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Technical Assistance Workshop: Biography of Russell Damtoft

Russell Damtoft

Russell Damtoft is the Associate Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Office of International Affairs. He is responsible for relationships between the FTC and antitrust agencies in Canada, Latin America, CIS nations, China, and India; managing portions of the FTC's technical assistance program for developing competition and consumer protection agencies; and helping to build synergies between the FTC's international competition and consumer protection programs. He is also the co-chair of the International Competition Network's subgroup on technical assistance, and has represented the United States in the negotiation of the competition chapters of several free trade agreements.

Mr. Damtoft has been with the Federal Trade Commission since 1985. Before the Office of International Affairs was established, he performed similar duties in the Bureau of Competition, served as Assistant Regional Director of the FTC's Chicago Regional Office, as Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, and as a staff attorney in the Bureau of Consumer Protection. He has also twice served as a resident advisor to foreign competition and consumer protection authorities in the FTC's technical assistance program, once in Romania and once in the Baltic nations.

He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1981 and from Grinnell College in 1976. He is a member of the American Bar Association, where he serves on the Editorial Board of Competition Laws Outside of the United States.

Updated June 9, 2023