taxes, fewer regulations, and a smaller, less-intrusive federal government. IPI currently focuses on tax cuts, long-term tax reform, educational choice, high-tech and Internet issues, and the rollback of harmful and counterproductive regulations.

He was one of the primary U.S. Senate staff driving the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (a comprehensive update to the copyright laws), the Internet Tax Freedom Act, as well as encryption and “supercomputer” export controls.  He worked on all legislation before the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright during his Hill tenure. Later he represented the software industry handling a variety of copyright issues including open source and proprietary challenges, and a variety of tax and finance issues particular to the software industry.  In addition he served as the tax counsel for the Information Technology Association of America and TechAmerica, as well as the Regional VP of Texas.

He currently serves on the Internet Education Foundation Board of Directors, which involves working closely with the Internet Caucus and such projects as GetNetWise, a project to assist parents in understanding the Internet and how to protect children on-line.  He also serves as the Chair of the Technology and Communications Taskforce of the American Legislative Exchange Council.  He was recently named Policy Advisor for telecom at The Heartland Institute. Earlier he served on the Internet Safety Technical Taskforce, a group comprised of leading Internet businesses and organizations and formed by 49 state attorneys general to focus on identifying effective online safety tools and technologies

Bartlett began his professional career in the human resources field with Lee Hecht Harrison as a consultant for executive outplacement. Volunteering for many political campaigns, he joined the Ashcroft for Senate campaign as a research assistant in 1994.  He went to Washington, D.C. in 1995 to work for Senator John Ashcroft, serving as the Senator’s technology counsel from 1996 – 1998.  At the same time, he held various management positions ultimately serving two years as operations director. From 1998 to 2000, he worked for Americans for Tax Reform as technology and policy counsel, and advised Commissioner Grover G. Norquist on the Advisory Committee on Electronic Commerce.  From 2000 to 2005, he served as the Associate General Counsel and VP, Software, at the Information Technology Association of America.

Bartlett graduated from Millikin University with a B.S. in philosophy and business administration.  He received his Masters of Business Administration, as well as his law degree with a specialization in international and comparative law, from St. Louis University.  He is admitted to the Missouri bar.

Bartlett Cleland Contributions

April 1, 2020
  • Government & Liberty
  • Technology
January 6, 2020
  • Government & Politics
  • Regulation
  • Law
  • Government & Liberty
  • Economy
October 29, 2019
  • Government & Politics
  • Government & Liberty
June 12, 2019
  • Government & Liberty
  • Technology
February 9, 2019
  • Government & Politics
  • Government & Liberty
  • Technology

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