FTC Chairman Appoints Ohlhausen Director of Policy Planning

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras has named Maureen Ohlhausen to be Director of the agency’s Office of Policy Planning. Ohlhausen, who has served as the Office’s Acting Director since July 2004, will head efforts to assist the Commission to develop and implement long-range competition and consumer protection policy initiatives and will advise staff on cases raising new or complex policy and legal issues.

“Maureen is a champion of free markets and competition, and her work has enabled the Commission to make policy recommendations to help maintain the greatest choice, highest quality, and lowest prices for consumers,” Majoras said. “Her legal expertise and sound judgment make her a valuable part of the FTC.”

Ohlhausen joined the FTC in September 1997, and was appointed Deputy Director of the Office of Policy Planning in 2003. She has been responsible for advocacy and policy analysis on both competition and consumer protection issues, including the regulation of the professions, restrictions on advertising, antitrust immunities, and e-commerce. She was a principal author of the FTC staff report “Possible Anticompetitive Barriers to E-Commerce: Contact Lenses.” She also contributed significantly to several FTC staff comments to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration concerning food advertising and First Amendment issues.

Before her appointment as Deputy Director, Ohlhausen served as a staff attorney in the Office of Policy Planning, as an attorney advisor for Commissioner Orson Swindle, and as a staff attorney in the Office of the General Counsel. She previously worked as a law clerk for Judge David Sentelle at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Robert Yock of the U.S. Court for Federal Claims.

Ohlhausen is a graduate with distinction of George Mason University Law School, and an honors graduate of the University of Virginia.