William E. Kovacic Assumes Position as Federal Trade Commission Chairman

Commissioner William E. Kovacic today assumes the role of Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. On March 26, President George W. Bush announced his intention to designate Kovacic to serve as Chairman upon the departure of Deborah Platt Majoras. Kovacic has served as a Commissioner at the agency since January 2006, following his nomination by the President and confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

“I am pleased and honored the President has designated me to serve as Chairman for this jewel of an agency,” said Kovacic. “I look forward to working with my fellow Commissioners and the FTC’s staff to advance an active agenda that will preserve competition and protect American consumers.”

Prior to his appointment as FTC Commissioner, Kovacic was the E.K. Gubin Professor of Government Contracts Law at George Washington University Law School, where he began to teach in 1999. He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through the end of 2004. Kovacic earlier worked at the Commission from 1979 to 1983, first with the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas. After leaving the FTC in 1983, Kovacic was an associate with the Washington, DC, office of Bryan Cave, where he practiced in the firm’s antitrust and government contracts departments, until joining the George Mason University School of Law in 1986. Earlier in his career, he spent one year on the majority staff of the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was chaired by Senator Philip A. Hart.

Since 1992, Kovacic has served as an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot,
stop and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer
topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at
http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Bureau of Competition seeks to prevent business practices that restrain competition. The Bureau carries out its mission by investigating alleged law violations and, when appropriate, recommending that the Commission take formal enforcement action.