Dublin woman Gail Slater is to head-up the antitrust division at the US department of justice, a senior position within the incoming US administration of president-elect Donald Trump.
The UCD-educated lawyer has been in the running for one of the top jobs in the new Trump administration and has now been nominated as assistant attorney general.
The 52 year old, who is originally from Dalkey in south Dublin and a graduate of UCD law school, has been policy adviser for US vice-president-elect JD Vance.
[ Irish woman in line for top White House role under Donald TrumpOpens in new window ]
She has been advising Mr Trump’s transition team on antitrust and tech policy, and is expected to take a tough stance on anticompetitive practices in the Big Tech sector. She must be approved by the US Senate.
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Ms Slater, who is also a graduate of Oxford University, will take charge of several high-profile cases against companies including Apple, Google and Visa.
In a statement, Mr Trump said Ms Slater would “ensure that [US] competition laws are enforced, both vigorously and fairly with clear rules that facilitate, rather than stifle, the ingenuity of our greatest companies”.
Ms Slater was a tech policy adviser on the White House’s national economic council during Mr Trump’s first term, providing counsel to the US president on technology, telecom and cybersecurity.
[ Dublin woman Gail Slater leaves senior White House roleOpens in new window ]
A dual Irish-US citizen, the Dublin native has been living in the US since 2003. Ms Slater, whose maiden name is Conlon, has long been a close observer of US politics. She is married to Lindsay Slater, a former chief of staff to congressman Mike Simpson, a moderate Republican from Idaho.
Before joining the first Trump administration, she was general counsel at the Internet Association, a trade body that represented Google and Facebook where she advised on legal and regulatory policy.
She previously worked for 10 years at the US Federal Trade Commission, including as an adviser to former Democratic commissioner Julie Brill in Barack Obama’s administration.
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