Top FCC planner to depart in February

Paul de Sa, a top Federal Communications Commission official who has taken a leading role in many of the agency's projects, is leaving in February.

As chief of the Office of Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis, de Sa helped oversee merger reviews, broadband adoption and deployment, and spectrum policy, among other issues at the FCC.

"Paul's rare combination of business insight, technical expertise, and policy smarts has made him indispensable to me and the agency as we've worked to unleash innovation and bring the benefits of broadband to all Americans," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said in a statement.

Before coming to the FCC, de Sa was a partner at the consulting firm McKinsey & Company.