Digital Platforms Summit

Leanda Barrington-Leach is the Executive Director at 5Rights. Leanda joined 5Rights from the European External Action Service where she was Adviser to the Secretary General focusing on Strategic Communications and the fight against Disinformation. She previously worked in EU advocacy as a consultant and for non-profits, always with a focus on human rights. Leanda volunteers as an Adviser to Plan International, supporting their work on children’s rights in EU foreign policy.

Chiara Caccinelli is Deputy Head of the Economic Analysis and Digital Affairs Unit at Arcep (the French regulator for electronic communications, postal and print media distribution services) and Co-chair of the Digital Markets WG at BEREC. From 2019 to 2022 she co-chaired BEREC’s Market and Economic Analysis WG. Before joining Arcep and BEREC, Chiara was Deputy to the Director of the Governance and Regulation Programme and the Club of Regulators in Paris (2015-2019), and simultaneously carried out academic research on economic and competition challenges in the digital economy. Previously, she was Programme Manager and Research Associate at the Florence School of Regulation (European University Institute, 2011-2015) and Analyst and Consultant in European Affairs in Milan and Brussels (2009-2010). Chiara holds an MSc in Economics of Network Industries and Digital Economy from Paris Dauphine University – PSL, and an MA in European Affairs from the University of Perugia.

Dr. Raymond de Rooij studied Applied Physics at Eindhoven University of Technology and finished his PhD at the University of Twente. Since 2021 he has been working as a Team Manager at the Competition Directorate of the Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM). In this role he is responsible for the oversight on digital markets. Raymond started his career at Unilever Research. After obtaining an MBA degree at Rotterdam School of Management he switched to the ACM in 2002, where he worked as a project leader in antitrust and energy regulation

Axel Desmedt is the President of the Belgian Competition Authority since 1 March 2024.

Before that, he was a member of the BIPT Council (the Belgian telecoms and postal regulator) for 14 years (two consecutive mandates), where he respectively lead the spectrum, telecoms & media, consumer and postal market services, in addition to the legal and HR services. He led several spectrum auctions in Belgium and introduced some several ground-breaking regulatory projects, such as the first successful cable access regulation in Europe. During his tenures Axel Desmedt helped preparing a number of major legislative reforms in both the postal and telecoms sectors which were adopted by the Government and Parliament. He oversaw some of the major economic and administrative disputes both for the BIPT and the Belgian State in the telecoms and postal sectors.

Axel Desmedt started as a lawyer at the Brussels Bar practicing for more than eight years in two different law firms, where he specialised mainly in EU competition and WTO law. He then joined a major European telecommunications group in-house as a Senior Legal Council and Deputy Director for the group’s permanent representation to the EU.

Axel Desmedt lectured as a visiting professor at UCL (2015-2020) and KUL (2020-2021). He was the co-founder and editor of the Tijdschrift voor het recht van netwerkindustrieën/ Revue du droit des indsutries de réseau. Since 2023, Axel Desmedt is a Fellow of the Free University of Brussels (VUB), where he graduated in law in 1996. He also holds an LLM from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, USA).

Georgios is a Public Policy Senior Manager at Google. He is working in a wide range of global economic issues with a particular focus on competition in the digital markets and the economic impact of technology. He joined Google from the European Parliament where he spent five years dealing with intellectual property files. Georgios holds a law degree from UCLouvain and an LLM from the University College London.

Vanessa is Senior Advisor – Competition at The European Consumer Organisation, BEUC.

Vanessa focusses on ensuring that consumer interests are taken into account in European competition policy, in particular in Digital Markets and Sustainability and in key merger, antitrust and DMA enforcement cases before the Commission and EU Courts. 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.

Sally Broughton Micova is a CERRE Academic Co-Director and an Associate Professor in Communications Policy and Politics at the University of East Anglia (UEA). She is also a member of UEA’s Centre for Competition Policy.

Her research focuses on media and communications policy in Europe.

She completed her PhD in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), after which she was an LSE Teaching and Research Fellow in Media Governance and Policy and Deputy Director of the LSE Media Policy Project.

Miriam Buiten is a CERRE Research Fellow and Assistant Professor of Law and Economics at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland. She leads a research team on “Platform Governance”, funded by the University of St.Gallen Basic Research Fund. Her research focuses on the legal issues surrounding new technologies and artificial intelligence and the role of competition law in regulating the digital economy.

Previously, Miriam was a Junior Professor of Law and Economics at the University of Mannheim. She has been involved in several policy studies for the European Commission and the Dutch government on topics such as the role of online intermediaries in the ecommerce sector and mechanisms to reduce regulatory burdens.

Alexandre de Streel is the Academic Director of the digital research programme at the Brussels think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), professor of European law at the University of Namur and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. He sits in the scientific committees of the Knight-Georgetown Institute (US), the European University Institute-Centre for a Digital Society (Italy) and 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 regulatory 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.

Richard Feasey is a CERRE Senior Adviser, an Inquiry Chair at the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority and Member of the National Infrastructure Commission for Wales.

He lectures at University College and Kings College London and the Judge Business School.

He has previously been an adviser to the UK Payments Systems Regulator, the House of Lords EU Sub-Committee and to various international legal and economic advisory firms.

He was Director of Public Policy for Vodafone plc between 2001 and 2013.

Michèle Ledger is a researcher at the CRIDS research centre of the University of Namur where she also lectures on the regulatory aspects of online platforms at the postmaster degree course (DTIC). She has been working for more than 20 years at Cullen International and leads the company’s Media regulatory intelligence service.

Giorgio Monti is a CERRE Research Fellow and 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), one of the major texts on the subject. He is one of the editors of the Common Market Law Review.