Russell Mangum was heading into a career in police work, but instead found his stride as an economist giving expert testimony in high-profile cases of intellectual property infringement and anti-trust litigation. His clients and cases have included companies as diverse as Microsoft, 怪物能源, 墨西哥辣椒和海上鸡肉.
“I very much like that I get to look into so many markets, products and issues,曼格姆说。. “Every six months I’m doing something completely different than before.”
But early in his career, he thought he would be dealing with perps of a different kind. As an undergraduate he took a part-time job as a police cadet at the Newport Beach police department.
“I liked the exposure to civic life, and over time I gained this desire to be a policeman,他说.
Mangum eventually became a policeman, for Huntington Beach. That career lasted only eight months because once on the streets, Mangum realized “I was miserable in that setting. The toughness you had to have toward the public — I was unprepared for how you had to treat people when they might be trying to hurt you or your partner. It didn’t click with me and I thought, ‘I don’t want to continue this way.’ My interest in police work was much too academic. 我喜欢法律和正义方面的内容.”
他离开了这个行业, finished his economics degree and received a full-ride teaching assistantship to USC, earning his MA and PhD in economics there. 他的第一份工作是在华盛顿特区.C.在美国，他是一名经济学家.S. 联邦贸易委员会. The FTC is a law enforcement branch looking into competition issues like mergers and monopolies. As Mangum watched some colleagues leave the FTC for private firms, he realized he would rather work with clients than continue a career path within the government.
He and wife Tami moved back to California and worked for a series of companies including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Analysis Group and Nathan Associates for whom Mangum opened an office in Irvine. 他现在是该公司的高级副总裁, 进行经济研究和分析, 提供专家证词. Mangum studies competition and market value to help courts and companies protect competition and intellectual property, and quantify damages related to restraints on competition and when intellectual property is infringed.
俄罗斯总是保持镇静...When you see him balancing work with family and activities, it’s encouraging.
A partial list of industries for which Mangum has performed damages analyses reads like a cross-section of the global economy. 这些个案涉及:
- automated stapling machines used in bed manufacturing
- high-rise elevator hardware and control systems
- 商业软件
- padded athletic shirts, pants, shoes and headwear
- 手持设备导航应用
- 半导体
- 脊柱融合植入物
- 乳腺活检装置
- additive-infused糖果
- a new variety of late ripening white grapes
- 个人水上设备
- online dining reservation and payment services
- Internet search engine terms related to sales of food
- motion picture trademarks used on clothing furniture, both mechanized and non-mechanized
- 便携式内燃机
- 婴儿护理用品
- 邮政计量产品
- 香薰蜡烛
- children’s toys design plans for a theme amusement park.
在竞争方面, Mangum also analyzes the magnitude of competition in markets, 市场力量, and the likelihood of monopolization from certain events, and has given expert analysis for the competitive effects of proposed mergers and alleged collusion in industries including supermarkets, 汽车零部件, 有线电视系统和电脑游戏软件.
A recent high-profile case involved alleged price-fixing by the top three sellers of packaged tuna. In the process of evaluating the proposed merger of Chicken of the Sea and Bumble Bee Foods, the federal government found documents giving evidence of collusion to fix prices. All three of the big tuna packagers, including StarKist, admitted guilt. StarKist was fined $100 million, and Bumble Bee $25 million. As the whistleblower, Chicken of the Sea did not receive a fine.
Mangum is acting as an expert economist for tuna purchasers in a civil suit related to the government’s investigation. In the civil suit it is alleged that the companies got together and said, “‘let’s cooperate on when we’re going to raise prices and how much, 同意不给那么多折扣,’”曼格姆说. “This kind of thing happens more than you think, 但是不容易找到, 你很少能通过分析找到它.”
Mangum was hired to help determine whether the alleged conspiracy had had any economic effect. He built a statistical model to evaluate if prices were made higher and if the conspiracy likely worked to limit competition.
“A common way conspiracies are discovered is when someone gets nervous because they’re involved in it,曼格姆说。. “如果你被抓住了, price fixing is one of the few types of business disputes where you can go to jail. There is a federal policy that if you’re the first to come forward, you won’t go to jail. That’s especially attractive if you’re a second-level manager wondering if someone else might tell.”
Mangum turns his extensive analysis of evidence into reports and opinions, 然后在镜头前作证, 宣誓下的正式法律环境. Despite extensive analysis and research, cases usually settle out of court.
Mangum is active in areas other than competition. 例如, he testified on behalf of Chipotle Mexican Grill related to charges of false statements about food product ingredients, and for 怪物能源 Company and Disney Resorts, 分别, in trademark and copyright infringement cases.
“In my analysis I get access to top-level company individuals — CEOs, executive vice presidents — people who rarely deal with the public,他说. “It’s a pleasure to be around them and hear the way they evaluate their business. Economics can be so conceptual and theoretical that it’s refreshing to talk to someone who is the ultimate pragmatist. Success for them isn’t measured by published articles. It’s measured by the customer who bought what they are selling.”
Mangum enjoys the team-oriented approach at Nathan Associates.
“I get to work with smart people who are trained in economics and are very good at what they do,曼格姆说。. “That’s the great thing about it, the cooperative team environment.”
Eric Matolo is a vice president at Nathan Associate and has been a colleague of Mangum’s and part of his support staff for more than twelve years.
“Russ is a great person to learn from,马托洛说。. “He creates a very collaborative environment and encourages meaningful contributions from anyone, 不管你的头衔或职位如何. 你不会觉得被拉斯束缚住了. 如果你有想法和方法来贡献, it’s very much encouraged and you feel comfortable doing so. It has been a great place to learn and grow for me and for others.”
考虑到他们的工作性质和时间, 压力很容易就来了, but “Russ has done a good job of minimizing the intensity of the work environment,马托洛说。. “这项工作将会是它的样子, but as the leader and founder of this office, 俄罗斯总是保持镇静. That spreads to the support staff and the rest of the office. 这有助于保持平衡. When you see him balancing work with family and activities, it’s encouraging.”
在他职业生涯的早期, 在联邦贸易委员会任职期间, Mangum taught as an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s D.C. campus and discovered a love for teaching. But when he connected with Concordia in 2013 through professor Stephen Christensen, 在查经课上认识曼格姆爸爸的人, he was not looking for a full-time teaching post.
“Concordia had added an economics degree and didn’t have a PhD economist on staff,他说. “I wasn’t looking to teach full-time at that point, but it fit well.”
今天, Mangum teaches a full load of courses as an associate professor 在欧文的康考迪亚大学's School of Business and Economics.
他说:“加进来的. Mangum and his expertise and experience to our economics faculty has been a great addition to our growing economics programs,他的同事乔治. Wright in the School of Business and Economics.
Mangum brings stories of cases he is working on into the classroom, and invites students to trials where he is giving expert testimony exposing students to the many different vocational opportunities for economics majors and business majors with the just-introduced business economics emphasis.
“I enjoy the process of helping someone understand,曼格姆说。. “I love the critical thinking approach of economics, and learning there are systems behind it. I love teaching the students and seeing the light bulbs come on.”
较小的校园环境, relative to USC where he taught as an adjunct instructor, gives him the chance to develop relationships with students.
“南加州大学, I had a 300-student class and rarely saw a student more than once in their college career,他说.
Mangum himself is again a student as well, having enrolled in an apologetics master’s degree at a Christian university, 在他做的所有事情之上.
I very much like that I get to look into so many markets, products and issues. Every six months I’m doing something completely different than before.
“介于经济学之间。, 批判性思维和我的信仰, I have this drive that much more can be done in churches with critical thinking and apologetics,他说. “I want to become more knowledgeable and maybe more involved in adult education at my church.”
Being a student again is refining the way he teaches his own online class for 欧文康考迪亚大学.
“I’m seeing different ways to do discussion boards and things,他说. “这对我来说是一个惊喜.”
Russ is preparing to run his ninth marathon this fall, and in the last year embraced surfing.
“I was taking my daughter to a surf event with some church interns and it clicked with me,他说. “I like the outdoors and getting into that environment.”
曼格姆和塔米, his high school sweetheart and wife of 32 years, 经常和他们的三个女儿一起旅行, who all attend or have graduated from Crean Lutheran High School. As a family they have been on missions trips to places like Ukraine, 印度, 尼泊尔, 坦桑尼亚, 菲律宾和墨西哥. For the past three summers they have taught English at a Christian camp in Ukraine.
“我们只是喜欢走出自己的文化, to see the way that people live that’s not the American way,拉斯说. “You realize that Jesus Christ is absolutely the same. The differences are just human and cultural. 这是一个令人欣慰的事实.”