Charting a European Path to Competitiveness

Renate Nikolay is now Deputy Director General in DG CNECT. From November 2014 to November 2022, she served as Head of Cabinet of Vĕra Jourová, now Vice-President for Values and Transparency and before Commissioner for Justice and Consumers. Renate Nikolay has been working on matters such as rule of law, media freedom or disinformation. She also played a key role in the adoption of the data protection reform, the negotiations on an EU-US data transfer arrangement, the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor and the Code of Conduct with platforms on online hate speech.

Between 2011 and 2014 she led the Unit of interinstitutional and international relations in DG Justice dealing with legislative files and international negotiations such as the ones with the US on data protection in law enforcement. Prior to that, she was advisor in the Cabinet of the first High Representative / Vice President Cathy Ashton where she led on the relations with the European Parliament in setting up the European External Action Service and on relations with Asia, in particular China. From 2004-2009 she was member of the Cabinet of the Trade Commissioners Peter Mandelson and Baroness Cathy Ashton where she was part of the negotiating team in the trade talks in the multilateral trade round of the World Trade Organisation (the Doha Round) and the EU-South Korea Free Trade Agreement which was finalised in 2009. She started her career in the European Commission in the Directorate General for Trade in November 2003 dealing with the accession negotiations of Vietnam to the World Trade Organisation and the Trade Policy Committee with the Member States.

Prior to that she was a diplomat in the German Permanent Representation in Brussels and worked as private Secretary to the German G7 Sherpa in the German Ministry of Economics. She holds a law degree (Erstes und Zweites Staatsexamen) from the Free University in Berlin and a master as a Fulbright Scholar in Washington DC. She was also an Erasmus Scholar in France/Grenoble.

Tomas Jakimavicius is Director of European Government Affairs within Microsoft’s Corporate, External and Legal Affairs (CELA) group. Based in Brussels, he focuses on Digital Infrastructure, Cloud, Quantum and Industrial regulatory policies impacting Microsoft and its customers’ use of and access to Microsoft’s products and services. Tomas has over 15 years of a wide-ranging senior level experience in both private and public sectors. In his career, he held leadership and advisory positions in trade associations and private sector companies and served as a diplomat representing Lithuania on digital & tech policies at the Council of the European Union. He holds an MSc in Leadership & International Relations from Boston University and an MSc in Enterprise Information Systems from the University of Westminster.

Carolina Lorenzon, International Affairs Director at Mediaset, heads its parent company MFE’s Brussels Office. MFE-MediaforEurope N.V. consolidates the Groups’ activities within the EU, with extensive broadcast, content production and advertsing operations in Italy and Spain. Carolina is at present Chair of the Board at ACT (Association of Commercial Televisions and VOD services in Europe) member of the General Council at CRTV (Confindustria Radio Televisioni, the Italian Association of public and private broadcasters) and Board Member at GII – Gruppo d’Iniziativa Italiana – a cross-sector gathering of Italian companies represented in Brussels.

She graduated in Communication/International Affairs (Pepperdine University, Los Angeles) with a senior thesis on “Low Earth Orbit satellites for the development of telecommunication infrastructure in Least Developed Countries”, and holds a master’s degree in Economics and Global Policy (Università Cattolica, Milano).

Dave O’Connell is responsible for ComReg’s strategy, economics, and research functions, and is closely following the changing regulatory policy environment in Europe and Ireland.

An economist of 25 years’ experience, he has led major reviews by ComReg of telephony and wholesale broadband markets. Prior to joining ComReg in 2017, he spent 12 years with the CCPC, Ireland’s national competition authority, where he focussed on abuse of dominance cases and anti-competitive vertical agreements. Dave started his career as a policy analyst with Ireland’s incumbent gas network operator in the early stages of market liberalisation.

Dave holds master’s degrees in comparative politics, economic policy, and industrial economics from University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, and the University of East Anglia, and a postgraduate diploma in EU competition law from King’s College London.

Urška Petrovčič is a director of economic strategy at Qualcomm, where her work focuses on innovation economics, IP policy and antitrust. She is also a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where she co-founded the Forum for Intellectual Property—a center that promotes data-driven research on the role of IP in innovation economies. Since 2017, Dr. Petrovčič has acted as the European Commission’s non-governmental adviser for the Unilateral Conduct Working Group of the International Competition Network. Before joining Qualcomm, she was Vice President at the economic consulting company Criterion Economics.

Dr. Petrovčič holds a B.A. in law from the University of Ljubljana, a Master of Law and Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, and an LL.M. and a Ph.D. in law from the European University Institute. Her publications on the enforcement of standard-essential patents (SEPs) include a book, Competition Law and Standard Essential Patents: A Transatlantic Perspective (Wolters Kluwer 2014), and articles in the Common Market Law Review and other journals.

Ben Schroeter is the Director for Economic Policy & Strategic Engagement and a Member of the Extended Leadership Team at Booking.com. His team leads the global public policy work on competition and consumer issues, taxation, data, privacy, AI, and short term rentals. Before joining Booking.com, Ben spent extensive time in consulting and worked as a policy advisor for the German government. An economist by training, Ben holds a Master in Competition Economics from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and a Master in Competition Law from King’s College, London. 

Bruno Liebhaberg is Executive Chairman of the think tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE) which he founded in 2010.

From 2018 to 2021, he was also the first Chairman of the European Union Observatory on the Online Platform Economy. He is also an Honorary Professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management (SBS-EM ULB) where he taught from 1979 to 2018. Earlier in his career, he advised former European Commission President Jacques Delors on industry and R&D matters related to the completion of the EU Single Market.

He holds a Master’s in management sciences from SBS-EM ULB and a Ph.D. in Industrial Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

¹Also representing B.LIEBHABERG S.A., Director General
²Member of the Strategic Committee

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.

Alexandre de Streel is CERRE Academic Director, professor of European law at the University of Namur and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. He sits on the scientific committees of the Knight-Georgetown Institute (US), the European University Institute-Centre for a Digital Society (Italy), and the Mannheim Centre for Competition and Innovation (Germany).

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. He regularly advises the European Union and international organisations on digital regulation.

Previously, Alexandre held visiting positions at New York University Law School, the European University Institute in Florence, Panthéon-Assas (Singapore campus), 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. He has also been the chair of the expert group on the online platform economy, advising the European Commission.

Antonio Manganelli is professor of Competition Law and Policy at the University of Siena, where he also obtained his Ph.D. in Law and Economics.

He previously worked at the University of Rome LUMSA as a professor of Antitrust and Regulation, and at the European University Institute, where he was academic coordinator of the Florence School of Regulation.

Antonio has also served in various public institutions in Europe, including the Italian Ministry of Economic Development as Deputy Head of Cabinet, the OECD as a national expert, the Italian Regulator for Telecom, Media and Postal Services (AGCOM), the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the Office of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), and the Research Office at the Italian Central Bank.