Howard Beales

Howard Beales is professor emeritus of strategic management and public policy at the George Washington University School of Business. He is currently a member of the Taskforce on Federal Consumer Financial Law at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Beales’s research has covered a range of consumer protection regulatory issues, including privacy, law and economics, the new drug approval process, and the regulation of marketing and advertising. From 2001 through 2004, Dr. Beales served as the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). In that capacity, he was instrumental in redirecting the FTC’s privacy agenda to focus on the consequences of the use and misuse of consumer information.

Beales also worked at the FTC from 1977 to 1987, as a staff economist, Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Associate Director for Policy and Evaluation, and Acting Deputy Director. In 1987-88, he was the Chief of the Human Resources and Housing Branch of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget.