Markets Wired

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced today that Howard Shelanski has been named Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Economics. Effective July 1, he will replace Joseph Farrell, who has served in the position since 2009 and is returning to academia on May 31. Deputy Director Pauline Ippolito will serve as Acting Director during the month of June. The Bureau’s Director supervises economic analysis at the Commission and advises the Commission on economic policy matters.

“We are tremendously grateful to Joe for his extraordinary work at the FTC. We are also very fortunate to have had our entire senior leadership team intact for the last three years. Howard’s return will ensure continuity at the agency, and continued superb leadership in the Bureau of Economics,” Leibowitz said.

Shelanski is currently a professor at Georgetown University Law Center and of Counsel to the law firm Davis, Polk & Wardwell. As Deputy Director for Antitrust in the FTC’s Bureau of Economics from 2009 to 2011, he managed the antitrust enforcement portfolio, was part of the team that revised the Horizontal Merger Guidelines, and helped to manage a variety of major policy initiatives. Before joining the FTC, Shelanski had been on the faculty at the University of California at Berkeley since 1997, with breaks from teaching to serve as Chief Economist of the Federal Communications Commission from 1999 to 2000 and as a Senior Economist for the President’s Council of Economic Advisers at the White House from 1998 to 1999. Before entering academia, Shelanski practiced law in Washington, D.C. and served as a clerk for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, Judge Louis H. Pollak of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, and Justice Antonin Scalia of the United States Supreme Court. Shelanski holds a law degree and a doctorate in economics from the University of California at Berkeley.

(Shelanski)