FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz has named six senior staff members with backgrounds in the private sector, in the public advocacy, academia, and government.
The new appointees are:
Richard A. Feinstein, appointed director of the Bureau of Competition, who is rejoining the FTC from a partnership at Boies, Schiller & Flexner LLP, where he focused on antitrust litigation. He was formerly an assistant director in the FTC's of Competition's Health Care Services and Products Division, focusing on antitrust enforcement, including anticompetitive practices and mergers involving healthcare providers and payers, and anticompetitive conduct in the pharmaceutical industry. Feinstein worked previously at McKenna & Cuneo, LLP, and he was a trial attorney and supervisor in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.
David C. Vladeck, who will serve as Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, has been a professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center, teaching federal courts, government processes, civil procedure, and First Amendment litigation. He co-directed the center's Institute for Public Representation. Vladeck spent almost 30 years with Public Citizen Litigation Group, including 10 years as director.
Joseph Farrell, who was named Director of the Bureau of Economics, has been a professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he has been chair of the Competition Policy Center and an Affiliated Professor in the Haas School of Business. He also has served as deputy assistant attorney general and chief economist for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and as chief economist for the FCC. His research has centered on competition policy, compatibility standards, and innovation. Farrell is a Fellow of the Econometric Society.
Susan S. DeSanti, who will be director of Policy Planning, joins the FTC from Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where she focused on antitrust counseling and litigation. She previously spent 15 years at the FTC, during which she helped develop federal antitrust policy in standard setting, intellectual property licensing, antitrust and patent issues, generic drug entry, mergers, and joint ventures among competitors.
Jeanne Bumpus, who was re-appointed as director of the Office of Congressional Relations, has served in that position since June 2006. She was a principal advisor to Sen. John McCain (D-AZ) and served as staff director and chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Joni Lupovitz, who will serve as chief of staff to the chairman, joined the FTC in 1999 as an attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection's Division of Enforcement and was promoted to assistant director for enforcement the following year. Since 2005, she has served as an attorney advisor in the Office of Commissioner (now Chairman) Leibowitz, focusing on consumer protection matters.
—John Commins