Alex Joel is the information technology and e-business attorney for Marriott International, Inc. He is responsible for providing legal support on all technology and e-business related matters at Marriott on a worldwide basis. In addition to handling Marriott's information technology and telecommunications transactions (e.g., technology procurement, consulting engagements), Alex's legal responsibilities include: e-commerce, security, privacy, e-business ventures, online marketing, electronic standards and policies, and web site development and operations.

Before joining Marriott in April 1995, Alex was an attorney with the Washington, D.C. law firm of Shaw Pittman, where he spent three years negotiating technology transactions, primarily focusing on outsourcing deals. Before that, he was a captain in the U. S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, where he served first as a prosecutor, then as criminal defense counsel, and finally as a medical malpractice attorney.

Alex received his law degree magna cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 1987, where he was on the Michigan Law Review. He received his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Princeton University in 1984.

Alex is a frequent speaker on the legal issues arising from doing business on the Internet.

When the NSA wiretapping program began, Mr. Joel wasn't working for the intelligence office, but he says he has reviewed it and finds no problems. The classified nature of the agency's surveillance work makes it difficult to discuss, but he suggests that fears about what the government might be doing are overblown.

"Although you might have concerns about what might potentially be going on, those potentials are not actually being realized and if you could see what was going on, you would be reassured just like everyone else," he says.