Biden Adviser Tim Wu To Leave After Shaping Antitrust Policy

White House adviser Tim Wu is set to leave his position in the coming months, according to people familiar with the move.

03 Aug 2022, 02:01 AM IST

The White House in Washington, D.C., US, on Sunday, May 22, 2022. The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by 50 basis points earlier this month and the chairman indicated it was on track to make similar-sized moves at its meetings in June and July.

(Bloomberg) -- White House adviser Tim Wu, who worked to shape the Biden administration’s agenda to increase economic competition, is set to leave his position in the coming months, according to people familiar with the move.

Wu is expected to return to antitrust law at Columbia Law School after serving as special assistant to the president for technology and competition policy since March 2021.

He was the key architect behind President Joe Biden’s executive order to bolster competition last year, which included 72 initiatives by more than a dozen federal agencies. The administration focused on improving competition within industries including technology, health care and agriculture.

Wu, the White House and Columbia Law School didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Wu, who coined the term “net neutrality,” rose to prominence as one of the most aggressive critics of the major technology and telecom companies, arguing that they had a stranglehold over the economy that was hurting smaller companies and consumers. In early 2020, Wu offered his signature warning: “Antitrust winter is over,” after which Biden brought him into the administration.

In his role at the National Economic Council, Wu helped to lead the Biden administration’s antitrust policies aimed at the largest technology companies, while working with agencies to identify regulations they could use to fight corporate dominance. The executive order created a new competition council led by the head of the NEC, a proposal that Wu had first called for in 2020.

Wu previously worked on competition policy at the NEC under former President Barack Obama, helping to write a similar executive order signed by Obama toward the end of his presidency in 2016. Wu has since penned a number of anti-monopoly books, including “The Curse of Bigness,” which calls for a rejuvenated trust-busting movement in the U.S.

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com