Dr. Mark Cooper - Consumer Federation Of America

Finally had the chance to get to know Mark Cooper one on one last week. He is the Director of Research at the Consumer Federation of America, and is an extremely intelligent, hard driving, tireless advocate for consumers particularly in the areas of telecom, energy and high tech. I have been on the other side of issues with Mark a handful of times and he can be as tenacious as a bulldog if he feels the consumer is being harmed.

He is also always a very worthy opponent and has provided expert testimony in over 250 cases for public interest clients including Attorneys General, People’s Counsels, and citizen interveners before state and federal agencies, courts and legislators in almost four dozen jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada.

I learned he is a prolific author and has written dozens of books including; The Case Against Media Consolidation (Donald McGannon Center for Communications Research 2006), Open Architecture as Communications Policy (Center for Internet and Society, 2004), and Cable Mergers and Monopolies: Market Power in Digital Media and Communications Networks (Economic Policy Institute, 2002).

I am never happy to be on opposite sides of an argument with Mark but fortunately he is human and not always right (giving big business some chance), but as a consumer we could not ask for a better advocate. Mark has dedicated his life to being a loud and effective voice for consumer rights and we are lucky to have him doing a great job in that position.