Melissa Holyoak | |
---|---|
Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission | |
Assumed office March 25, 2024 | |
President | Joe Biden |
Preceded by | Christine S. Wilson |
Solicitor General of Utah | |
In office September 2020 –March 2024 | |
Attorney General | Sean Reyes |
Preceded by | Tyler R. Green |
Succeeded by | Stanford E. Purser |
Personal details | |
Political party | Republican |
Spouse | Joshua Holyoak |
Children | 4 |
Education | University of Utah (BA,JD) |
Melissa Holyoak is an American lawyer serving since 2024 as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. [1] She previously served as the solicitor general of Utah from 2020 to 2024.
Holyoak graduated from the University of Utah in 2000 with a Bachelor of Arts and from its S.J. Quinney College of Law in 2003 with a Juris Doctor degree. As a law student,Holyoak was an editor of the Utah Law Review and graduated with Order of the Coif membership. [2]
From 2003 to 2008,Holyoak was an associate in the Washington,D.C. office of the law firm O'Melveny &Myers while her husband attended medical school in Baltimore. [3] After spending several years as a homemaker raising her and her husband's young children,Holyoak became a part-time public interest attorney with the Center for Class Action Fairness in 2012. [3] She served as president and general counsel of Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute,a Washington,D.C.-based public interest firm representing consumers challenging unfair class actions and regulatory overreach. [2] Holyoak was one of the successful petitioners in the 2019 Supreme Court case Frank v. Gaos . [4] [5]
In September 2020, [6] Holyoak became the Utah Solicitor General with the Utah Attorney General’s Office,where she manages the civil appeals,criminal appeals,constitutional defense and special litigation,and antitrust and data privacy divisions. [2] In that capacity,she oversees merger reviews,data privacy and antitrust enforcement actions,and provides leadership in consumer protection matters. [2]
A Republican,Holyoak was nominated by U.S. president Joe Biden in July 2023 to serve as a member of the Federal Trade Commission. [7] Her nomination was confirmed by the Senate on March 7,2024. [8]
In May 2024,Holyoak dissented when the Commission conditioned approval of the $64.5 billion acquisition of Pioneer Natural Resources by ExxonMobil upon the prohibition of founder Scott D. Sheffield from the company's board. [9] [10]
In May 2024,Holyoak dissented when the Commission decided to proceed to trial in its challenge to the $24.6 billion proposed acquisition of Albertsons by Kroger. [11] [12]
In June 2024,Holyoak,dissented when the Commission issued a final rule banning non-compete clauses in most employment contracts. [13] [14] In August 2024,U.S. District Judge Ada Brown issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting enforcement of the rule. [15]
In September 2024,Holyoak dissented when the Commission conditioned approval of the $53 billion acquisition of Hess Corporation by Chevron Corporation upon the prohibition of John B. Hess from the company's board. [16] [17]
Holyoak's husband,Joshua Holyoak,is a urologist. They have four children and live in Utah. [2]
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction over federal civil antitrust law enforcement with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division. The agency is headquartered in the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington,DC.
Esso is a trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally,the name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Esso",to which the other Standard Oil companies would later object.
Chevron Corporation is an American multinational energy corporation predominantly specializing in oil and gas. The second-largest direct descendant of Standard Oil,and originally known as the Standard Oil Company of California,it is active in more than 180 countries. Within oil and gas,Chevron is vertically integrated and is involved in hydrocarbon exploration,production,refining,marketing and transport,chemicals manufacturing and sales,and power generation.
Hess Corporation is an American global independent energy company involved in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas. It was formed by the merger of Hess Oil and Chemical and Amerada Petroleum in 1968. Leon Hess was CEO from the early 1960s through 1995,after which his son John B Hess succeeded him as chairman and CEO. The company has agreed to be acquired by rival oil company Chevron.
In contract law,a non-compete clause,restrictive covenant,or covenant not to compete (CNC),is a clause under which one party agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition against another party. In the labor market,these agreements prevent workers from freely moving across employers,and weaken the bargaining leverage of workers.
John Barnett Hess is the CEO of Hess Corporation.
XTO Energy Inc. is an American energy company and subsidiary of ExxonMobil principally operating in North America. Acquired by ExxonMobil in 2010 and based out of Spring,Texas,it is involved with the production,processing,transportation,and development of oil and natural gas resources. The company specializes in developing shale gas via unconventional means like hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling.
Human rights violations in Aceh,Indonesia occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s when ExxonMobil hired Indonesian military units to guard their Arun gas field,and these military units raided and razed local villages. Government inquiries have extensively documented these abuses. Victims allege that ExxonMobil knew about the atrocities,which include assault,torture,and murder,and should be liable for them. The company denies these accusations;its primary defense is that the human rights violations which were occurring were not a result of specific intention of the organization and therefore it cannot be held liable.
Pioneer Natural Resources Company,headquartered in Irving,Texas,was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. It operated in the Cline Shale,which is part of the Spraberry Trend of the Permian Basin,where the company was the largest acreage holder. In May 2024,the company was acquired by ExxonMobil.
Julie Simone Brill is an American lawyer who serves as Chief Privacy Officer and Corporate Vice President for Global Privacy,Safety and Regulatory Affairs at Microsoft. Prior to her role at Microsoft,Brill was nominated by President Barack Obama on November 16,2009,and confirmed unanimously by the US Senate to serve as Commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission on March 3,2010. Brill served as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 2010 to 2016.
Denbury Inc. was a company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration and extraction via enhanced oil recovery,utilizing carbon dioxide to extract petroleum from fields that have been previously exploited. In November 2023 it was acquired by ExxonMobil.
Scott Douglas Sheffield is an American businessman in the oil and gas industry. He is best known as the founder and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Pioneer Natural Resources.
Rohit Chopra is an American businessman who is the third director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and previous member of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Prior to this,Chopra served as assistant director of the CFPB and as the agency's first Student Loan Ombudsman,an office created by the Dodd–Frank Act.
Lina M. Khan is a British-born American legal scholar who has served as chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) since 2021. She is also an associate professor of law at Columbia Law School.
Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms,Inc. is an ongoing antitrust court case brought by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms. The lawsuit alleges that Meta has accumulated monopoly power via anti-competitive mergers,with the suit centering on the acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp.
ExxonMobil,an American multinational oil and gas corporation presently based out of Texas,has had one of the longest histories of any company in its industry. A direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil,the company traces its roots as far back as 1866 to the founding of the Vacuum Oil Company,which would become part of ExxonMobil through its own merger with Mobil during the 1930s. The present name of the company comes from a 1999 merger of Standard Oil's New Jersey and New York successors,which adopted the names Exxon and Mobil respectively throughout the middle of the 20th century. Because of Standard Oil of New Jersey's ownership over all Standard Oil assets at the time of the 1911 breakup,ExxonMobil is seen by some as the definitive continuation of Standard Oil today.
Following the 1911 Supreme Court ruling that found Standard Oil was an illegal monopoly,the company was broken up into 39 different entities,divided primarily by region and activity. Many of these companies later became part of the Seven Sisters,which dominated global petroleum production in the 20th century,and became a majority of today's largest investor-owned oil companies,with most tracing their roots back to Standard Oil. Some descendants of Standard Oil were also given exclusive rights to the Standard Oil name.
OTR,formerly On the Run,is an Australian chain of petrol stations and convenience stores based in South Australia. Unrelated to ExxonMobil's On the Run store branding,the OTR brand was first established in 1999 by the Shahin family,who were already owning and operating service stations in Adelaide since 1984. It owns OTR and Store 24.
Andrew N. Ferguson is an American lawyer serving since 2024 as a commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission. He previously served as solicitor general of Virginia from 2022 to 2024.
The majority of U.S. states recognize and enforce various forms of non-compete agreements. A few states,such as California,North Dakota,and Oklahoma,totally ban noncompete agreements for employees,or prohibit all noncompete agreements except in limited circumstances.