Economic Speakers Bureau

Menu

Alvaro Bedoya

Former Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission

Washington, DC

@bedoyausa

Experience

  • Former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission
  • Founder, Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law
  • Former chief counsel for U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy

Expertise

  • Antitrust enforcement and competition
  • Deceptive and unfair trade practices
  • Economic and income inequality
  • Workplace surveillance, privacy, electronic monitoring

 

Education

  • Harvard College, B.A.
  • Yale Law School, J.D.

 

Recent Coverage

FEB 12, 2026

The New Republic: What the Democrats Need to Do Now

This instinct is just not in the Democratic Party’s collective DNA. It needs to be. “The simple fact is that a lot of Democrats weren’t built for this environment. They weren’t built for a world where the opposition party president breaks essentially all the rules, breaks them with gusto, and gets clout from breaking the rules,” said Alvaro Bedoya, who served as a federal trade commissioner under Lina Khan and took on many fights against corporate wrongdoers. “And the sad fact is that right now, what you need are street fighters. You need people who relish conflict. You need people who know how to be creative with the power they have and can do something with it.

DEC 5, 2025

The Washington Post: Trump fired this federal regulator. She’s fighting him to the Supreme Court.

“It is not fun to take on the president of the United States, particularly in this environment,” Bedoya said. “It’s not fun to not know where your next paycheck will come from or if you will get a paycheck, period.”

OCT 15, 2025

The New Republic: How I Became a Populist

Looking at things that way, everyone I met was part of one huge group: people working themselves to the bone who were getting screwed by billionaires and corporations—regardless of party or state or race or ethnicity. Regardless, even, of whether they are workers or the owners of farms or small businesses.

Populism is not an indictment, but an opportunity. Focusing on the conflict between the haves and the have-nots is not divisive; it’s a way to build coalitions with astonishing potential.

Interested in speaking with Alvaro Bedoya?

Book an Interview

About Alvaro

Alvaro Bedoya is a Senior Advisor at the American Economic Liberties Project. He was appointed by President Joe Biden to serve as a Commissioner at the Federal Trade Commission in May 2022 and served in that role until his resignation in June 2025. At the FTC, Commissioner Bedoya focused on how antitrust law could do more to protect workers and labor unions, and warned against rapidly advancing workplace surveillance technology. He took a special interest in the challenges facing small-town grocers and pharmacists, and helped coordinate the Commission’s revival of the Robinson-Patman Act, a long-dormant antitrust law that was passed to give small sellers a level playing field against retail giants.
Before his confirmation, Bedoya served as chief counsel to Senator Al Franken of Minnesota, and helped him establish the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Privacy upon its creation in 2010. After the Senate, he founded the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law, which conducted in-depth research into face surveillance and the surveillance of religious and ethnic minorities. His essay on the subject, “Privacy as Civil Right,” is featured in textbooks used in U.S. law schools.
A naturalized citizen born in Peru and raised in upstate New York, Bedoya also co-founded the Esperanza Education Fund, a college scholarship for immigrant students that is blind to immigration status, and that has awarded over $1 million in scholarships since 2009. He also served on the boards of CASA and The Hispanic Bar Association of Washington, D.C.
His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School, and lives with his wife and children in Rockville, Maryland.

More Experts

Bobby Kogan Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy, Center for American Progress
Jennifer Harris Former Senior Director, National Security Council and National Economic Council
Michael Linden Senior Policy Fellow, Washington Center for Equitable Growth

View All Experts