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Trump is expected to nominate Simons to the agency, along with
Noah Phillips and Rohit Chopra to be FTC commissioners, the
White House official said. Upon confirmation, Simons will be
designated chairman, the official said.
The agency is currently headed by Acting Chairman Maureen
Ohlhausen, a Republican, with Democrat Terrell McSweeny the only
other commissioner. The president has long been expected to name
a permanent chair and fill the three empty commission seats, two
Republican and one Democrat or independent.
Simons, a partner at the law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton
& Garrison LLP, was a director of the FTC's Bureau of
Competition from 2001 to 2003.
During Simons' tenure at the FTC, the agency sued to stop Diageo
PLC and Pernod Ricard from buying Seagram Spirits and Wine in
2001 to prevent a duopoly in rum. The FTC also filed a lawsuit
in 2003 to stop Haagen-Dazs owner Nestle Holdings Inc from
buying Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream Inc, which makes also
superpremium ice cream. The FTC later settled both cases.
Noah Phillips, who graduated from Stanford Law School in 2005,
is chief counsel for U.S. Senator John Cornyn, a Texas
Republican. He is also a veteran of the law firms Steptoe &
Johnson LLP and Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
To fill the empty Democratic seat on the commission, the
president tapped Rohit Chopra, a financial services expert.
Chopra, an ally of Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, is
currently at the Consumer Federation of America.
The FTC works with the Justice Department to enforce antitrust
law and pursues companies accused of deceptive advertising. It
is an independent agency that is headed by a chairman and four
commissioners. No more than three commissioners can come from
any one party.
(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Diane Craft)
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