Who is she? She is the current chair of the US Federal Trade commission and is expected to step down in ~8 working days.

Why is she interesting? 

Let’s look at her early life: she was born to Pakistani parents in London and later moved to the US when she was 11 years old. Even as a kid she always wanted to be a journalist because she thought they held power to account. To me this says she has a passion for questioning the status quo and addressing injustice and we can see this as a theme throughout her career.

She attended Williams college where she majored in political science. She later studied law at Yale Law school, during which she wrote an article that became viral “amazons antitrust paradox”. Existing Antitrust laws overlook the fact that some tech giants can afford to have aggressively low prices that can slowly eliminate competition and gain monopoly. This concentrated economic power is not good for consumers in the long run.  

Years later she was appointed as the Federal trade commission chair by president Biden. In this role, she went about looking for concentrated economic power across all industries. One of her notable achievements is when she exposed that pharma companies were patenting asthma inhalers, not for the formula but for the packaging and plastic around it which eliminated competition and were selling for insanely high prices in the US. She actually won this battle and now inhalers are at affordable 35$. 

Why should she inspire us?

1. It is not easy being the target of the CEO class. But she rose above hate and pursued her mission with conviction. 

2. She is not winning every battle but being fearless, that does not deter her from taking on more battles. 

— By Akila Nagamani