FTC Head Economist David Scheffman to Leave End of July

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy J. Muris today announced that Dave Scheffman, Director of the Bureau of Economics, will be leaving the Commission on August 1 to return to the private sector as an economic consultant and adjunct professor at Vanderbilt University. Scheffman has been Director of the Bureau of Economics since June 2001, when he was appointed by Muris. Luke Froeb will replace Scheffman in this position. Froeb is currently William C. and Margaret M. Oehmig Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University, and a former economist with the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Antitrust Division.

“Under Dave’s leadership, the Bureau of Economics has made major contributions to the Commission’s competition and consumer protection missions,” commented Muris. “Particularly noteworthy are the contributions involving gasoline price-monitoring, subprime lending, health claims advertising, oil merger retrospectives, hospital merger retrospectives, and the role of efficiencies in evaluating possible anticompetitive behavior. In addition, Dave has focused the agency on developing and using reliable, empirical economic analyses in evaluating investigative matters and other agency business. The consistent use of empirical economic analyses is probably Dave’s most notable legacy. Luke Froeb will build on that legacy.”

Froeb will assume his Commission responsibilities on August 4. Prior to his work at Vanderbilt and Justice, Froeb was an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. Froeb has written on a variety of economic issues, including mergers, patent damages, econometrics, and structural performance. He graduated from Stanford University in 1978, with an A.B. in economics, with honors and academic distinction, and from the University of Wisconsin in 1983, with a Ph.D. in economics.

In commenting on this appointment, FTC Chairman Muris said, “I look forward to working with Luke on the many issues that will be presented for Commission review, and I expect that he will make significant contributions to our use of reliable, empirical economic analyses in evaluating these matters.”

The Commission vote to approve the appointment of Luke Froeb as the Director of the Bureau of Economics was 5-0.

Copies of this press release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and also from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. 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.

(FTC File No. P010101)