Wiggins will head up the College Station office, one of three expansions for the provider of economic and financial consulting services. Wiggins has served as the George and Mary Jordan professor of economics and public policy and university scholar at Texas A&M. Charles River also is setting up an office in Salt Lake City.

In line with office openings, Charles River has acquired an Oakland-Berkley, CA-based consulting business owned by a University of California-Berkley professor. The acquisition adds three senior academic consultants, vice president and consultants in other areas as Charles River continues to secure pacts with other staff members.

"This acquisition is a strategic complement to our existing core practice areas," says Phil Cooper, CRA's vice president of corporate development. The strategy is setting the stage to "aggressively pursue additional growth opportunities in the West and Midwest," says Cooper.The firm's westward expansion comes two months after Charles River had opened a London office, staffed by 18 consultants.