Monday, 17 June 2019, One Bishops Square, London, E1 6AD, United Kingdom

Dr Luisa Affuso is Chief Economist at Ofcom, and a member of their executive board. She joined Ofcom in October 2018 from PwC where she headed the Competition Economics practice. She has over twenty years’ experience in the application of competition, regulatory, and industrial economics.

Dr Affuso has advised major companies and has given expert evidence on a number of high-profile cases before several antitrust authorities and courts. Her main area of expertise is the application of economic and econometric analysis to complex business questions on mergers, abuse of dominance, damages assessment, market studies and market investigations, and State aid.

Prior to becoming an economic consultant Dr Affuso was an academic, initially at the University of Cambridge, and subsequently at the London Business School. Dr Affuso was educated at the University of Warwick, where she obtained an MSc and PhD in Economics, specialising in industrial economics and applied econometrics. She has been listed by the Who’s Who of Competition Economists for several years, and was selected as one of the 2018 global thought leaders in competition.

Antoine Chapsal specializes in empirical and theoretical industrial organization. He has provided economic expertise in a large number of high-profile cases involving mergers, abuses of dominant positions, cartels, information exchanges, regulation, and damage quantification. Recent examples include the Lafarge/Holcim and Fnac/Darty mergers, as well as airfreight, cathode ray tube, and elevator cartel cases. Dr. Chapsal has also assisted various firms in designing optimized pricing strategies and contracts that comply with competition rules. Previously, he worked at the French Ministry of Economy, where he took part in the drafting of the horizontal merger guidelines, and in an American competition economics consultancy where he contributed to the analysis of major antitrust and merger cases. He regularly publishes articles on competition economics, on subjects ranging from the econometric analysis of cartels to geographic market delineation and exclusionary strategies. He is an affiliated professor at the Sciences Po department of economics and a member of the CESifo academic research network. 

David is a Director in the competition practice, and has worked with Frontier Economics since 2005 – dividing his time between its London and Brussels offices.

He regularly advises clients on competition issues in front of the European Commission, as well as handling merger, antitrust and competition litigation cases in front of national regulatory authorities and courts. He has particular expertise in Telecoms, Media and Technology, in FMCG and retail, and in public markets and the healthcare sector.

Damien Geradin is a partner at EUCLID Law, a competition law boutique firm based in Brussels and London. Damien has assisted clients in many high-stake European Commission investigations, including some of the most complex abuse of dominance cases with a focus on the telecommunications and high-technology sectors. Damien has frequently also represented clients before the General Court and the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Damien is also a Professor of competition law and economics at Tilburg University and a visiting Professor at University College London. Over the years, he has held visiting Professorships at leading US law schools including Columbia, Harvard, Michigan and Yale. He was also a visiting Professor at the College of Europe, Bruges, for 15 years. He is the co-author of Global Antitrust Law and Economics (2nd 2011) and EU Competition Law and Economics (2013).

Damien is a member of the European Commission’s Expert Group on standard-essential patents licensing and valuation.

Damien is a graduate of King’s College London and Cambridge University, and was Fulbright Scholar at Yale Law School.

Ilene Knable Gotts is a partner in the New York City law firm of Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where she focuses on antitrust matters, particularly relating to mergers and acquisitions. Mrs. Gotts is regularly recognized as one of the world’s top antitrust lawyers, including being recognized as Number one North America Thought Leader in 2018 Edition of Who’s Who Legal. 

Renata Hesse is a member of the Sullivan & Cromwell's Litigation Group. Her practice focuses on antitrust counseling, cartels and merger clearance. Ms. Hesse is frequently recognized as a leading and influential antitrust lawyer, with a particular emphasis on the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property matters in high-tech industries. She is currently co-chair of the ABA Antitrust Section’s Spring Meeting and is a frequent speaker at antitrust and legal forums.

Hein is a partner in Bird & Bird's Competition and EU practice and an active member of their market leading Tech & Comms and Media, Entertainment & Sports sector groups, of which he co-heads the Brussels sections. Hein divides his time between Brussels and The Hague. With over 20 years' experience, he is a well-known practitioner for all key pillars of EU competition, trade and sector-specific laws. Clients include some of Europe's well-known tech, communications and media companies.  

Jonas is a highly regarded international competition lawyer, based in Brussels. His experience spans from complex transactional to contentious competition law cases in Europe and beyond.

Jonas represents clients from around the world on merger review of M&A transactions. He has advised parties to numerous complex transactions, several of which were reviewed in “Phase II” by the European Commission and other authorities worldwide. In addition, he represents companies in investigations of business conduct, such as abuse of dominance, anti-competitive agreements and practices, and cartel matters (also involving applications for immunity and leniency) and related litigation.

His experience spans many industry sectors, with recent experience particularly in the  financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, software and information technology sectors.

Jonas is Global Head of Linklaters’ Global Competition Practice. 

Francesco Liberatore advises clients on all aspects of the application of communications and competition law. On the behavioral side, Francesco's practice includes bringing and defending all types of regulatory and competition disputes before Ofcom, the Competition and Markets Authority and the European Commission, as well as managing internal investigations, dawn raids, and counseling on compliance issues and various commercial agreements. On the transactional side, Francesco handles UK and EU merger control due diligence and filings, as well as coordinating multijurisdictional merger control strategies. Francesco's litigation experience includes representing clients in matters before the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the European Courts.

Dominic Long has extensive experience advising on complex merger clearances before both the European Commission and UK merger control authorities, as well as abuse of dominance and restrictive agreements investigations. In the UK, Dominic has advised clients on the merger control aspects of a number of high profile transactions. 

Dominic also advised one of the UK’s 6 large energy companies on the Competition and Markets Authority’s investigation into GB energy markets, the largest market investigation undertaken in the UK. At the European level, Dominic has advised on several major cross border transactions. 

Dr Philip Marsden is Deputy Chair of the Bank of England’s Enforcement Decision Making Committee, and a case decision maker at the Financial Conduct Authority, the Payment Systems Regulator and OFGEM.  In September, 2018, the Chancellor appointed Philip to the Treasury’s Digital Competition Experts Panel.   In November 2018, Philip also affiliated with Charles River Associates International as a Senior Advisor on policy and strategy issues.

For ten years until October 2018, Philip held various roles at the UK competition authority, first as member of the Board of the Office of Fair Trading, then as Inquiry Chair and Senior Director, Case Decision Groups, at the Competition and Markets Authority, where he decided on Phase II mergers, market investigations and antitrust cases, post-Statement of Objections.  He was also a Board member of the Channel Islands Competition and Regulatory Authorities. 

Sascha works across all sectors with particular experience in the telecoms and tech industries, where he has represented clients successfully in a number of high-profile investigations. A focus of his behavioural practice is online distribution and the application of antitrust laws in the digital economy. He also has extensive experience representing clients before Germany’s Federal Cartel Office and is often called upon to advise on multijurisdictional investigations that involve competition authorities around the world.

Dr. Soria is an Associate Director in NERA's Communications, Internet, and Media Practice, based in Madrid. He has extensive experience advising companies, trade associations, and public administrations throughout Europe and Latin America on economics, regulation, and strategy. Dr. Soria's work focuses on performing dynamic competition analyses; providing advice on public policies aimed at fostering competition, deployment, and universalization of networks and services; and achieving a level playing field in the Internet value chain. 

Dr. Soria is a guest professor at the University of Barcelona, where he lectures on Telecommunications Economics and Regulation in the Master's Degree program on Economics, Regulation and Competition in Public Services. He regularly presents his work at academic conferences and publishes in telecommunications books and peer-reviewed journals. He is a member of the Scientific Committee of EuroCPR and a founding member of the Spanish Internet Governance Forum (IGF Spain).

Alexandre de Streel is Professor of European law at the University of Namur and Visiting Professor at the University of Louvain. He is the Director of the Research Centre for Information, Law and Society (CRIDS) focusing his research on Regulation and Competition Law in the digital industries. He is also assessor (member of the decisional body) at the Belgian Competition Authority. 

Tommaso Valletti is the Chief Competition Economist. He is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, and also Professor of Economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata. He has a magna cum laude degree in Engineering from Turin and holds a MSc and a PhD in Economics from the London School of Economics. Tommaso's main research interests are in industrial economics, regulation, and telecommunications economics. He has held several editorial positions and has published influential articles in top academic journals. Tommaso is a Fellow of CEPR and of ENCORE. He was a member of the panel of academic advisors of Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, as well as a member of the panel of academic advisors of the UK Competition Commission.

Dr. Mike Walker is currently the Chief Economic Advisor at the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Previous to this he was a Vice President at CRA International in London. He has worked on the economics of competition law and regulation for more than 20 years.

He is the co-author of The Economics of EU Competition Law (Sweet & Maxwell, 3rd edition, 2009) and a number of published articles. He is a Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges and a Visiting Fellow at King’s College, London.

Annemiek is Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission, managing merger cases in the IT, Telecom and Media sectors in DG COMP. Previously, Annemiek was a member of the Chief Economist Team in DG COMP for many years dealing with cases across a wide range of sectors. She also served a year as Cabinet Member of Vice President Almunia. Annemiek holds a MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and a MSc in Competition and Market Regulation from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.