William Evan Kovacic served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission

Federal Trade Commission

The Federal Trade Commission is an independent agency of the United States government, established in 1914 by the Federal Trade Commission Act...

 from January 4, 2006 to October 3, 2011. President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 designated him to serve as FTC Chairman on March 30, 2008. President Barack H. Obama designated Jon Leibowitz

Jon Leibowitz

Jon Leibowitz is the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission , an independent agency of the United States Government. He was sworn in as a Commissioner on September 3, 2004, and designated Chairman on March 2, 2009 by President Barack H. Obama.In joining the Commission, Leibowitz resumed a long...

 as Chairman on March 2, 2009, replacing Kovacic. Kovacic replaced Deborah Platt Majoras

Deborah Platt Majoras

Deborah Platt Majoras is the former chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, appointed May 11, 2004, by President George W. Bush and sworn in on August 16, 2004. President Bush had announced his intention to appoint her to the position on July 30, 2004...

.

Early years

Kovacic's father worked for the Department of Energy in Washington as a chemical engineer. He attended the University of Detroit Jesuit High School. Kovacic graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

 in 1974, and received his J.D. from Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

 in 1978 where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone

Harlan Fiske Stone

Harlan Fiske Stone was an American lawyer and jurist. A native of New Hampshire, he served as the dean of Columbia Law School, his alma mater, in the early 20th century. As a member of the Republican Party, he was appointed as the 52nd Attorney General of the United States before becoming an...

 Scholar.

Career

Prior to his appointment as Commissioner, Kovacic was the E.K. Gubin Professor of Government Contracts Law at George Washington University Law School, where he began teaching in 1999.
He previously taught antitrust law at George Mason University

George Mason University

George Mason University is a public university based in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of and adjacent to the city of Fairfax. Additional campuses are located nearby in Arlington County, Prince William County, and Loudoun County...

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He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through the end of 2004. Kovacic earlier worked at the Commission from 1979 to 1983, first with the Bureau of Competition’s Planning Office and later as an attorney advisor to former Commissioner George W. Douglas. After leaving the FTC in 1983, Kovacic was an associate with the Washington, DC, office of Bryan Cave

Bryan Cave

Bryan Cave LLP is an international law firm with twenty-one offices worldwide, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, USA.- Overview :The international law firm Bryan Cave LLP dates back to 1873 in St. Louis. Founded in 1873 in St. Louis as King, Phillips and Stewart, the firm became Stewart, Bryan,...

, where he practiced in the firm’s antitrust and government contracts departments, until joining the George Mason University School of Law

George Mason University School of Law

George Mason University School of Law is the law school of George Mason University, a state university in Virginia, United States...

 in 1986.

Earlier in his career, he spent one year on the majority staff of the Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly of the U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which was chaired by Senator Philip A. Hart.

Since 1992, Kovacic has served as an adviser on antitrust and consumer protection issues to the governments of Armenia, Benin, Egypt, El Salvador, Georgia, Guyana, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Morocco, Nepal, Panama, Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

He lives in Virginia, with his wife, Kathryn Fenton, an antitrust attorney.