Professor Simon Wilkie is Professor and Chair, Department of Economics, University of Southern California, Executive Director of the USC Center for Communications Law and Policy. Previously he held the positions of Assistant Professor of Economics at Caltech and was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Communications Research. He received his Ph.D. (1990) and M.A. (1987) in Economics from the University of Rochester. He received a Bachelor of Commerce, Honors (1984), in Economics from the University of New South Wales.

His research focuses on game theory its application to, business strategy, economic and regulatory policy design, and the economics of the communications industries. It has been widely published in the leading scholarly journals including; Economic Theory, The Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Regulatory Economics, The Review of Economic Studies, and Social Choice and Welfare. He currently serves on the editorial board of The Journal of Public Economic Theory and The International Journal of Communications.

He served as Chief Economist at the Federal Communications Commission from July 2002 to December 2003, reporting directly to Chairman Michael Powell. As Chief Economist his responsibilities included advising the Chairman and the Commissioners, the oversight of the FCC staff economic analysis, and managing interdisciplinary teams of economists, lawyers and engineers. The major proceedings during his tenure include; the Triennial Review of wireline competition policy, the Biennial Review of media ownership regulations, the regulatory framework for broadband, the creation of secondary markets for trading spectrum licenses, and the EchoStar/Hughes (DirecTV) merger transaction, the ATT Broadband/Comcast merger, and News Corp's acquisition of a controlling interest in Hughes (DirecTV).