Perhaps the best moment I had while working at the FTC had nothing to do with substance but, rather, people. I was about half-way through my stint as a long-term advisor to Indecopi, the FTC’s counterpart in Peru. The Fourth of July was coming up, bringing with it lots of thoughts of the good old US of A, and I was feeling pretty homesick right about then. Sensing this, some of the wonderful people in San Francisco arranged a conference call to me in Peru, assembling the entire office to cheer me up with kind words of encouragement. I always felt that my co-workers were there for me in San Francisco, but never more than at that moment. Everyone should be so lucky as to work in such an office.

—Jan Charter