Commission votes unanimously to approve Austin Schlick as Executive Director and Jessica L. Rich as General Counsel
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today announced changes to the agency’s senior leadership. The Commission voted unanimously to approve CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric’s appointment of Austin Schlick, who had been General Counsel, as the agency’s new Executive Director. Schlick succeeds Jason Levine, who recently departed the agency. The Commission also voted unanimously to appoint Jessica L. Rich as the agency’s new General Counsel.
“With Austin’s new position and the addition of Jessica’s experience and dedication to consumer protection, I am confident this leadership team will drive our mission to keep consumers safe from product hazards,” said Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric. “The Commission has an ambitious agenda and we are looking forward to working with Austin and Jessica to advance our priorities this year.”
Schlick joined CPSC as General Counsel in 2021. Since his arrival, he has worked to reform outdated processes, streamline workflows to drive greater efficiencies, and support an aggressive rulemaking agenda for consumer safety. Under his leadership, the Office of General Counsel has provided advice and guidance to Commissioners and staff that facilitated the passage of 14 final rules in fiscal year 2023, many of which had languished for years.
Rich’s career is marked by a focus on developing and applying consumer protection law in the federal government, non-profit, and private sectors. Her public service experience includes more than 25 years at the Federal Trade Commission, where she held a number of senior leadership roles, including Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Associate Director of the Division of Financial Practices, and Associate Director of the Division of Privacy and Identity Protection.
As Bureau Director, Rich oversaw all of the FTC’s consumer protection work, including its efforts to fight fraud and false advertising and to protect consumer privacy. Among her accomplishments during her tenure, Rich developed ground-breaking cases to protect consumers from harm, modernized the Bureau to meet the challenges raised by new technologies, and launched the innovative “Every Community” campaign to promote consumer rights among diverse communities in the U.S.
After leaving the FTC, Rich continued to advance consumer protection issues through roles at Consumer Reports, where she was Vice President for Advocacy; and Georgetown University Law Center, where she was as a Distinguished Fellow in the Institute for Technology Law and Policy. Before her appointment as General Counsel, Rich served as Of Counsel and Senior Policy Advisor for Consumer Protection at the law firm, Kelley Drye & Warren LLP.
About the U.S. CPSC
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risk of injury or death associated with the use of thousands of types of consumer products. Deaths, injuries, and property damage from consumer product-related incidents cost the nation more than $1 trillion annually. CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products has contributed to a decline in the rate of injuries associated with consumer products over the past 50 years.
Federal law prohibits any person from selling products subject to a Commission ordered recall or a voluntary recall undertaken in consultation with the CPSC.
