Joshua D. Wright
Joshua Daniel Wright (born January 20, 1977) is an American economist and legal scholar who served as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2013 to 2015. He has been a professor of law at George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School since 2004, and is the executive director of its Global Antitrust Institute. At the time of his nomination, Wright was the fourth economist to serve as a member of the FTC. Wright is a leading scholar in the fields of antitrust law, law and economics, and consumer protection, and was described in  National Review to be "widely considered his generation's greatest mind on antitrust law." He has published more than 100 articles and book chapters, co-authored a leading casebook, and edited several book volumes in these fields. Wright has served as co-editor of the "Supreme Court Economic Review" and senior editor of the "Antitrust Law Journal", and in 2014 received the Paul M. Bator Award. Early life and education. Wright was born and raised in San Diego, California. After graduating from Patrick Henry High School in 1995, Wright studied economics at the University of California, San Diego, graduating in  1998 with a Bachelor of Arts with highest departmental honors. He then went to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) where he jointly did doctoral study in economics and attended the UCLA School of Law. He was a managing editor of the "UCLA Law Review", and received a J.D. in 2002 and a Ph.D. in economics in 2003. Career. Wright was a law clerk for Judge James V. Selna of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California from 2003 to 2004. He then joined the faculty of the George Mason University Law School (now Antonin Scalia  Law School). Wright served in the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the Bureau of Competition as its inaugural Scholar-in-Residence from 2007 to 2008, where he focused on enforcement matters and competition policy. In January 2013, President Barack Obama appointed Wright to serve as a commissioner of the FTC. Wright served as an FTC commissioner until August 2015, when he resigned to return to academia. Wright is currently University Professor of Law at the Scalia Law School and the executive director of its Global Antitrust Institute. Wright favors maintaining the status quo in current U.S. antitrust law. Several large  technology companies have donated to Wright's academic center at the Scalia Law School.