Rank: 5
Lina Khan
Chair, Federal Trade Commission
Since Khan was sworn in as FTC chair in 2021, the commission has been working to thwart potentially anticompetitive mergers and acquisitions. Several health system combinations have been scuttled amid FTC opposition. In 2023, the FTC published a proposed rule that would require merger candidates to disclose more information about their transactions; if approved, the tighter oversight could slow healthcare deals. Also this year, the FTC and the Justice Department released draft merger guidelines designed to, among other things, limit consolidation that would keep competitors from entering the market. Khan is on leave from Columbia Law School, where she is an associate professor. Earlier in her career, she was counsel to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law, a legal adviser to a previous FTC commissioner, and legal director at the Open Markets Institute.