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Federal Trade Commission Chairman William E. Kovacic announced today that Mary Beth Richards, Deputy Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, will leave the agency to return to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and that Mary K. Engle, currently Associate Director in the Bureau’s Division of Advertising Practices, will serve as Acting Deputy Director. He also announced that Heather Hippsley, currently an Assistant Director in the Division of Advertising Practices, will serve as Acting Associate Director for the Division.

“Mary Beth is an outstanding public servant,” Chairman Kovacic said. “Her work for the Commission on behalf of American consumers is greatly valued, as it surely will be when she returns to the FCC.”

Richards joined the FTC in 2006 after 23 years with the FCC. As Deputy Director, she has worked on a broad range of matters, including identity theft prevention, fraudulent marketing practices, order enforcement, debt collection and other financial services matters, and implementation of the U.S. SAFE WEB Act.

Engle has served as Associate Director for Advertising Practices since 2002. Since joining the agency in 1990 as a staff attorney in the Division of Advertising Practices, she has been an Assistant to the Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection, an attorney advisor to former Commissioner Roscoe B. Starek III, and Assistant Director of the Divisions of Enforcement and Advertising Practices. In 2000, Engle received the Chairman’s Award for her leadership of the FTC’s Study of the Marketing of Violent Entertainment to Children. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law and Harvard University.

Hippsley has served in her current position since 2001. During her 25 years with the Commission, she also has served as an Assistant Director in the Division of Enforcement and the former Division of Service Industry Practices, and as an Attorney Advisor to former FTC Commissioners Dennis A. Yao and Andrew J. Strenio, Jr. In 2004, Hippsley received the Commission’s Louis D. Brandeis Award for Excellence in Litigation. She is a graduate of Lewis and Clark School of Law and Georgetown University.

The Bureau of Consumer Protection enforces consumer protection laws and trade regulation rules, investigates business practices, sues law violators, develops rules to protect consumers, and provides consumer and business education.