List of members of the Federal Trade Commission

The following is a list of individuals who have served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission beginning in 1949.

Current commissioners

The commission is headed by five commissioners, who each serve seven-year terms. Commissioners are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. No more than three commissioners can be of the same political party. In practice, this means that two commissioners are of the opposition party. However, three members of the FTC throughout its history have been without party affiliation, with the most recent independent, Pamela Jones Harbour, serving from 2003 to 2009.

Portrait	Name	Party	Prior experience	Education	Term began
	Andrew Ferguson	Republican	Solicitor general of the Commonwealth of Virginia	University of Virginia University of Virginia
	Mark Meador	Republican	Legal advisor to Senator Mike Lee	University of Chicago University of Houston
	Vacant
	Vacant
	Vacant

Former commissioners

The following is a list of individuals who have served as a member of the Federal Trade Commission beginning in 1949, including party affiliation.

Commissioners	Party	Years in office	Prior experience
John J. Carson	Republican	September 28, 1948 – March 31, 1953	Journalist, The Baltimore Sun
Stephen J. Spingarn	Democratic	October 25, 1950 – September 25, 1953	Assistant General Counsel, Department of the Treasury
Caspar Weinberger	Republican	December 31, 1969 – August 6, 1970	California State Assemblyman for the 21st district
Philip Elman	Independent	April 21, 1961 – October 18, 1970	Assistant to the Solicitor General
Miles Kirkpatrick	Republican	September 14, 1970 – February 20, 1973	Head of the Antitrust Section, American Bar Association
Everette MacIntyre	Democratic	September 26, 1961 – August 30, 1973	FTC trial lawyer
Mary Gardiner Jones	Republican	October 29, 1964 – November 2, 1973	Staff attorney, DOJ Antitrust Division
David S. Dennison Jr.	Republican	October 18, 1970 – December 31, 1973	Congressman from Ohio's 11th district
Mayo J. Thompson	Democratic	July 8, 1973 – September 26, 1975	Antitrust attorney in private practice
Lewis A. Engman	Democratic	February 20, 1973 – December 31, 1975	Assistant Director, White House Domestic Council
Calvin J. Collier	Republican	March 24, 1976 – December 31, 1977	Director of Urban Program Coordination, Department of Housing and Urban Development
Stephen A. Nye	Republican	May 5, 1974 – May 5, 1978	Partner at Sullivan, Jones and Archer LLP
Elizabeth Hanford Dole	Democratic Republican	December 4, 1973 – March 9, 1979	Director, White House Office of Consumer Affairs
Paul Rand Dixon	Democratic	March 21, 1961 – September 25, 1981	FTC trial attorney
David A. Clanton	Republican	August 26, 1975 – October 14, 1983	Minority Staff Counsel, Senate Committee on Commerce
Michael Pertschuk	Democratic	April 21, 1977 – October 15, 1984	Chief Counsel, Senate Committee on Commerce
George W. Douglas	Democratic	December 27, 1982 – September 18, 1985	President, Southwest Econometrics Inc.
James C. Miller III	Republican	September 30, 1981 – October 5, 1985	Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
Patricia P. Bailey	Republican	October 29, 1979 – May 15, 1988	Assistant to the General Counsel, Merit Systems Protection Board
Daniel Oliver	Republican	April 21, 1986 – August 10, 1989	Executive Editor, National Review
Terry Calvani	Republican	November 18, 1983 – September 25, 1990	Law professor, Vanderbilt University School of Law
Andrew Strenio	Democratic	March 17, 1986 – July 15, 1991	Member, Interstate Commerce Commission
Deborah K. Owen	Republican	October 25, 1989 – August 26, 1994	Associate White House Counsel
Dennis A. Yao	Democratic	July 16, 1991 – August 31, 1994	Professor, Wharton School of Business
Christine A. Varney	Democratic	October 17, 1994 – August 5, 1997	White House Cabinet Secretary
Janet D. Steiger	Republican	August 11, 1989 – September 28, 1997	Chair of the Postal Rate Commission
Roscoe B. Starek III	Republican	November 19, 1990 – December 18, 1997	Deputy Director of Presidential Personnel
Mary Azcuenaga	Independent	November 27, 1984 – June 3, 1998	FTC Assistant General Counsel
Robert Pitofsky	Democratic	June 29, 1978 – April 30, 1981 April 11, 1995 – May 31, 2001	Director, FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection
Sheila F. Anthony	Democratic	September 30, 1997 – August 1, 2003	Assistant Attorney General for Legislative Affairs
Timothy Muris	Republican	June 4, 2001 – August 15, 2004	Law professor, GMU School of Law
Mozelle W. Thompson	Democratic	December 17, 1997 – August 31, 2004	Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Policy
Orson Swindle	Republican	December 18, 1997 – June 30, 2005	Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Development
Thomas B. Leary	Republican	November 17, 1999 – December 31, 2005	Assistant General Counsel, General Motors
Deborah Platt Majoras	Republican	August 16, 2004 – March 29, 2008	Deputy Assistant Attorney General, DOJ Antitrust Division
Pamela Jones Harbour	Independent	August 4, 2003 – April 6, 2010	Deputy Attorney General of New York
William Kovacic	Republican	January 4, 2006 – October 3, 2011	Law professor, The George Washington University Law School
J. Thomas Rosch	Republican	January 5, 2006 - Sept 2012	Director, FTC Bureau of Competition
Jon Leibowitz	Democratic	March 2, 2009 – March 7, 2013	Lobbyist, Motion Picture Association of America
Joshua D. Wright	Republican	January 11, 2013 – August 24, 2015	Law professor, GMU Antonin Scalia Law School
Julie Brill	Democratic	April 6, 2010 – March 31, 2016	Assistant Attorney General of Vermont for Consumer Protection and Antitrust
Edith Ramirez	Democratic	April 5, 2010 – February 10, 2017	Vice President, LA Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners
Terrell McSweeny	Democratic	April 28, 2014 – April 27, 2018	Chief Counsel for Competition Policy and Intergovernmental Relations, DOJ Antitrust Division
Joseph Simons	Republican	May 1, 2018 – January 29, 2021	Director, FTC Bureau of Competition
Rohit Chopra	Democratic	May 2, 2018 – October 12, 2021	CFPB Assistant Director
Noah J. Phillips	Republican	May 2, 2018 – October 14, 2022	Counsel to Senator John Cornyn
Rebecca Slaughter	Democratic	May 2, 2018 – September 8, 2025	Legal advisor to Senator Chuck Schumer
Christine S. Wilson	Republican	September 26, 2018 – March 31, 2023	Senior Vice President, Delta Air Lines
Lina Khan	Democratic	June 15, 2021 – January 31, 2025	Legal scholar
Alvaro Bedoya	Democratic	May 16, 2022 – March 18, 2025	Director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at the Georgetown University Law Center
Melissa Holyoak	Republican	March 25, 2024 – November 17, 2025	Solicitor general of Utah

List of Federal Trade Commission members

Chairs

The following is a list of the chairs of the Federal Trade Commission.

Backgrounds of commissioners

Demographics

As of 2021, there have been:

Three African-Americans to serve on the FTC: A. Leon Higginbotham Jr., Mozelle W. Thompson, Pamela Jones Harbour.
Three Asian-Americans to serve on the FTC: Dennis Yao, Rohit Chopra, and Lina Khan ; Khan is the first Asian-American to serve as FTC Chair.
Three independents to serve on the FTC: Philip Elman, Mary Azcuenaga, and Pamela Jones Harbour

Career backgrounds

The vast majority of FTC members have been individuals with legal backgrounds, with notable exceptions. President Ronald Reagan appointed the first two professional economists, James C. Miller III and George W. Douglas, to serve on the body. Dennis Yao, a Democrat who served from 1991 to 1994, held a Ph.D in economics, and Joshua D. Wright, a Republican who served from 2013 to 2015, held a both a J.D. and a Ph.D. in economics.