By Nathaniel Luce
Luke Froeb, holder of the William C. Oehmig Chair of Free Enterprise and Entrepreneurship at Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management, has been appointed by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics.
In his new role, Froeb will oversee economics analysis for the division of the DOJ that investigates mergers and anticompetitive conduct. Froeb is the third deputy assistant attorney general named by Acting Assistant Attorney General Andrew Finch. He began serving on July 24.
“Along with the FTC, the Antitrust Division plays a critical role in protecting competition in the American economy. I started my career as a staff economist at the Division and am thrilled and humbled to be coming back,” said Froeb. “My time at Owen has given me the time and support to study competition, and now I get to apply what I have learned. I look forward to staying in touch with my friends, colleagues, and students.”
“My time at Owen has given me the time and support to study competition, and now I get to apply what I have learned” – Luke Froeb
This is Froeb’s third stint at a Federal Agency in his career. He worked as an economist in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division from 1986-1992, providing litigation support, expert witness testimony, and data and policy analysis. From 2003-2005, he served as Director of the Bureau of Economics for the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, managing 110 employees, including 75 Ph.D. economists who provided economic analysis to support enforcement of antitrust and consumer protection laws.
Froeb came to Vanderbilt in 1993 as an assistant professor, earning his chair in 2000. Known for his fieriness in the classroom, Froeb always demands the utmost from his students, stirring up lively discourse in the process. “I view teaching as a full-contact sport,” he said in a video describing the lessons he learned from his early days at Owen. “You’ve got to take chances when you teach.”
“We are pleased that Luke can serve our country in this important role,” said M. Eric Johnson, the Ralph Owen Dean and Bruce D. Henderson Professor of Strategy at Owen. “We benefit by having Owen faculty involved in such key government roles. In addition to the wealth of knowledge he will bring back to campus, we know his DoJ experience will benefit students in the classroom as well as his own academic research.”
Froeb will remain involved at Owen, teaching his EMBA course and providing advice on important Owen initiatives. Vanderbilt Business welcomes faculty member Mike Shor, visiting from the University of Connecticut, who will be teaching Froeb’s core MBA microeconomics class this fall.
