Mr. Genachowski, 46, played a leading role in the Obama campaign’s highly successful online strategy and was a major fundraiser for the campaign. He and Mr. Obama both attended Columbia, though they were in different classes. They became friendly at Harvard Law School, where they both served in top positions at the Harvard Law Review . They have also been basketball buddies.
During the campaign Mr. Genachowski shaped many of Mr. Obama’s telecommunications and technology policies. He advocated an open Internet in the debate over so-called net neutrality, and media ownership rules that promoted a diversity of voices on the airwaves.
While it is difficult to predict what direction Mr. Genachowski will take the commission, an analysis by Stifel Nicolaus, an investment firm, said that it expected that “the regulatory initiative is likely to shift” away from some from incumbent — like the large telephone companies — to new entrants and other “nontraditional telecom and media players” including such companies as Google, Yahoo and eBay.
It speculated that Mr. Genachowski would seek to spur competition among the wireless carriers as a counterbalance to the dominance of the telephone and cable companies. And it said that Mr. Genachowski is unlikely to be as aggressive in his approach to regulating the cable industry as the current chairman, Kevin J. Martin, has been.
Mr. Martin has not set a departure date, although he is widely expected to step down soon. If he leaves before Mr. Genachowski’s confirmation, then Mr. Obama is expected to name one of the two remaining Democratic commissioners — Michael J. Copps or Jonathan S. Adelstein — as interim chairman.
People involved in the transition said that Mr. Genachowski was a top candidate for both F.C.C. chairman and a new White House position overseeing technology issues that has not yet been fully defined.
If confirmed, one of his first challenges at the commission would be the conversion to digital television. The Obama transition team has asked Congress to delay the conversion, set for Feb. 17, because millions of viewers have been unable to obtain coupons to pay for converter boxes that would enable their sets to receive signals once broadcasters drop their analog signal. (The conversion would not effect viewers who subscribed to cable or satellite services.)
Over the last decade, the chairman of the F.C.C. has played a more expansive role in regulating the economy, particularly with the rise of the Internet and wireless communications. Now, as the new administration plans to make the expansion of broadband and Internet services a significant part of its stimulus package, Mr. Genachowski, with his close ties to Mr. Obama, could have a larger role in shaping economic policy than many of his predecessors.
Mr. Genachowski, the son of Eastern European Jews who fled during the Holocaust, is married to the documentary filmmaker Rachel Goslins, whose latest film, “Bama Girl,” documents the 2005 homecoming queen contest at the University of Alabama.
Upon graduating from law school, he clerked for Judge Abner J. Mikva of the United States Court of Appeals. Mr. Obama had turned down a clerkship with Judge Mikva. Mr. Genachowski later clerked for Supreme Court Justices William J. Brennan Jr. and David H. Souter.
