Navigating the Uncertain Climate of Vertical Merger Enforcement
As significant horizontal consolidation has occurred in many markets, growth may only occur with acquisition activity either above or below a firm in its vertical chain. How and to what extent that vertical acquisition should be regulated has become a growing concern. The recent proliferation of vertical mergers and alliances has created debate on the traditional merger enforcement paradigms employed by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. In addition, the EU and other foreign competition enforcement authorities are scrutinizing these same mergers in their own jurisdictions but employing different standards from their U. S. regulatory counterparts.
Read a recap of the 2019 conference.
The Kellogg School of Management is pleased to host this invitation-only conference on Navigating the Uncertain Climate of Vertical Merger Enforcement on January 25, 2019 at Northwestern University’s Evanston, IL campus.
This conference will be closed to the media. Participants will include:
- Senior business leaders who head their organization’s strategic planning efforts
- Financiers of these transactions
- Economists
- Antitrust attorneys
- Government officials who are responsible for enforcing competition policy
The program is specifically designed to be highly interactive with panel discussions as well as opportunities for attendees to connect with the different constituencies represented.
Continuing Legal education
The conference organizers will seek CLE accreditation for states requested by registrants which have continuing education requirements. To request CLE credit, please indicate in the registration form.
Conference Sponsors
Agenda
Thursday January 24, 2019
| Time | Event |
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5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
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Welcome Reception
Remarks by Terry Calvani, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Lawrence Wu, NERA |
Friday January 25, 2019
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
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8:00 a.m. - 8:45 a.m.
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Registration and Breakfast
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8:45 a.m. - 8:50 a.m.
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Welcome and Introductions
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8:50 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.
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Overview of Vertical Merger Regulatory Landscape
Moderator : Mark McCareins, Kellogg School of Management Panelists: Dennis W. Carlton, University of Chicago Nicholas Koberstein, Abbott Koren Wong-Ervin, Qualcomm Inc. |
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9:45 a.m. - 10:30 a.m.
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The Industry Practitioner Perspective: Why Do Firms Consider Vertical Mergers and How Do They Evaluate Them?
Moderator: Benjamin F. Jones, Kellogg School of Management Panelists: Jim Dugan, OCA Ventures Edward J. Lehner, Ryerson Rajan Naik, Motorola Solutions |
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10:35 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
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Break
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10:45 am - 11:45 am
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The U.S. Regulatory Approach to Vertical Mergers: Key Considerations in Whether to Challenge or Not
Moderator: Mark McCareins, Kellogg School of Management Panelists: Jamillia Ferris, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati J. Bruce McDonald, Jones Day Jonathan Sallet, Steptoe and Johnson |
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12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.
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Lunch and Keynote by The Hon. Christine S. Wilson, Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
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1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.
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The Impact of the AT&T - Time Warner Trial and Decision
Moderator: Mark McCareins, Kellogg School of Management Panelists: James F. Herbison, Winston & Strawn John E. Lopatka, Penn State Law |
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2:15 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.
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The Regulatory Landscape Outside of the U.S.: Can It be Reconciled with the U.S. Approach?
Moderator: Peter Crowther, Winston and Strawn LLP Panelists: Stephen Calkins, Wayne State University Law School The Hon. Jeanne Pratt, Canadian Competition Bureau Hans Zenger, European Commission |
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3:15 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.
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Break
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3:30 p.m. - 4:15 p.m.
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Economics and the Analysis of Vertical Mergers' Competitive Effects
Moderator: Thomas N. Hubbard, Kellogg School of Management Panelists: Luke M. Froeb, Vanderbilt University Kevin Murphy, University of Chicago William P. Rogerson, Northwestern University |
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4:15 p.m. - 4:30 p.m.
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Concluding Remarks
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Speakers
Stephen Calkins
Stephen Calkins
Professor, Wayne State University Law School;
Former Commissioner, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Ireland;
Stephen Calkins is Professor of Law at the Wayne State University Law School, where he teaches courses and seminars in antitrust and trade regulation, consumer law, and ¬torts. He has taught at the Universities of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Utrecht (The Netherlands), and served as Wayne State University’s associate provost and the Law School’s interim dean.
He is a life member of the American Law Institute, a Fellow of the European Law Institute and a Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, and a member of the advisory board of the American Antitrust Institute. He served three three-year terms on the Council of the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law and is a former member of the Council of the ABA Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice. He is also a former chair of the Association of American Law School's Antitrust and Economic Regulation Committee. He holds degrees from Yale (B.A.) and Harvard (J.D.).
Professor, Wayne State University Law School;
Former Commissioner, Competition and Consumer Protection Commission of Ireland;
Former General Counsel, Federal Trade Commissions
In autumn 2015 he returned from almost four years in Ireland, where he served as a Commissioner of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and (before that) as a Member of the Competition Authority and Director of the Authority’s Mergers Division. While in Ireland he served as Adjunct Professor at University of Dublin Sutherland College of Law. During 1995-97, Calkins served as General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission.
Terry Calvani
Terry Calvani
Of Counsel, Antitrust, Competition and Trade, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer
Calvani practices antitrust law in the Washington, DC office of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer US LLP. Previously he served as Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission (1983-1990) serving as its head in 1984-85, and later as a member of the board of directors of the Irish Competition Authority where he held the criminal investigations portfolio. During that period, he was an active member of advisory committees for the EU Competition Directorate.
Following his term on the FTC, he returned to private practice with the Pillsbury firm until his appointment in Ireland. In addition to Vanderbilt, he has taught antitrust law at Duke University School of Law, the Harvard Law School, Trinity College, Dublin, Cornell Law School and Columbia Law School.
Calvani has served as chairman of several ABA Antitrust Section committees and two terms on its governing council. He is a life member of the American Law Institute and the Judicial Council of the U.S. (6th Cir.) and also serves on the advisory boards of the Antitrust Bulletin, Oxford Univ. Journal of Antitrust Enforcement and the Dublin Univ. Law Journal. He has also served as a Non-Governmental Advisor for the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division and the Federal Trade Commission to the International Competition Network since 2005. Calvani has consulted with many governments and their competition agencies on antitrust policy. He has written and spoken extensively on antitrust issues. He is listed as a leading antitrust and regulatory lawyer in many guides and directories.
Dennis W. Carlton
Dennis W. Carlton
Dennis W. Carlton is the David McDaniel Keller Professor of Economics at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago where he teaches in the Business School, Law School and Economics Department. His teaching and research centers on microeconomics, industrial organization, and antitrust. He has published more than 100 articles and two books, including one of the leading textbooks in industrial organization.
Carlton earned his PhD in Economics in 1975 from MIT, his MS in Operations Research from MIT in 1974, and his AB (summa cum laude) in 1972 from Harvard College.
Daniel McDavid Keller Professor of Economics, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago
He is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research; is on the editorial boards of Competition Policy International and The Journal of Competition Law and Economics; and is the coeditor of The Journal of Law and Economics. Carlton has won several awards including being named the 2014 Distinguished Fellow of the Industrial Organization Society.
Carlton served as the Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice during the 2006 to 2008 time period. He also served as the sole economist on the Antitrust Modernization Commission, a Congressional commission that published its findings in 2007. He is associated with the economic consulting firm Compass Lexecon and served as President (of Lexecon) for several years. He has served as an expert in numerous domestic and foreign cases involving issues in antitrust, regulation, and intellectual property in a wide variety of industries. He has served as an expert for several US and foreign antitrust authorities. He lectures frequently on antitrust issues. He served as a member of the American Bar Association Presidential Transition Task Force, Antitrust Law, 2016.
Peter Crowther
Peter Crowther
Managing Partner, Winstron & Strawn London LLP
Crowther serves as managing partner of Winston & Strawn’s London and Brussels offices and is a member of the firm's Executive Committee. Widely recognized as a leading competition and trade lawyer, a significant part of his practice involves advising companies in a wide range of cartel and merger proceedings, and associated litigation.
Crowther has significant experience of trade/sanctions laws, European Union (EU) merger control, national and international cartels, state aid, free movement, and other general EU and competition law. He also has a long track record of advising broadcasting and telecommunications companies on regulatory matters. In addition, he devises and implements compliance programs covering areas such as competition, trade/sanctions, bribery, and corruption.
Jim Dugan
Jim Dugan
Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, OCA Ventures
Jim Dugan is the Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of OCA Ventures. Prior to co-founding OCA Ventures in 2001, Dugan oversaw the OCA Ventures Pledge Fund which made direct venture capital investments for the O’Connor Partners Investment Office. He has current board responsibilities for EdMap, SumRidge Partners, Campus Explorer, Impossible Objects, BigStep, Falcon Insurance Group and Solovis. In addition, he serves on the boards of the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) as Trustee, Illinois Tech Association (ITA), the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (CEC), 1871, and NU Wave.
Dugan has over 25 years of corporate finance, capital markets, and venture capital investment experience. Prior to forming OCA Ventures, he traded derivatives at the Chicago Board of Trade and worked in corporate finance with Continental Bank. While at Continental Bank, he participated in the structured financing of companies ranging in capital size from $10 million to several billion dollars and in the formation of a $150 million subsidiary to fund mezzanine debt and equity financings.
He received a BA in Economics from the University of Rochester and earned his MBA (MM) from the JL Kellogg Graduate School of Management. In addition to his responsibilities at OCA Ventures, Dugan is a founding member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association (IVCA), where he formerly served five years as Treasurer, Director and member of the Executive Committee and was the 2013 Fellows Medal recipient. Prior to serving as Treasurer, he was the Chairman of the Legislative Committee for the IVCA, in which capacity he helped establish HB 3212 as Illinois law.
Dugan is a frequent guest lecturer and panelist at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and Chicago Booth GSB. He is also a charter member of Tie Network Chicago and Co-Founder/Treasurer of www.SmartBet.org. In his free time, Dugan serves as a Regional Ambassador for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, and coaches travel girls lacrosse in the suburbs of Chicago.
Jamillia Ferris
Jamillia Ferris
Ferris also served as chief of staff and counsel to the assistant attorney general of the DOJ's Antitrust Division.
Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
Jamillia Ferris is a partner in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, where she is a member of the antitrust practice. She regularly appears before the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Trade Commission, representing companies in government antitrust investigations, including mergers and acquisitions and other civil antitrust matters. Ferris also provides antitrust counseling on a wide range of business conduct, including joint ventures and pricing and distribution, among others.
Ferris served in leadership positions and has overseen mergers at both the Antitrust Division of the DOJ and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). She was hired in 2014 to lead the FCC's review of AT&T's proposed $49 billion acquisition of DIRECTV. In this role, she directed all aspects of the FCC process, including coordination with the DOJ. She was also a member of the steering committee overseeing the FCC's review of Comcast's proposed $45 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable.
Luke M. Froeb
Luke M. Froeb
William C. and Margaret M. Oehmig Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Free Enterprise; Ph.D., Wisconsin 1983
There he discovered that there is a lot more to management than what he teaches in class. His mea culpa was sent out to all his former students. Also, after reading hundreds of documents submitted by merging companies to the FTC, Froeb wrote: “If Merger is the Answer, What is the Question?,” berating CEO’s for poorly documenting the reasons for merger.
For the second year in a row, Froeb was named “Outstanding Professor” of the Vanderbilt Executive MBA program, an honor that he shared with his colleague and mentor, David Scheffman. Froeb’s book, Managerial Economics: A Problem Solving Approach, will be published by Southwestern in 2007.
James F. Herbison
James F. Herbison
Winston & Strawn partner Herbison is the leader of the firm’s Illinois Antitrust/Competition practice. He concentrates his practice on complex civil and criminal litigation, as well as government enforcement and investigation matters. He has particularly distinguished experience with antitrust matters—including civil and criminal antitrust litigation, government antitrust investigations, corporate counseling, and the review and clearance of large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
Herbison represents clients in civil antitrust matters ranging from price-fixing, market allocation, and merger enforcement to antitrust issues related to intellectual property. He also has represented clients in connection with criminal price-fixing, bid-rigging and gun-jumping grand juries and internal investigations, as well as various follow-on class action lawsuits. Herbison has also represented a number of industry trade associations and assisted in ensuring their compliance with the antitrust laws—in connection with both day-to-day operations and member product conferences and services, as well as counseling on antitrust issues relating to commercial transactions.
In addition to antitrust matters, Herbison has significant trial experience in the area of complex commercial disputes, securities fraud, health care, and trust and fiduciary litigation matters. He handles matters at the trial and appellate levels of state and federal courts nationwide, as well as administrative proceedings involving state and federal regulators, and various alternative dispute resolution forums.
Herbison received a B.A. in Economics and Management from Beloit College in 1998, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 2001, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as associate editor of the Washington University Law Quarterly.
Partner, Winston & Strawn LLP
Adjunct Professor of Strategy, Kellogg School of Management
Jim is a proven litigator with over 20 major jury trials, bench trials, and arbitrations under his belt. With extensive experience in the field of antitrust, he is well versed in civil and criminal antitrust litigation, government antitrust investigations, corporate counseling, and the review and clearance of large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
Winston & Strawn partner Herbison is the leader of the firm’s Illinois Antitrust/Competition practice. He concentrates his practice on complex civil and criminal litigation, as well as government enforcement and investigation matters. He has particularly distinguished experience with antitrust matters—including civil and criminal antitrust litigation, government antitrust investigations, corporate counseling, and the review and clearance of large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
Herbison represents clients in civil antitrust matters ranging from price-fixing, market allocation, and merger enforcement to antitrust issues related to intellectual property. He also has represented clients in connection with criminal price-fixing, bid-rigging and gun-jumping grand juries and internal investigations, as well as various follow-on class action lawsuits. Herbison has also represented a number of industry trade associations and assisted in ensuring their compliance with the antitrust laws—in connection with both day-to-day operations and member product conferences and services, as well as counseling on antitrust issues relating to commercial transactions.
In addition to antitrust matters, Herbison has significant trial experience in the area of complex commercial disputes, securities fraud, health care, and trust and fiduciary litigation matters. He handles matters at the trial and appellate levels of state and federal courts nationwide, as well as administrative proceedings involving state and federal regulators, and various alternative dispute resolution forums.
Herbison received a B.A. in Economics and Management from Beloit College in 1998, where he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He received a J.D. from Washington University School of Law in 2001, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as associate editor of the Washington University Law Quarterly.
Thomas N. Hubbard
Thomas N. Hubbard
Elinor and H. Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management, Professor of Strategy / Kellogg School of Management
Thomas N. Hubbard has been a professor at Kellogg since 2005, and served as Senior Associate Dean, Strategic Initiatives from 2012-2015. Before coming to Kellogg, he was a professor at the University of Chicago GSB and the University of California, Los Angeles. During 2004-5, he was a visiting professor at Columbia GSB.
Professor Hubbard's research interests mainly concern how information problems affect the organization of firms and markets, and therefore the structure of industries. His work has appeared in top-ranked journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Rand Journal of Economics. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Benjamin F. Jones
Benjamin F. Jones
Gund Professor of Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management
Gund Professor of Entrepreneurship, Kellogg School of Management
Benjamin F. Jones is the Gordon and Llura Gund Family Professor of Entrepreneurship, a Professor of Strategy, and the faculty director of the Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative. An economist by training, his research focuses largely on innovation and creativity, with recent work investigating the role of teamwork in innovation and the relationship between age and invention. Jones also studies global economic development, including the roles of education, climate, and national leadership in explaining the wealth and poverty of nations. His research has appeared in journals such as Science, the Quarterly Journal of Economics and the American Economic Review, and has been profiled in media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, and The New Yorker.
Nick Koberstein
Nick Koberstein
Division Counsel, Licensing & Acquisitions, Abbott Laboratories
For the past decade, Koberstein has served as Abbott’s sole in-house antitrust/competition law specialist. His responsibilities include leading Abbott’s merger control submissions around the world and, when necessary, negotiating consent agreements with local competition authorities. He has successfully obtained merger control clearances in dozens of jurisdictions for numerous Abbott transactions. Several of these clearances required Abbott to enter into settlements to address horizontal overlaps, including the company’s acquisitions of Alere (EU, US and Canada), St. Jude Medical (EU, US, Canada, China, South Africa and Korea), Veropharm (Russia) and CFR (Chile). Abbott’s Commitments to the European Commission in connection with its acquisition of Alere also included a $280 million divestiture to remedy “likely [vertical] foreclosure effects" resulting from the transaction.
Prior to joining Abbott, Koberstein was an antitrust partner in the Washington, D.C., office of McDermott Will & Emery, where he defended mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures before the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, Department of Defense, CFIUS and state antitrust agencies.
He earned his J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University and his B.A., with honor, from Michigan State University. He is admitted to the bars in Illinois and Washington, D.C.
Edward J. Lehner
Edward J. Lehner
President and Chief Executive Officer, Ryerson
Edward J. Lehner is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Ryerson, a global metals supplier and processor with operations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and China. Lehner began serving as Ryerson’s CEO in June 2015 after having served as Ryerson’s executive vice president and chief financial officer since 2012.
Prior to joining Ryerson, Lehner served as the chief financial officer of PSC Metals, Inc., a diversified metals company, and before that, as the chief financial officer of SeverCorr, LLC., a primary steel manufacturing company headquartered in the southern United States.
Lehner’s career also includes senior general management, operational, financial, accounting, tax and consulting roles for Nucor, Birmingham Steel, Inc., Laurel Steel and Deloitte & Touche.
Lehner has served on the Board of Directors of Modumetal Inc., and The Mississippi State Workforce Investment Board, and he is a member of Financial Executives International (FEI).
He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati and is also a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.)
Prior to joining Ryerson, Lehner served as the chief financial officer of PSC Metals, Inc., a diversified metals company, and before that, as the chief financial officer of SeverCorr, LLC., a primary steel manufacturing company headquartered in the southern United States.
Lehner’s career also includes senior general management, operational, financial, accounting, tax and consulting roles for Nucor, Birmingham Steel, Inc., Laurel Steel and Deloitte & Touche.
Lehner has served on the Board of Directors of Modumetal Inc., and The Mississippi State Workforce Investment Board, and he is a member of Financial Executives International (FEI).
He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Cincinnati and is also a Certified Public Accountant (C.P.A.)
John E. Lopatka
John E. Lopatka
A. Robert Noll Distinguished Professor of Law, Penn State Law
John Lopatka is the A. Robert Noll Distinguished Professor of Law at Penn State Law in University Park, where he teaches courses in antitrust, torts, and economic analysis of law. He holds law degrees from the University of Chicago and Columbia University, where he was a Fellow in the Center for Law and Economic Studies. Immediately before joining the faculty at Penn State, he was the Solomon Blatt Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, School of Law, and earlier an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Illinois, College of Law. He practiced law with Isham, Lincoln & Beale in Chicago and Donovan Leisure Newton & Irvine in New York. He also served as Assistant Director for Planning and Acting Associate Director for Mergers in the Federal Trade Commission, Bureau of Competition, and later as Consultant to the General Counsel. He has held editorial board positions on the Antitrust Law Journal and Antirust, served as Vice-chair, Antitrust and Trade Regulation Committee, American Bar Association, Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice Section, and was a member of the Council of the American Association of Law Schools, Section of Antitrust and Economic Regulation He is a co-author of the multi-volume treatise, Federal Antitrust Law, and The Microsoft Case: Antitrust, High Technology, and Consumer Welfare.
Mark McCareins
Mark McCareins
Clinical Professor of Business Law; Co-Director, JDMBA Program / Kellogg School of Management
Mark McCareins is a Clinical Professor of Business Law in the Strategy Department where he teaches courses on Antitrust and Business Law. Mark is also Co-Director of the JD/MBA program at Kellogg. Mark received a student Impact Award for his teaching of Business Law in the fall quarter of 2016.
J. Bruce McDonald
J. Bruce McDonald
Bruce McDonald represents companies in energy, transportation, telecommunications, and other industries in antitrust government investigations and enforcement actions, merger reviews, and antitrust private litigation.
McDonald is immediate past chair of the State Bar of Texas’ Antitrust & Business Litigation Section. He previously served as chair of the ABA Antitrust Section’s Transportation & Energy Committee and chairman of the Houston Bar Association’s Antitrust Section. He has testified before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives and speaks and writes frequently on antitrust law enforcement and policy. He taught antitrust and trade regulation as an adjunct professor at The University of Houston Law Center. He graduated from The University of Texas School of Law.
Partner, Jones Day
His recent work for clients includes representing Level 3 Communications in its combination with CenturyLink, DIRECTV in its merger with AT&T, American Airlines in its merger with US Airways and litigation against DOJ, foreign air carriers in litigation arising out of worldwide air cargo price fixing prosecutions, Southern Company in its acquisition of AGL Resources, and Chevron in the sale of its Hawaii refinery.
McDonald served as deputy assistant attorney general with the U.S. Department of Justice from 2003 to 2007. Significant investigation and enforcement matters for which he was responsible include U.S. v. Exelon and PSEG, U.S. v. CalDive and Stolt, KLM/Air France, America West/USAir, U.S. v. National Association of Realtors, U.S. v. Verizon and MCI, and U.S. v. Qualcomm. The Attorney General appointed him to serve as DOJ’s representative on the Electric Energy Competition Task Force created by Congress in the Energy Policy Act. He was also part of the U.S. delegation that negotiated the “open skies” agreement between the U.S. and European Union.
Kevin M. Murphy
Kevin M. Murphy
George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
George J. Stigler Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, University of Chicago
Kevin M. Murphy is the first professor at a business school to be chosen as a MacArthur Fellow. He was selected for "revealing economic forces shaping vital social phenomena such as wage inequality, unemployment, addiction, medical research, and economic growth." The foundation felt his work "challenges preconceived notions and attacks seemingly intractable economic questions, placing them on a sound empirical and theoretical footing." In addition to his position at the University of Chicago, Murphy works as a faculty research associate for the National Bureau of Economic Research. He primarily studies the empirical analysis of inequality, unemployment, and relative wages as well as the economics of growth and development and the economic value of improvements in health and longevity.
In 2007, Murphy and fellow Chicago Booth faculty member Robert Topel won the Kenneth J. Arrow Award for the best research paper in health economics for "The Value of Health and Longevity," published in the Journal of Political Economy. The award is given annually by the International Health Economics Association.
A fellow of the Econometric Society and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Murphy was a John Bates Clark Medalist in 1997. He has received fellowships from the Earhart Foundation, the Sloan Foundation, and the Friedman Fund.
Murphy is also the author of two books and many academic articles. His writing also has been published in numerous mainstream publications including the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and two Wall Street Journal articles coauthored by Nobel laureate Gary Becker.
Rajan Naik
Rajan Naik
Senior Vice President, Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer, Motorola Solutions
Rajan Naik is senior vice president, chief strategy & innovation officer, for Motorola Solutions. He is responsible for the corporate strategy organization, chief technology office, venture capital portfolio and competitive and market intelligence.
Prior to joining Motorola Solutions, Naik was senior vice president and chief strategy officer at Advanced Micro Devices and before that was a partner in the technology/media/telecom practice at McKinsey & Company.
Naik serves on the boards of directors for CSG and Sonim Technologies.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cornell University and a doctorate in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Jeanne Pratt
Jeanne Pratt
Pratt has previously held management positions in the Cartels Directorate and as Special Legal Advisor to the Commissioner of Competition. Prior to joining the Competition Bureau, she was a lawyer who practiced exclusively in the area of competition law, advising clients on all aspects of Canadian competition law and related litigation.
Senior Deputy Commissioner, Mergers and Monopolistic Practices, Canadian Competition Bureau
Jeanne Pratt is Senior Deputy Commissioner of the Mergers and Monopolistic Practices Branch at the Canadian Competition Bureau. She oversees the review of merger transactions and investigations related to abuse of dominance and other unilateral and joint anti-competitive conduct.
From July 2017-July 2018, she held the position of Executive General Manager of the Merger and Authorization Review Division at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission as part of an international interchange.
William P. Rogerson
William P. Rogerson
Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Economics at Northwestern University
William P. Rogerson is the Charles E. and Emma H. Morrison Professor of Economics at Northwestern University. He received his Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the California Institute of Technology in 1980. He has previously served two terms as Chair of Northwestern’s economics department. At Northwestern he currently serves as Director of the Center for Business Institutions, Co-Director of the Center for the Study of Industrial Organization, and Research Director for Competition, Anti-Trust and Regulation at the Searle Center on Law, Regulation and Economic Growth.
He is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and has worked as a consultant for a number of government agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, Institute for Defense Analysis, Logistics Management Institute, Office of the Secretary of Defense (Program Analysis and Evaluation), RAND Corporation, and US Department of Justice. In addition to serving as the FCC’s Chief Economist in 1998-1999, Rogerson has been an active participant in media transactions before the FCC, including Comcast/NBCU, News/Hughes, as well as various rulemaking proceedings.
Most recently, he served as Senior Economist to the FCC, supervising the FCC’s economic analysis of the Comcast/Time Warner Cable, AT&T/DirecTV and Charter/Time Warner Cable transactions.
Jonathan Sallet
Jonathan Sallet
Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
Jonathan Sallet is a partner in Steptoe & Johnson LLP. Sallet has served as general counsel of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and as deputy assistant attorney general for litigation in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
In the Clinton Administration, he served in the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC), focusing on technology-policy issues.
Christine S. Wilson
Christine S. Wilson
Wilson previously served at the FTC as Chairman Tim Muris’ Chief of Staff during the George W. Bush Administration, and as a law clerk in the Bureau of Competition while attending Georgetown University Law Center.
Wilson graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center, where she worked as a research assistant for Professor Steve Salop. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Florida, where she majored in political science and studied antitrust law with Professor Roger Blair.
Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
Christine S. Wilson was sworn in on September 26, 2018 as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. President Donald J. Trump named Wilson to a term that expires on Sept. 25, 2025.
In between her periods of service at the FTC, Wilson has practiced competition and consumer protection law both at law firms and as in-house counsel. When nominated, Wilson was serving as Senior Vice President — Legal, Regulatory & International for Delta Air Lines. Prior to joining Delta, Wilson was a member of the Washington DC antitrust practice groups of Kirkland & Ellis LLP and O’Melveny & Myers LLP. Early in her career, Wilson worked with former Assistant Attorney General James F. Rill at Collier Shannon Rill & Scott on a variety of competition law and policy initiatives, including the final report of the International Competition Policy Advisory Committee commissioned by Attorney General Janet Reno.
Koren Wong-Ervin
Koren Wong-Ervin
Wong-Ervin graduated second in her class from the University of California, Hastings College of Law, where she was associate editor of the Hastings Law Review. She earned her BS degree magna cum laude in Political Science from Santa Clara University.
Director of IP and Competition Policy, Qualcomm Incorporated
Koren Wong-Ervin is the Director of Intellectual Property and Competition Policy at Qualcomm Incorporated. She is also a Senior Expert and Researcher at the Competition Law Center of China’s University of International Business and Economics.
Prior to joining Qualcomm, Wong-Ervin was the Director of the Global Antitrust Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. Prior to that, she served as Counsel for Intellectual Property and International Antitrust in the Office of International Affairs at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, where she focused on issues at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property. She also served as an Attorney Advisor to Federal Trade Commissioner Joshua D. Wright. Prior to working at the Commission, Wong-Ervin spent almost a decade in private practice, focusing on antitrust litigation and government investigations with a particular focus on issues affecting clients in the technology and financial industries.
She is a frequent author and speaker on issues at the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property. She currently serves on the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Antitrust Law’s International Task Force and Due Process Task Force, and was previously co-chair of the ABA’s 2016 Antitrust in Asia Conference. From 2012 to 2015, she served as a vice chair of the Intellectual Property Committee within the Section of Antitrust Law. Prior to that, she served on the editorial boards of Antitrust Law Developments (7th edition), the leading two-volume antitrust treatise, and the 2003 Annual Review of Antitrust Law Developments, an annual supplement to the fifth edition of the treatise. Wong-Ervin is also co-editor of Competition Policy International’s North America Column. She also serves as co-chair for the Federalist Society’s Antitrust and Consumer Protection working group for the Law and Innovation Project.
Lawrence Wu
Lawrence Wu
President, NERA Economic Consulting
Lawrence Wu is an economist and President of NERA Economic Consulting, a global firm of experts in economics, finance, and statistics. Prior to joining NERA, he was a staff economist in the Bureau of Economics of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). From 2011 to 2015, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR) at Stanford University.
Wu’s expertise is in the economics of antitrust and intellectual property. In the area of antitrust, Wu has evaluated the competitive effects of numerous mergers and acquisitions. These include proposed and consummated transactions. He also has been retained as an economic expert to testify on issues related to antitrust class certification, liability, and damages. He has testified on issues related to price fixing, as well as market definition and market power in antitrust litigations involving allegations of exclusive contracting, price discrimination, and anticompetitive exclusionary conduct. Wu has analyzed these and other competitive issues in a variety of retail, manufacturing, and service industries, but he is particularly well known for his work in the area of health care, which includes health insurance, hospital services, physician services, and a variety of medical devices and technologies.
With respect to intellectual property economics, Wu has testified on reasonable royalties, and he has written and consulted on issues involving patent pools.
Wu is the co-author of a book on antitrust class certification, The Revolution in the Law and Economics of Antitrust Class Certification. He also has edited three books on the economics of antitrust, including a book on the use of econometrics in antitrust analysis. His publications, which have appeared in Antitrust, The Antitrust Bulletin, Antitrust Chronicle, Antitrust Report, The Antitrust Source, European Competition Law Review, Journal of Business Venturing, and Medical Care, include articles on merger analysis, market share-based merger screens, empirical methods in merger analysis, patent pools, and the multiple dimensions of market power. He also is frequently invited to speak at conferences and seminars.
Hans Zenger
Hans Zenger
Member of the Chief Economist Team, European Commission
Zenger co-coordinates the merger work at the European Commission's Chief Economist Team. Prior to joining the Commission, he was a Vice President at CRA's competition practice in Brussels.
Zenger has led the economic analysis in a large number of merger cases involving complex non-horizontal aspects, including Essilor/Luxottica, Deutsche Börse/London Stock Exchange and UTC/Rockwell Collins.
He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Munich and an M.Sc. in economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona.
Zenger has published widely on competition matters in journals such as the Antitrust Law Journal, the Journal of Competition Law & Economics and the Journal of Banking & Finance.
Logistics
Getting Here
Kellogg Global Hub
2211 Campus Drive
Evanston, IL 60208
Air
Major airlines fly into both O’Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport. O’Hare Airport is approximately 45 minutes from Kellogg and Midway Airport is approximately 60 minutes from Kellogg, but you may want to allow more time for traffic.Taxi
Taxi service from both airports can be arranged in advance of your visit for a reduced fare. Pre-arranged rides start at approximately $35 from O’Hare and $50 from Midway. For up-to-date fare information, please contact a taxi service directly.
- Northshore Cab Company: 847.864.7500
- American Taxi: 847.255.9600
- Uber
- Lyft
Parking
Click here for directions to the Kellogg Global Hub. Complimentary valet parking will be provided.
Where to Stay
Hyatt House Evanston:
A reservation block has been made at the Hyatt House in Evanston. Once you have registered for the conference, please click this link to reserve your hotel room or call the Hyatt House at 1-866-974-9288, Please identify yourself as part of the Navigating the Uncertain Climate of Vertical Merger Enforcement Conference if booking by phone or use the code G-AVMC if booking online. The cut off date for this block of rooms is Wednesday, December 19.
A reservation block has been made at the Hyatt House in Evanston. Once you have registered for the conference, please click this link to reserve your hotel room or call the Hyatt House at 1-866-974-9288, Please identify yourself as part of the Navigating the Uncertain Climate of Vertical Merger Enforcement Conference if booking by phone or use the code G-AVMC if booking online. The cut off date for this block of rooms is Wednesday, December 19.
Organizing Committee
Thomas N. Hubbard
Thomas N. Hubbard
Elinor and H. Wendell Hobbs Professor of Management, Professor of Strategy / Kellogg School of Management
Thomas N. Hubbard has been a professor at Kellogg since 2005, and served as Senior Associate Dean, Strategic Initiatives from 2012-2015. Before coming to Kellogg, he was a professor at the University of Chicago GSB and the University of California, Los Angeles. During 2004-5, he was a visiting professor at Columbia GSB.
Professor Hubbard's research interests mainly concern how information problems affect the organization of firms and markets, and therefore the structure of industries. His work has appeared in top-ranked journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and the Rand Journal of Economics. He is a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
Mark McCareins
Mark McCareins
Clinical Professor of Business Law; Co-Director, JDMBA Program / Kellogg School of Management
Mark McCareins is a Clinical Professor of Business Law in the Strategy Department where he teaches courses on Antitrust and Business Law. Mark is also Co-Director of the JD/MBA program at Kellogg. Mark received a student Impact Award for his teaching of Business Law in the fall quarter of 2016.