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News Release 15-093
Contact: Peg O'Laughlin, 202-205-1819
Meredith M. Broadbent, Chairman of the United States International Trade Commission (USITC), announced today that William M. Powers has been named Chief Economist and Director, Office of Economics, at the USITC.
Powers will serve as the Commission’s chief economic adviser; direct the agency’s professional economists; and support the Commission in its role as adviser to Congress and the President on international trade matters.
“Bill Powers has shown strong leadership in the Office of Economics as it has worked to find innovative solutions to new challenges,” said Chairman Broadbent. “The Commission looks forward to benefiting from his expertise and creativity as we respond to increasingly complex analytical requests from the U.S. Trade Representative and our congressional oversight committees.”
Powers served as the Acting Director of the USITC Office of Economics from April 2015 until his appointment. He was Chief of the Office of Economics Research Division from February 2014 until March 2015. He joined the USITC as an International Economist in 2005, and in that role he contributed to numerous USITC general factfinding and probable economic effect investigations, served as a project leader or reviewer on such studies, and led the Commission’s global value chain research portfolio. He has published on empirical trade topics including trade agreements, trade financing, and global value chains. He worked with the President’s Council of Economic Advisors in the White House from 2008-2009.
Prior to his USITC employment, Powers was an adjunct lecturer in the Department of Economics and Management at Albion College in Albion, MI. He taught English in Osaka, Japan, from 1992-1995, and he worked as a computer engineer at IBM in Poughkeepsie, NY, from 1990-1992.
Powers holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a Master of Arts degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Virginia.
The U.S. International Trade Commission is an independent, nonpartisan, quasi-judicial federal agency that provides trade expertise to both the legislative and executive branches of government, determines the impact of imports on U.S. industries, and directs actions against certain unfair trade practices in import trade, such as patent and trademark infringement.