NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--NERA Economic Consulting, a leading global provider of economic advice and analysis in business, legal, and regulatory matters, is pleased to announce that former European Commission and OECD economist Dr. Frank Maier-Rigaud has joined NERA’s Antitrust and Competition Practice as an Associate Director. Dr. Maier-Rigaud is based in NERA’s Berlin and Brussels offices, where he will lead the firm’s Competition Economics Group in Europe.

“Dr. Maier-Rigaud’s experience as a senior economist, a competition policy and strategy expert, and a respected academic is a welcome addition to the leadership of NERA’s Antitrust and Competition Practice in Europe”

Dr. Maier-Rigaud’s extensive practical and academic expertise encompasses all areas of competition economics, notably competitive effects of merger, cartels, abuse of dominance, and vertical and horizontal restraints. His research also addresses issues concerning the quantification of damages, the competitive effects of loyalty schemes and rebates and cartels, and behavioral and structural remedies. He remains Full Professor in the Department of Economics and Quantitative Methods at the IÉSEG School of Management in Paris and the Université Catholique de Lille, and a member of LEM-CNRS, the prestigious French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

“Dr. Maier-Rigaud’s experience as a senior economist, a competition policy and strategy expert, and a respected academic is a welcome addition to the leadership of NERA’s Antitrust and Competition Practice in Europe,” said NERA President Dr. Lawrence Wu. “Frank brings a wealth of practical expertise in the economic analysis of competition policy and damages that will be a tremendous asset to NERA’s clients.”

Dr. Maier-Rigaud joins NERA following several years as a Senior Economist at the Directorate-General for Competition for the European Commission, where he was responsible for the review and scrutiny of antitrust and merger decisions, peer review panels, and the sector inquiry framework. In that function he also coordinated the sector inquiries into financial services, energy, and pharmaceuticals. He led several of the largest European Commission inspection teams including members of the French, German, and UK authorities on dawn raids, and was involved in cases such as ENI, Intel, Prokent/Tomra, MasterCard, Oracle/PeopleSoft, and Sony/BMG.

Dr. Maier-Rigaud was also Senior Economist at the Competition Division of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), where he was responsible for the Working Party on Competition and Regulation and the OECD Competition Assessment Toolkit, a methodology that allows the screening of laws and regulations as to their competition impact. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn, and an MA in Economics and an MA in Political Science from Indiana University Bloomington.

About NERA

NERA Economic Consulting (www.nera.com) is a global firm of experts dedicated to applying economic, finance, and quantitative principles to complex business and legal challenges. For half a century, NERA's economists have been creating strategies, studies, reports, expert testimony, and policy recommendations for government authorities and the world’s leading law firms and corporations. We bring academic rigor, objectivity, and real world industry experience to bear on issues arising from competition, regulation, public policy, strategy, finance, and litigation.

NERA's clients value our ability to apply and communicate state-of-the-art approaches clearly and convincingly, our commitment to deliver unbiased findings, and our reputation for quality and independence. Our clients rely on the integrity and skills of our unparalleled team of economists and other experts backed by the resources and reliability of one of the world's largest economic consultancies. With its main office in New York City, NERA serves clients from more than 20 offices across North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific.