Transatlantic Relations and the Future of Economic Regulation

Daniel Francis teaches antitrust at NYU School of Law, where he writes about competition and regulation. He previously served in the US Federal Trade Commission as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Competition, and spent more than a decade in the private practice of antitrust law. He is the author, with Chris Sprigman, of Antitrust: Principles, Cases, and Materials, a free antitrust textbook now in its second edition. He holds degrees in law from Trinity College, Cambridge; Harvard Law School; and NYU School of Law.

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.

Barbara Moens is an EU correspondent for the FT in Brussels, covering tech, digital and competition policy. Before joining the FT, she was chief EU correspondent at Politico Europe.

Aura Salla is a Member of the European Parliament. Prior to this, she was a Member of the Finnish Parliament, where she actively engaged in international and EU affairs. Before entering the Finnish Parliament, Aura held the role of Managing Public Policy Director and Head of EU Affairs at Meta’s Brussels office. She also has extensive experience in the European Commission, where she worked as a Foreign Policy and Communications Adviser in the European Political Strategy Centre (EPSC) and as a Member of Cabinet for Vice President Jyrki Katainen. Aura holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Turku, focusing on the politicization of the European Commission during the euro crisis, and has lectured at Harvard University on European economics.

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 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.

Tom Wheeler is a businessman, author, and was Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) from 2013 to 2017. Presently, he is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a Senior Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School.

For over four decades, Wheeler has been involved with new telecommunications networks and services. At the FCC he led the efforts that resulted in the adoption of Net Neutrality, privacy protections for consumers, and increased cybersecurity, among other policies. As an entrepreneur, he started or helped start multiple companies offering innovative cable, wireless and video communications services. He is the only person to be selected to both the Cable Television Hall of Fame and the Wireless Hall of Fame, a fact President Obama joked made him “the Bo Jackson of telecom.”

Filmmaker Ken Burns described Mr. Wheeler as “one of the foremost explainers of technology and its effects throughout our history.” His most recent book is TECHLASH: Who Makes the Rules in the Digital Gilded Age? (Brookings Press, 2023). He is also the author of From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future (Brookings Press, 2019), updated and reissued in paperback as From Gutenberg to Google and On to AI (Brookings Press 2024), as well as Take Command: Leadership Lessons from the Civil War (Doubleday, 2000), and Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails: The Untold Story of How Abraham Lincoln Used the Telegraph to Win the Civil War (HarperCollins, 2006).