Dr. Ankum is a founding partner of QSI and serves as Senior Vice President and is the firm's Chief Economist. Dr. Ankum is a practicing economist and consultant specializing in both domestic and international telecommunications issues. Dr. Ankum also practices in QSI's international transfer pricing group. Before co-founding QSI, Dr. Ankum worked directly with a number of the country's largest communications clients in his own practice. Prior to that he served as Senior Economist for MCI Telecommunications Corporation's Public Policy Division, and before that as a Manager in the Regulatory and External Affairs Division of Teleport Communications Group, Inc. (later purchased by AT&T). In his capacity with both MCI and TCG, Dr. Ankum provided expert testimony regarding the economics of telecommunications and public policy in contested proceedings across the country. Dr. Ankum specializes in competitive telephony issues pertaining to removing barriers to entry in local telecommunications markets. Dr. Ankum began his career in telecommunications with the Texas Public Utility Commission, where he served as the Commission Staff's Chief Telecommunications Economist before leaving in 1994.

Dr. Ankum received a PhD in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, a M.A. in Economics from the University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in Economics from Quincy College in Illinois.