US: Top FTC Antitrust Deputy to depart amid tech probes

A top antitrust deputy at the Federal Trade Commission is set to retire at the end of 2019, as the commission investigates tech companies’ potentially anticompetitive practices, reported Bloomberg Law.

Marian Bruno,who has served as deputy director of the Bureau of Competition since 2008, will leave the commission at the end of the year, the FTC said in a Dec. 16 press release.

Bruno’s departure is the latest high-level change at the Bureau of Competition, which is tasked with reviewing corporate mergers and investigating anticompetitive conduct.

“Marian has been a core contributor to the FTC’s competition mission for many years. In addition to overseeing the Bureau’s enforcement of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act and compliance with Commission orders, she has also provided integral management support and continuity in the Bureau’s front office. Her expertise and devotion to the FTC, and her service to American consumers, is unparalleled. She will be greatly missed by the agency and the antitrust bar,” Simons said.

Bruno was appointed Deputy Director of the Bureau in 2008 by then-Chairman William E. Kovacic. Since that time, Bruno has overseen the administrative functions of the Bureau of Competition as well as the Premerger Notification Office, the Office of Policy and Coordination, and the Compliance Division. Bruno joined the Commission in 1990 as an attorney in the Bureau’s Premerger Notification Office. She went on to work in the Healthcare Division before joining the Bureau Front Office as Assistant to the Director. In 1999, Bruno was promoted to Assistant Director of the Premerger Notification Office. In that role, she led an update of the Hart-Scott-Rodino rules in response to the significant statutory reforms passed in 2000 and led the Merger Process Reform Task Force in 2005. In 2007, Bruno was promoted to Associate Director of Management and Operations, and finally Deputy Director the following year.