Robert Weissman has been named the new president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, stepping into the shoes that were long worn by Joan Claybrook, who announced her departure in December 2008.

Weissman, 43, has been the long-time director of corporate accountability for the citizens' action group Essential Action, editor of Multinational Monitor, a magazine the covers corporate actors worldwide, and an attorney for the Center for Study of Responsive Law.

Weissman's top priorities are climate change, health care reform, financial regulation and campaign finance reform.

"Public Citizen will do everything it has done so well for nearly 40 years - and more," Weissman said in a statement. "We will invest more in organizing people, both virtually and through traditional, on-the-ground means. I am proud to follow in the footsteps of Public Citizen's first president and founder Ralph Nader and Joan Claybrook."

(Photo of Weissman provided by Public Citizen)