FTC Announces Appointments to Agency Leadership Positions

Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz announced four appointments to leadership positions in the agency. Andrew I. Gavil will join the FTC from Howard University School of Law and serve as Director of the Office of Policy Planning (OPP), and Steven M. Bellovin, from Columbia University, will become Chief Technologist. William H. Efron became Director of the FTC's Northeast Regional Office in June. Richard M. Brunell will join the agency from the American Antitrust Institute as Senior Advisor for Competition Matters.

Professor Bellovin will advise the agency on evolving technology and policy issues. He has taught computer science at Columbia since 2005. During more than 20 years at Bell Labs and AT&T Labs Research, he focused on network security firewalls, protocol failures, routing security, and cryptographic protocols. Bellovin is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and holds an M.S. and Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a B.A. from Columbia University. On September 4, 2012, he will replace Edward W. Felten, who is returning to Princeton University and will consult for the FTC.