Zenon Zabinski, PhD

Zenon Zabinski is an economist specializing in analysis of competition and antitrust issues in complex settings. He has over ten years of experience applying a broad range of economic tools and empirical methods to assess competitive effects of horizontal and vertical mergers, single-firm conduct, and collusion in a variety of industries, including financial services, healthcare, media, software, tech, and telecom. With a particular focus on the healthcare industry, he has worked on merger and monopolization matters involving payers, providers, and pharmacy benefit managers.

Dr. Zabinski has assisted clients at all stages of merger review, including preliminary antitrust risk assessment, regulatory submissions, presentations to government agencies, and litigation. He has supported expert economic analysis and testimony on behalf of both private parties and government agencies, including the Department of Justice, the Federal Trade Commission, and state attorneys general, in recent high-profile investigations and litigation. In addition, he has provided economic consulting services informing client strategy and public policy decisions.

Dr. Zabinski has published on topics related to antitrust, healthcare economics, and public policy in the Journal of Health Economics, American Journal of Health Economics, Antitrust Law Journal, and CPI Antitrust Chronicle, and his research has been featured by the New York Times. Prior to his graduate studies, he worked in the semiconductor industry, providing software tool development and engineering consulting services to leading firms in Silicon Valley.

PhD, Economics, Northwestern University

MA, Economics, Northwestern University

BS, Computer Engineering, Santa Clara University

Agriculture

• On behalf of Dairy Farmers of America (DFA), supported expert presentations and submissions to the US Department of Justice and New York Attorney General’s office analyzing potential competitive effects of DFA’s proposed acquisition of the Dean Foods Company.

Defense contracting

• Supported the testifying expert in an arbitration matter before the International Chamber of Commerce between an executive and his former employer, which alleged that the former executive violated certain non-compete provisions of his employment contract.

Financial services

• On behalf of Willis Towers Watson (WTW), assisted in all stages of merger review in connection with the $30 billion proposed merger between Aon and WTW.

Healthcare

• On behalf of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS), co-authored study analyzing how CalPERS can structure its member health benefit to reduce the cost of its offering while maintaining access to quality care.
• On behalf of UnitedHealth’s health services subsidiary Optum in its acquisitions of DaVita Medical Group and The Polyclinic, supported expert presentations and submissions to the Federal Trade Commission and several state attorney general offices addressing potential competitive concerns.
• On behalf of Express Scripts, co-led the team analyzing potential competitive effects of its proposed merger with Cigna in the markets for pharmacy benefit management services and Medicare Part D insurance.
• On behalf of Humana, supported economic experts in analyzing likely competitive effects of its proposed $37 billion merger with Aetna in the sale of Medicare Advantage insurance plans.
• Supported the Federal Trade Commission’s testifying expert in its challenge of Cabell Huntington Hospital’s acquisition of St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, WV.

Media

• Assisted US Department of Justice’s experts in its investigation of Sinclair Broadcast Group’s proposed $3.9 billion deal to acquire Tribune Media.
• Supported testifying expert in cases against Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League for monopolization of television and internet broadcast rights to live sporting events.

Software

• On behalf of CDK Global in Loop LLC v. CDK Global, LLC, supported testifying expert in analyzing allegations of collusive conduct in the car dealer management system industry.
• On behalf of Veeva Systems, led team supporting testifying expert in Veeva Systems Inc. v. IQVIA Inc., concerning the monopolization of data and data management software for pharmaceutical companies.

Tech

• On behalf of the Federal Trade Commission, supported the expert in analyzing the proposed $70 billion merger between Microsoft and video game publisher Activision Blizzard.
• Led team supporting the Federal Trade Commission’s expert in analyzing the proposed $40 billion semiconductor chip merger between Nvidia and Arm Ltd.

Telecom

• On behalf of a coalition of state attorneys general, supported testifying experts in the states’ challenge of the merger of T-Mobile and Sprint.