Ekaterina Rousseva: Ekaterina Rousseva is a member of the Legal Service of the European Commission since 2022. Before that she served as a case-handler and then as a policy coordinator at the Directorate General for Competition at the European Commission. Before joining the European Commission, she practiced law in Bulgaria. She holds a PhD from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy. She has authored the monograph “Rethinking Exclusionary Abuses in EU competition law” (Hart 2010) and is a co-author and editor of “EU Antitrust Procedure” (Oxford, 2020). She is a visiting lecturer in competition law since 2011. Ekaterina is a founder and president of the Bulgarian competition law association and a member of the executive committee of the Global competition law centre.
Assimakis Komninos: Assimakis Komninos is a Partner at the Brussels office of White & Case LLP, a member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC) at the College of Europe and a visiting professor at Panthéon-Assas University Paris II. He acts in landmark cases before the EU Courts. His highlights include representing Google in the Android and Heureka cases, Amazon in the Italian carve-out case (BuyBox), CCIA in Google Shopping, Bulgarian Energy Holding in BEH and being part of the Microsoft litigation team (2004-2009). He was a Commissioner and Member of the Board of the Hellenic Competition Commission (HCC) between 2009 and 2011.
Denis Waelbroeck: Denis has been a lawyer specialising in EU competition law fir 45 years. He is a partner at Ashurst LLP and a professor in EU competition law at the ULB
Pablo Ibanez Colomo: Pablo Ibáñez Colomo is Professor of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is also an Ordinary Member at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and one of the Joint General Editors of the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice (Oxford University Press). He received a PhD from the European University Institute in June 2010 (Jacques Lassier Prize). Before joining the EUI as a Researcher in 2007, he taught for three years at the Law Department of the College of Europe (Bruges), where he also completed an LLM in 2004.
Jorge Padilla: Dr Padilla earned M. Phil and D. Phil degrees in Economics from the University of Oxford. He is Research Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Monetarios y Financieros (CEMFI, Madrid), teaches competition economics at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE) and Senior Fellow of the GW Competition & Innovation Lab at George Washington University. He has given expert testimony before the competition authorities and courts of several EU member states, as well as in cases before the European Commission. Dr Padilla has submitted written testimony to the European General Court, in cartel, merger control and abuse of dominance cases. He has also given expert testimony in various civil litigation (damages), international arbitration, and competition cases in non-EU jurisdictions (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, India, Israel, Jamaica, Japan, Korea, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States). Dr Padilla has written numerous papers on competition policy, industrial organization, intellectual property and finance in the Antitrust Bulletin, the Antitrust Law Journal, Economics Letters, the Economic Journal, the Energy Journal, the European Competition Journal, the European Competition Law Review, the Fordham International Law Journal, Industrial and Corporate Change, the International Journal of Industrial Organization, the Journal of Competition Law and Economics, the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Harvard Journal of law and Technology, Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law, the Journal of Industrial Economics, the Journal of Economic Theory, the RAND Journal of Economics, the Review of Financial Studies, the University of Chicago Law Review, and World Competition, among others. Member of the Board of Trustees of the Fide Foundation, Fundación Dadóris and Fundación Jorge Padilla Blanco. He is also co-author of The Law and Economics of Article 102 TFEU, 3rd edition, Hart Publishing, 2020.
Fernando Castillo de la Torre: Director (Principal Legal Adviser) for Competition and Mergers in the Legal Service of the European Commission, since August 2020. He has been working in the Legal Service since 1996 in the teams for internal market (1996-1997), competition (2002-2010), external relations (2010-2017), and agriculture, fisheries and animal and plant health (2017-2021). He studied both law and political science in Madrid (Spain), graduating in 1989 and 1990 respectively, and undertook postgraduate studies at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium) (1990-1991). He has worked in the chambers of the President of the European Court of Justice between 1997 and 2002. He has been agent for the European Commission in more than 450 cases in the European Court of Justice, most of them in the area of competition law. He has pleaded on behalf the European Commission in many of the most high profile EU competition cases over the last 20 years. He has published widely on competition law, but also on judicial review and litigation in EU Courts, the relationship between legal orders (international, EU and national), the EU internal market and the external relations of the EU.
Vanessa Turner: Vanessa is Senior Advisor - Competition at The European Consumer Organisation, BEUC. BEUC represents 45 independent national consumer associations from 31 European countries. The primary task of BEUC is to act as a strong consumer voice in Brussels and to ensure that consumer interests are given their proper weight in all EU policies. Within BEUC, Vanessa focusses on ensuring that consumer interests are taken into account in European competition policy and key enforcement cases, in particular in Digital Markets and Sustainability. Since September 2020 Vanessa also acts as a non-governmental advisor to the International Competition Network for the European Commission. Prior to joining BEUC, Vanessa was a Partner in the Competition Practice of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer and Allen & Overy in Brussels (as well as in London and Düsseldorf). In between these roles, she was a Member of the Cabinet of the Commissioner for Competition Policy at the European Commission (responsible for mergers and antitrust cases and policy), Special Advisor to the US FTC in Washington DC, and General Counsel, Company Secretary and Executive Vice President at Visa Europe. She can be contacted at vanessa.turner@beuc.eu
Bettina James: Bettina James is a German-Nigerian law student currently enrolled in the LL.M. program in European Legal Studies at the College of Europe. Bettina also serves as the Student Representative for the Law Department. Bettina graduated from the University of Münster. During her law studies, she received a certificate in common law. She spent a year in France at the Université de Lyon Lumière 2, further expanding her understanding of legal principles and practices across various jurisdictions. Since 2018, she has been a member of the University of Münster Law Clinic. Bettina gained practical experience through her internships in the Competition and Antitrust Law Practice Group at Baker McKenzie’s Brussels office, where she was involved in cartels, abuse of dominance, merger control, and FSR cases. Bettina has also acquired practical knowledge in EU and US Migration and Asylum Law. She participated in a student exchange program at Columbia Law School, where she conducted Pro-Bono legal research on Family Reunification and Refugee Travel Documents on behalf of the NGO IRAP. In the upcoming fall, Bettina is set to embark on a new chapter in her academic journey. She will pursue an LL.M. degree focusing on US Competition Law and Intellectual Property Law at Duke Law School. Following graduation, she plans to undertake the New York Bar Exam.
Jacques Derenne: Jacques Derenne is Head of EU Competition & Regulatory, of Sheppard Mullin. He is a member of the Brussels and Paris Bars. He has over 35 years of EU competition law experience across all areas, including mergers, cartels, abuses of dominance and State aid, as well as extensive experience in EU regulatory and related competition law issues in a variety of regulated sectors (such as energy, transport, postal services, telecoms, automotive). He regularly appears at competition hearings before the European Commission, and pleads cases before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, national competition authorities, and the Belgian and French courts. Jacques Derenne is also a professor at the University of Liège and at the Brussels School of Competition, teaching State aid law. He is a founding member of the Global Competition Law Centre (College of Europe, Scientific Council and Executive Committee). He graduated from the University of Liège (Belgium, 1987) and from the College of Europe (Bruges, 1988).
Luc Gyselen: Since 2022, Luc Gyselen is a senior counsel at Arnold & Porter LLP, the US law firm he joined as a partner in 2004. Before moving to private practice, he spent over 20 years ‘on the other side of the fence’. Between 1990 and 2004, he held senior positions at the European Commission’s DG for Competition – first as assistant to director general Ehlermann, then as head of unit for financial services and subsequently as head of unit for pharmaceuticals, food and agriculture. In that capacity he handled several high profile abuse of dominance cases. Prior to joining DG COMP, he clerked for judge Joliet at the Court of Justice (1987-1990). Before he was a member of the Commission’s Legal Service (competition team). He started his career as an EU official at the European Parliament. He graduated from the K.U.Leuven (lic. law and bac. philosophy) and holds LL.M degrees from the College of Europe, where he was also a teaching assistant, and from Harvard Law School. During his career, he has been teaching one or more years at the law faculties of Fordham, Leiden, Nijmegen, K.U.Leuven and the ULiège where he has been a maître de conférences since 2008. Over the years, he has also published a significant number of articles on various topics of EU competition law, including on abuse of dominance.
Deni Mantzari: Deni Mantzari: Dr. Despoina (Deni) Mantzari joined the UCL Faculty of Laws in September 2018 as a Lecturer in Competition Law and Policy and was promoted to Associate Professor in October 2020. Prior to joining UCL, she was a Lecturer at the University of Reading School of Law (2014-2018). Prior to joining UCL, she was a Lecturer at the University of Reading School of Law and Programme Director of the LLM in International Commercial Law (2014-2018). Deni holds a PhD from UCL (AHRC doctoral scholarship), an LL.M in European Union Law (distinction) from UCL and a law degree from the National University of Athens, Greece. Deni is co-Director of the Centre for Law, Economics and Society at UCL, an associate fellow of the Centre of Competition Policy at the University of East Anglia and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Academy. Deni is book review editor for the journal World Competition - Law and Economics Review (Kluwer Law), an associate editor for the Journal of Competition Law and Economics (OUP) and sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (OUP). She is also joint-Editor of Current Legal Problems. Since 2016, Deni is General Editor for the 'Competition Law of the European Union' treatise published by LexisNexis, succeeding the leading Competition Law Professor, Valentine Korah. Deni's monograph entitled: "Courts, Regulators and the Scrutiny of Economic Evidence - Comparative Perspectives" was published by Oxford University Press in September 2022.
Sir Philip Lowe: Sir Philip Lowe is a partner and member of the Governing Board of Oxera Consulting, and is based in Brussels. He obtained an M.A in Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St John's College, Oxford and has an M.Sc. from London Business School. Following a period in manufacturing industry, he joined the European Commission in 1973. After serving in a number of senior posts, he was appointed Director-General for Development in 1997. In this role he was chief negotiator of the first EU-South Africa Trade and Cooperation Agreement and of the Cotonou Agreement with ACP countries. From September 2002 until February 2010, he was Director-General for Competition. During his tenure in competition, he oversaw all the Commission’s merger, antitrust and state aid work, and was personally involved in most major investigations, including those leading to decisions against Microsoft and Intel and to state aid approvals for the restructuring of European banks during the 2007-2009 financial crisis. From February 2010 he was Director-General for Energy, until he retired from the European Commission on 1st January 2014. From October 2013 until January 2016, he served as a non-executive director of the UK Competition and Markets Authority. In addition to his work with Oxera, he is Chair of the Florence University Institute Competition Law Workshop, and Chair of the World Energy Council’s Trilemma Initiative.
Álvaro Salgado: Álvaro Salgado Carranza is an LLM student at the College of Europe Law Department. He holds a Dual Bachelor’s Degree in Law and International Studies from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, having additionally attended both University College London and University of Sydney during his undergraduate studies. Currently, he serves as CoChair of the College’s student-led think tank and policy-lab, the Bruges Student’s Institute for the Future of Europe. Throughout his early professional career, he has worked in the EU Antitrust and Competition Law Departments of Uría Menéndez’s Brussels office and Baker McKenzie’s Madrid office, partaking in merger control, FSR and exclusionary abuse cases. He has been part of the Editor’s Team of EU Law Live, where he helped coordinate the (then) recently born Competition Corner. Furthermore, he has also accumulated insights from other industries and practices. He was an intern at the Cabinet of the Secretary of State for EU in the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in Harmon Corporate Affairs, a leading Spanish Public Affairs firm. He also worked at the HQ of the Investigations and Internal Audit Unit of UNICEF in New York.
Bernd Meyring: Bernd Meyring is a senior competition lawyer at Linklaters LLP. He practices European and global competition law, with a particular focus on merger control, cartels and unilateral conduct cases. He has extensively litigated in the European Court of Justice, where he has represented clients in well over 130 cases in matters relating to competition law, financial regulation, environmental law and access to documents. He is a professor at the College of Europe and the president of the College’s Global Competition law centre.
Liza Gormsen: Liza is a Director at Forward Global. In addition, she is a Senior Research Fellow at the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and is Chair of the Competition Law Forum’s Advisory Board. Until recently, she was a Senior Advisor to CEO Nikhil Rathi and the Board of the Financial Conduct Authority. Previously, she served as a lawyer at the Office of Fair Trading (now the CMA) and the World Bank. She obtained a PhD in Competition Law, supervised by Professor Richard Whish KC, and an M.A. in European Law both at King's College London. She is the author of A Principle Approach to Abuse of Dominance (CUP, 2010) and State Aid and Tax Rulings (EE, 2019). She has published widely in national and international peer-review journals and regularly addresses audiences at select committees before the House of Commons and House of Lords. She is a Board Member of the Open Markets Institute in Washington DC and is a non-governmental Advisor to the ICN, appointed by the CMA. She sits on the advisory board of the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement (OUP). Liza is currently the claimant in Dr. Liza Lovdahl Gormsen v Meta Platforms INC and others before the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
Luc Peeperkorn: Professor at the Brussels School of Competition. Previously Principal Advisor Antitrust Policy at DG COMP. Studied economics and political science at the University of Amsterdam and worked as an assistant professor at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. Joined in 1991 the European Commission, DG Competition. Was a central figure in various teams which created what is now called the effects-based approach in EU competition policy, in particular by making new rules for supply and distribution agreements, for de minimis agreements and for technology transfer agreements. Also co-authored the Discussion Paper on the Application of Article 102 and the Guidance on the Commission’s enforcement priorities in applying Article 102. Was a Senior Emile Noël Fellow at the Jean Monnet Center at NYU and professor at the College of Europe in Natolin. Luc has published on topics such as EU competition policy towards vertical agreements, resale price maintenance, abuse of dominance, the usefulness of price-cost tests, competition and innovation and competition and sustainability.
Linsey McCallum: Linsey McCallum is Deputy Director-General for Antitrust in the Directorate-General for Competition as of 1 October 2020 and also responsible for Regulation of Digital Platforms since 16 January 2023. She joined the Commission in 1993 from private practice, initially as a trade negotiator during the Uruguay Round. After joining DG COMP in 1995, she held a series of antitrust and merger case-handling and policy posts. From 1999-2002, she was a member of cabinet of Vice-President Kinnock before rejoining DG COMP as the assistant to the Director General for antitrust and mergers. From 2005-2011 she was Head of Unit for antitrust in transport. As of 2011, she was Head of Unit for mergers in digital sectors before her appointment as Director for technology, media and telecoms in 2013. As of 2014, she served as Margrethe Vestager’s Deputy Head of Cabinet with oversight of the competition portfolio. Linsey McCallum graduated with a first class degree in law from the University of Glasgow and holds a master degree in EU law from the College of Europe in Bruges.
Kristian Kues: Kristian Kues is currently a student at the College of Europe, where he is enrolled in the European Legal Studies programme (LL.M.). Within this programme, he is focusing on issues arising at the intersection of competition law and digital regulation. As part of his legal clerkship, Kristian worked as a trainee at the European Commission (DG COMP), where he gained insight into antitrust enforcement. He has worked in data and antitrust law at international law firms. As a German-qualified lawyer Kristian studied law at the University of Münster, where he worked as a student assistant at the chair of Prof. Holznagel (Internet, Telecommunications and Media Law). Throughout his studies, he has explored different legal systems. This included obtaining a certificate in common law and a semester abroad at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, Colombia. He also gained practical experience through internships at Fox Entertainment Group and the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He is a member of recode.law, a German non-profit initiative that aims to promote the debate about the future of the legal profession, in particular legal tech, and to equip students and young professionals with the necessary skills.
Adina Claici: Adina Claici is director of GCLC. She is a competition economics expert whose background combines consulting experience, academia, and nearly a decade in the Chief Economist Team of DG Competition. Adina specializes in mergers, antitrust, and state aid cases. She also provides clients with insights on competition policy developments in the EU. She is a frequent speaker at conferences and seminars, and has been named one of the top competition economists by Who’s Who Legal. She has been published in numerous academic journals and has authored several book chapters in the areas of state aid and the digital revolution. In addition to her consulting work, Dr. Claici is currently a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Barcelona School of Economics and Universidad Carlos III in Madrid.
Magali Eben: Dr Magali Eben is Senior Lecturer in Competition Law at the University of Glasgow, where she directs the LLM in International Competition Law and Policy and teaches UK and EU competition law and US antitrust law. Magali is Vice President of ASCOLA (the Academic Society for Competition Law). Magali is also Deputy Director of CREATe, Centre for Regulation of the Creative Economy (create.ac.uk). Her current research has three focuses: 1) market definition and power, particularly in digital markets; 2) principles of unilateral conduct rules (in digital markets and in terms of international divergences); and 3) competition and innovation in creative industries. A selection of her publications is available on her university profile: https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/law/staff/magalieben/#publications
Magali’s work on market definition started with her PhD thesis on product market definition for digital markets at the University of Leeds, and continues with her ongoing work for a book on market definition in digital markets. Those interested in market definition’s rationale in competition law can read her 2021 article in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics (entitled ‘The antitrust market does not exist’). An open access copy of the article is available here: https://eprints.gla.ac.uk/232899/
Mike Walker: Dr. Mike Walker has been the Chief Economic Adviser at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) since September 2013. His previous roles include being Vice President at Charles River Associates in London and Brussels, Director of Competition Policy at London Economics, a Senior Regulatory Economist with British Telecom and a Senior Associate at Lexecon Ltd. in London and Brussels. He is the co-author of The Economics of EU Competition Law (Sweet & Maxwell, third edition, 2009) and a number of published articles. He is a Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and a Visiting Fellow at Kings College, London.
Thomas Buettner: Thomas Buettner is a case manager at the Chief Economist Team (CET) of DG Competition of the European Commission. He joined the CET in 2012. Since last year, he is one of two coordinators of the CET’s work on antitrust. In the past he coordinated the CET’s work on merger control cases for 5 years. He also has experience in policy projects. In particular, he contributed to the recently adopted revised market definition notice. Prior to joining the European Commission, he was an economic consultant on competition policy cases with CRA International between 2004 and 2011. He holds a PhD in industrial economics from the London School of Economics.
Clara Chambrey: Clara Chambrey is pursuing her LL.M in European Law at the College of Europe where she specializes in competition and trade law. After obtaining her Dual bachelor’s degree in law from Université Panthéon-Assas in Paris, Clara gained a master’s degree in European market law from the same university and was an affiliated student at Queen Mary University in London. In her professional endeavours, she has worked as a legal trainee in the European Court of Justice, in the cabinet of former President of the General Court, Judge Jaëger, and in several law firms in Paris. Clara represented Panthéon-Assas as Defense Pleader in the European Law Moot Court competition, served as Secretary General of the Association of her Master’s degree, and is currently contributing as a Rapporteur in the College of Europe ThinkTank's working group on Economic Governance. Deeply interested in competition law and economic European policies, she is drafting a thesis on the geopolitical use of EU’s trade remedies.
Damien Gerard: Damien Gerard joined the Belgian Competition Authority as Prosecutor General on the 1st of December 2021. Beforehand, he worked as an official in the Directorate-general for Competition of the European Commission (DG COMP) and practiced EU and Belgian competition law for more than ten years in the Brussels office of an international law firm. Damien Gerard teaches EU Competition Law at UCLouvain, where he was also a researcher at the Center for International and European Law (CeDIE) for a number of years, as well as at the College of Europe, where he was the director of the Global Competition Law Center (GCLC) from 2014 to 2019. An honorary member of the Brussels Bar and member of the New York Bar, Damien Gerard is a graduate of UCLouvain (J.D., 2000 and Ph.D, 2014), of New York University School of Law (LL.M, 2003) and of the College of Europe (M.A., 2001). He also attended Harvard Law School as Fulbright-Schuman Visiting Research Scholar (IGLP, 2010) and the European University Institute as Max Weber Fellow (EUI, 2015). Damien Gerard clerked for Judge Koen Lenaerts of the European Court of Justice in 2003-2004.
Fabien Zivy: Fabien Zivy studied law and politics at the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and the Universities of Oxford (Keble College) and Paris (Panthéon-Assas), as well as at the College of Europe (Bruges) where he graduated magna cum laude in 2000. After joining the European competition practice of Linklaters in Brussels (2000), he became a Legal Secretary of Judge Hubert Legal, President of the 4th Chamber of the Court of First Instance of the European Union (2003). In 2007, he was appointed to the newly created position of Chief of Staff of the President of the French Competition Council. As such, he oversaw EU and international affairs, as well as of preparing the 2008/2009 legislative reform of the French competition framework, which led to the creation of a unified Competition Authority in charge of antitrust enforcement, merger review and competition advocacy. He also played a key role in the modernization of the new agency’s antitrust policy and in the drafting of its guidelines on fines, settlements and compliance. In 2011, he took over the job of Director of the Legal Service, which involved supporting the agency’s Board in the drafting of fining decisions and defending them before the Paris Court of Appeals and Supreme Courts (Cour de cassation and Conseil d’Etat). He has returned to his home jurisdiction, the European General Court in 2014 as Legal Secretary of Judge S. Papasavvas, President of the 3rd Chamber.
Krystyna Kowalik-Banczyk: Krystyna Kowalik-Bańczyk, PhD, is a Polish judge at the General Court of the European Union and has been serving as President of the court’s seventh chamber since 2022. In addition, Krystyna is associate professor of European Law and Competition Law at the Institute of Law Studies, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw. Prior to her appointment as a judge at the General Court in 2016, Krystyna worked as a professor in Poland (at, the Polish Academy of Sciences, the University of Warsaw and Gdańsk University of Technology). She has been a vising professor in France (at the Paris 2 Panthéon-Assas University and the University of Nice Sophia Antipolis) and at the University of Luxembourg. She accomplished her post-graduate studies (DEA) in European Union law at the University of Social Sciences in Toulouse (France), and an LLM in European Union Law at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium). She wrote her PhD, awarded by the Polish Academy of Sciences, on the regulation of e-commerce in EU and international law. She obtained her professorship in Poland as a result of her book on the rights of defence in EU antitrust proceedings
Giorgio Monti: Giorgio Monti is Professor of Competition Law at Tilburg Law School. He began his career in the UK (Leicester 1993-2001 and London School of Economics 2001-2010) before taking up the Chair in competition law at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2010-2019). While at the EUI he helped establish the Florence Competition Program which carries out research and training for judges and executives. He also served as Head of the Law Department at the EUI. His principal field of research is competition law, a subject he enjoys tackling from an economic and a policy perspective. Together with Damian Chalmers and Gareth Davies he is a co-author of European Union Law: Text and Materials (4th ed, Cambridge University Press, 2019). He is one of the editors of the Common Market Law Review.
Rodrigo Gonçalves: Rodrigo is an Academic Assistant at the College of Europe. Previously he worked as a lawyer in the field of Competition Law at law firm in Lisbon and as an Assistant Lecturer in the field of civil law at the University of Lisbon. He holds a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Lisbon and an LLM. in European Union Law from the College of Europe his work and research focuses primarily on the field of competition law and regulation.
Ekaterina Rousseva.
Christian Ahlborn: Christian is qualified in England & Wales and in Germany and is widely recognized as a market-leading competition lawyer. Christian studied in Germany and England where he obtained a Bachelor and a Master's in economics as well as an LLM at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Christian advises major corporates, banks and institutions on all areas of global competition law. He has a broad range of experience in EU competition law, particularly in relation to complex M&A, behavioral antitrust work, control of dominance issues and State aid control. He is well-known for extensive work on high-profile matters. Christian’s experience spans many industry sectors, with particular experience in financial services, IT, fast-moving consumer goods and mining. During his career Christian has been seconded to the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition and to the Bundeskartellamt.
Damien Neven: Damien Neven is a Senior Consultant with Compass Lexecon and the Professor of Economics at The Graduate Institute, Geneva. Damien Neven obtained a Master’s degree in Economics and a BA in geography from the University of Louvain and is a distinguished academic economist with a record of publications in applied industrial organization and competition policy. Previously, Dr. Neven was the Chief Economist at DG Competition where he led the expansion of the Chief Economist Team. He was closely involved in several key developments, both in terms of policy and case assessment. These included the adoption of the Guidelines for the Assessment of Non-Horizontal Mergers, the Guidance Paper on the Priorities for the Enforcement of Article 102, and the Guidelines on the Submission and Evaluation of Economic Evidence.
Max Kadar: Massimiliano Kadar is Head of Unit A.4 at the Directorate General for Competition (DG COMP) of the European Commission, leading the team that coordinates the functioning of the European Competition Network and shapes the Commission’s private enforcement policy. Massimiliano is in charge of the Article 102 exclusionary guidelines project and actively involved in the currently ongoing evaluation of Regulation 1/2003. An official at the European Commission since 2011, Massimiliano has a broad experience in antitrust policy and cases in a large variety of sectors, with an emphasis on digital and technology markets. Before joining the Commission, Massimiliano worked in private practice at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and Gianni Origoni Grippo Cappelli & Partners. Massimiliano is a visiting lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin a former visiting lecturer at King’s College London. He has published several articles on competition policy, with a particular emphasis on Article 102 enforcement.
Alfonso Lamadrid: Alfonso Lamadrid is the head of Garrigues’ Brussels office and a member of the EU & Competition practice. He holds a Law Degree from San Pablo CEU University, an LL.M. from the College of Europe and an LL.M. from Harvard University. Alfonso is a member of the Madrid Bar Association, the Brussels Bar Association (List E) and the Spanish Antitrust Association. He has extensive experience in relation to competition investigations, litigation before EU Courts, strategic advice, compliance programs, merger control and the application of State aid rules across a wide variety of sectors. He has participated in some of the most important international competition law cases. He is recognized by all major legal directories as one of the most prominent lawyers in his practice internationally. Alfonso is professor at the College of Europe (Bruges), visiting professor at the Brussels School of Competition (Brussels) and codirector of the EU and Spanish Competition Law Course at the IEB (Madrid) and has lectured at several national and international universities and institutions.
Georgia Theodorakopoulou: Georgia is Academic Assistant at the European Legal Studies Department of the College of Europe (Bruges, Belgium). She is also member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of European Competition Law & Practice (Oxford University Press). In the past, she has worked as Legal Consultant at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate (TAD) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD). She holds an LL.B. and an LL.M. from the Law School of Athens and a Master in European Law from the Institute for European Studies of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
José Rivas: Co-Head of our Bird & Bird’ Competition & EU Group. Over 30 years’ experience in representing leading US, Japanese and European clients across a broad range of industries including aviation, ICT, Sports, Media, Retail and Food & Beverages. Extensive litigation experience before the European Courts in Luxembourg with more than 100 cases, including three in the Grand Chamber of the Court of Justice. Head of a leading US firm’s Brussels office and co-head of the firm’s European competition group before joining Bird & Bird. Editor of World Competition, Law and Economics Journal (Walters Kluwer) and has written extensively on competition law. Visiting professor at the College of Europe (Natolin) from 2001 to 2021 and frequent speaker at conferences and seminars. Member of the Working Groups on Competition and State Aids Law of the European Confederation of Business Associations (Business Europe). Member of the Executive Committee of the Global Competition Law Centre (GCLC).
Alexandre de Streel: Alexandre de Streel is professor of European law at the University of Namur where he chairs the Namur Digital Institute and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. He is also academic director of the digital research programme at the Brussels think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) and member of decision panel at the Belgian Competition Authority. His main research areas are regulation and competition policy in the digital economy (telecommunications, platforms and data) as well as the legal issues raised by the developments of artificial intelligence. Previously, Alexandre held visiting positions at New York University Law School, European University Institute in Florence, Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and the University of Louvain. He also worked for the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union and the European Commission
Rita Wezeenbek: Rita Wezenbeek studied law at the University of Utrecht and is the Director of Platforms Policy and Enforcement in DG CONNECT. The Platforms Directorate is in charge of policies and regulations applicable to online intermediary services, including the supervision of the implementation and enforcement of the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act. Rita joined the European Commission in 2002. Before moving to DG CONNECT in December 2020, she was the head of the units dealing with Anti-Trust and Telecommunications (2017-2020) and Retail Financial Services and Payment Systems (2010-2017) in DG Competition. Before joining the Commission, Rita worked for sixteen years as a private lawyer, specialized in European and corporate law, in a Dutch/ Belgian law firm. She also was a Member of the Commission on European Integration, an independent advisory body on foreign policy to the Dutch government and Parliament.
Inge Graef: Inge Graef is Associate Professor of Competition Law at Tilburg University. She is affiliated to the Tilburg Institute for Law, Technology, and Society (TILT) and the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC). Inge holds expertise in the areas of competition law, platform regulation and the governance of data-driven innovation. She is particularly interested in the interaction of competition law with other legal regimes, such as intellectual property, data protection and consumer law, from a substantive as well as an institutional and enforcement perspective. Inge is appointed as a member of the European Commission’s expert group to the EU Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. Between 2019 and 2021, she co-chaired the Digital Clearinghouse initiative, which aims to facilitate exchange of insights between regulators across Europe and beyond in the areas of competition, data protection and consumer law.
Dimitris Nikolaidis: Dimitrios Nikolaidis is an LL.M. student at the College of Europe. He is a Greek lawyer and holds an LL.M. in International and European Legal Studies from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. His main areas of expertise include competition law and digital regulation. He is a member of the College’s Competition Society. During his early professional career, Dimitrios has worked at Logaras & Associates in Athens, where he gained experience in corporate and intellectual property law. He has also completed an internship at the Common Foreign and Security Policy Unit of the Permanent Representation of Greece to the European Union in Brussels. Throughout his undergraduate studies, he remained an active member of the European Law Students’ Association (ELSA) Greece, holding various roles and contributing to the Association’s academic projects and international events.
The 2024 annual conference of the IBERDROLA Manuel Marín Chair for European Energy and Climate Policy focused on “The future of EU climate and energy policies”. It took place in a hybrid format at the...