AI: From Act to Action

Connor Harrington-Brandt leads on AI and privacy policy at Booking.com’s HQ in Amsterdam, where he can usually be found discussing the merits and burdens of various global AI regulations. Previously, Connor was part of the Data Protection Officer’s team at Meta, focusing on emerging technologies including AR, VR, and AI. While at Meta, Connor was part of the Reality Labs Inclusive Product Counsel that advised on integrity issues for emerging tech products, and worked heavily on issues surrounding content policy and hate speech on RL platforms. Other previous experience includes leading the privacy programme at Bloomsbury Publishing, and working on major research initiatives in university-government partnerships in the UK. Looking forward, Connor advocates for operationalizing tech regulations in safe and responsible manner to improve the online environment for all. 

Elinor Wahal is a Legal and Policy Officer at the European Commission’s AI Office, working in the AI Regulation and Compliance Unit.

As an EU and International AI Governance Expert, Elinor contributes to the European Commission’s Artificial intelligence policy development, its AI regulatory framework, as well as the European Union’s international strategy for AI policy. Prior to joining the European Commission, Elinor was Director at the global business advisory firm FTI Consulting, where she led the activities on European and International AI policy.

Elinor’s experience also includes working with WHO’s digital health team and the OECD. In Paris, she worked on AI and its policy implications at the French National Institute for Research in Digital Science & Technology, and she lectured on Innovation at the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.

Elinor was editor of the collective volume Unboxing AI: Understanding Artificial Intelligence (Fondazione Feltrinelli Editore, 2021), and authored multiple international academic publications on AI and digital policy.

Malte leads Amazon’s advocacy on the EU’s AI policy. This includes Amazon’s engagement on the EU AI Act legislation since its inception. He brings over 13 years of extensive experience working with policymakers and regulators, including senior roles in the telecommunications industry in Germany and Brussels.

Peggy Valcke is Executive Board Member at BIPT, where she leads the Legal Service, HR and NetSec departments. She is also part-time Full Professor of Law & ICT at KU Leuven, co-director of imec-CiTiP and member of Leuven.AI. Her main areas of expertise cover media and communications, data protection and data governance, cybersecurity, and artificial intelligence. She is head of the Belgian delegation in CAI, the Council of Europe’s Committee on AI which prepared and negotiated the Framework Convention on AI, and previously served as Vice-Chair of CAI’s predecessor, CAHAI. She was one of the founding co-directors of the KDM until she joined BIPT in January 2024.

Prof. Pierre Larouche holds the chair of Law and Innovation at Université de Montréal, where he also directs the PhD programme on Innovation, Science, Technology and Law.

A graduate of McGill University, Bonn University and Maastricht University and a law clerk at the Supreme Court of Canada, Pierre Larouche was Professor of Competition Law at Tilburg University (Netherlands) from 2002 to 2017. There he founded and directed the Tilburg Law and Economics Center (TILEC), one of the largest research centres on economic governance. He also conceived and launched the Bachelor Global Law, an innovative law degree inspired by his meta-comparative and inter-disciplinary method. In his capacity as Associate Dean, he led the LL.B. reform at Université de Montréal. Pierre Larouche also taught at the College of Europe (Bruges) (2004-2016), and he has been a guest professor or scholar at McGill University (2002), National University of Singapore (2004, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2013), Northwestern University (2009-2010, 2016-2017), Sciences Po (2012), the University of Pennsylvania (2015) and the Inter-Disciplinary Center (IDC, 2016).

Pierre Larouche’s research centers around economic governance, and in particular how law and regulation struggle to deal with complex phenomena such as innovation. An expert in competition law and civil liability, his works have been cited by the European Court of Justice and the UK Supreme Court, and they have influenced EU policy on electronic communications, competition and standardisation.

Daniel Schnurr is a CERRE Research Fellow and a Professor of Information Systems at the University of Regensburg, where he holds the Chair of Machine Learning and Uncertainty Quantification.

Previously, he led the Data Policies research group at the University of Passau. He received his Ph.D. in Information Systems from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in 2016, where he also completed his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Information Engineering and Management. Daniel Schnurr has published in leading journals in Information Systems and Economics on competition and data sharing in digital markets, regulation of data-driven market power, and competition and cooperation in telecommunications markets.

His current research focuses on the role of artificial intelligence in competition, privacy and data sharing in digital markets as well as regulation of AI, cloud computing and the data economy.

As the CERRE Director of Research, Zach Meyers has a wide remit, including managing our cross-sectoral programmes and projects.

Previously the assistant director of the Centre on European Reform, Zach Meyers has a recognised expertise in economic regulation and network industries such as telecoms, energy, payments, financial services and airports. In addition to advising in the private sector, with more than ten years’ experience as a competition and regulatory lawyer, he has consulted to several governments, regulators and multilateral institutions on competition reforms in regulated sectors. He is also a regular contributor to media.

Zach holds a BA, LLB and a Master of Public & International Law from the University of Melbourne.