Brussels Telecommunications and Media Forum 2023 – in person

Renate Nikolay is 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. Ms 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 Ms Nikolay was a 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 Ms Nikolay 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.

Ms Nikolay 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.

Royal Hansen is Vice President of Privacy, Safety and Security Engineering at Google, where he is responsible for driving overall information security strategy for the company’s technical infrastructure which serves billions of end-user consumers and enterprise customers. Prior to joining Google, Mr Hansen was the Executive Vice President of Enterprise IT Risk and Information Security at American Express, responsible for solutions protecting the security and integrity of the company’s technology systems and the customer, business and employee information they processed. Before American Express, Royal served as Managing Director, Technology Risk and Global Head of Application Security, Data Risk and Business Continuity Planning at Goldman Sachs. Royal was also previously at Morgan Stanley and Fidelity Investments, where he managed Enterprise IT Risk, Application Security and Disaster Recovery.

Mr Hansen began his career as a software developer for Sapient before building a cyber-security practice in the financial services industry at @stake, which was acquired by Symantec.

Mr Hansen holds a BA in Computer Science from Yale University. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship in information sciences and Arabic language study, which he completed at the United Arab Emirates University.

Annemarie Sipkes has been director for Telecoms, Postal and Transport at the ACM, the Dutch authority for markets and consumers, since 2018. This year, she is the BEREC Vice Chair. Before working as a telecoms regulator, she held different posts in the Dutch government, working from an economic perspective on strategic issues in the field of Education, Culture & Science and in Social Affairs & labour market policies. After completing her MSC in economics and an MA in General Arts in Maastricht, she started her career at the Dutch Central bank and also spent several years in consulting at KPMG.

Augusto Preta is a consultant, economist and market analyst, with long-established experience in the field of content media and digital markets. As Founder and CEO at ITMedia Consulting, he has assisted and advised for almost 30 years, public institutions, authorities and major companies in media, telecommunications and the internet industries.

Mr Preta is Member of the SIE (Società Italiana degli Economisti).  He has been a visiting professor on Media Economics at Urbino University, Sassari University e Università Cattolica di Milano for almost 20 years, and has been involved in many research projects, writing influential papers and cooperating with organisations such as: Aspen Institute, European Law and Economics Society, Luigi Einaudi Foundation. He is author of “Economia dei contenuti” (2008) and “TV and relevant markets” (2013). He co-authored with Gerard Pogorel the Fondation Robert Schuman research report  “Convergence in Media and Telecom in face of Covid-19” (2020).

Mr Preta is President of the Italian Chapter.

As Vice-President in charge of EU Government Affairs at Schneider Electric, Bertrand Déprez is leading government affairs practice for the group in Europe. Mr Déprez is heading the Group’s liaison office to the EU institutions. He is currently holding responsibilities in several associations and groups related to the EU.
Prior to that, Mr Déprez for worked several years at Edelman/The Centre a well-known PR/PA agency specialised in EU affairs.

Mr Déprez graduated at University Lyon 3 (France) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (UK). He lives in Brussels.

Björn Juretzki is Head of Unit for Data Policy and Innovation in the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT).

The Unit supports the European data economy through policy initiatives such as the Data Act and the Data Governance Act. The Unit is also responsible for coordinating data spaces and steering the strategic research and innovation agenda in the sector.

Mr Juretzki has previously worked as a policy officer in artificial intelligence and robotics in DG CONNECT. Prior to becoming Head of Unit for Data Policy and Innovation, he was the Assistant to the Director-General in DG CONNECT. He is also a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe.
Mr. Juretzki’s academical background comprises degrees in international relations, media and communication studies and European history from the University of Erfurt and the London School of Economics.

Chiara Garbellini is a Principal Consultant at DT Economics. Chiara advises clients across industries, with a focus on network companies operating in the payments and telecoms sectors. She has worked directly with company boards and their advisors to respond to regulations and policies.

Prior to joining DT Economics, Ms Garbellini was a Director in FTI Consulting’s Economic and Financial Consulting practice, where she advised clients on regulatory and competition issues in the context of market reviews and new regulatory proposals, with particular focus on the assessment of regulatory risk and revenue modelling for regulated assets. Ms Garbellini also previously worked as an Economist at GSMA, where she provided internal economic consulting and research on a variety of public policy and regulatory issues, particularly in the areas of spectrum and mobile money.

Ms Garbellini holds an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSc in Economics, Management and Finance from Bocconi University in Milan.

Chris Gow is Senior Director, EU Public Policy for Cisco’s Government Affairs team, responsible for engagements with the EU institutions in Brussels. He is the global lead on privacy policy and within Europe on security. Mr Gow joined Cisco in early 2008 and beyond privacy and security, plays an active role on spectrum, cloud and IoT policy.

Mr Gow is a Member of the Executive Board of DIGITAL EUROPE and the Chair of DIGITAL EUROPE’s Privacy and Security Group. DIGITAL EUROPE is the main European industry association for tech manufacturers in Brussels.

Prior to Cisco, Mr Gow was responsible for campaign strategies and digital economy policy work at EICTA (now DIGITAL EUROPE). He has been in Brussels since 2003, initially as an Assistant to a Member of the European Parliament, working on internal market and legal affairs issues.

Mr Gow studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Oxford University.

Christopher Mondini was appointed Vice President, Stakeholder Engagement, Europe and Managing Director, Brussels Office, ICANN the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in January 2021.  He previously held the position of Vice President and Managing Director for Europe at ICANN.  ICANN coordinates the addressing systems, such as the Domain Name System, that allow the Internet to expand rapidly as a globally unified network.

Mr Mondini leads ICANN’s outreach efforts to the business sector worldwide. His work with ICANN is focused on broadening participation among a variety of Internet stakeholders, while improving the quality of their experience.

From the halls of Washington to the start-ups of Silicon Valley, he has dedicated his career to bridging communications gaps that occur among diverse sectors — public, private and non-profit – and across international borders.

Mr Mondini began his career as a United States diplomat and later became a corporate investigator with Deloitte. He has investigated the world’s largest corporate corruption cases, while working with NGOs on ways to mitigate corruption risks. He also led grant-making teams for the Full Circle Fund, an engaged philanthropy organization addressing economic development challenges.

He speaks and writes frequently on topics such as Internet governance, technology policy and the digital divide

Mr Mondini holds degrees from Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities.

Clive Carter leads BT Group’s regulatory, economic and competition law functions. His team creates and socialises BT’s regulatory strategy, leads for BT Group on major regulatory initiatives such as fixed and mobile regulation, consumer policy protections, and network regulation. The team also covers linkages between traditional comms regulation and emerging regulatory and policy issues, including digital regulation.

Before joining BT, M Carter led Ofcom’s Strategy and Policy team, ran Ofcom’s Digital Communications Review, and was responsible for negotiating with BT on the Commitments’.

Clive Kenny is a Manager in the Telecoms, Media and Digital practice at Frontier Economics. Mr Kenny has 15 years’ experience advising clients on a range of competition, regulatory and policy issues related to connectivity, digital and media markets. He has advised private and public sector clients on media and digital policy, mergers, spectrum in countries in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Cristina Vela is Head of EU Affairs at Telefónica dealing notably with Data, Privacy and Cybersecurity policies. Ms Vela joined Telefónica Group in 1996 and has been serving in various legal, regulatory and public affairs positions at Telefónica Headquarters in Madrid and at Telefónica Brussels Office. She has been involved in the liberalization process of the telecommunications sector in Europe since its inception.

Ms Vela holds a master’s degree in International and European Law from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium.

Dan Sjöblom is the Director General of the Swedish Post and Telecom Authority (PTS) and was appointed by the Swedish Government on 1 February 2017.

He served as Chairperson of BEREC (Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communication) in 2020, having served as a vice-chair in 2019.

Prior to taking up his position, Mr Sjöblom was the Director General for the Swedish Competition Authority for eight years, between 2009 and 2017.

He is also board member of the Swedish Broadband Council.

Mr Sjöblom has served as a civil servant at the European Commission between 1996 and 2009. He holds a Master of Laws from Stockholm University.

A lawyer by training, Daniel Mes started his career at the European Commission in its competition department. There he worked on transport and digital technology files. During the last Commission term, he managed relations with the European Parliament and the Council, including on digital policy files, and was a speechwriter to Margrethe Vestager.  Since 1 December 2019, Mr Mes has worked in the Cabinet of Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans on digital aspects of the European Green Deal.

Bio coming soon ….

Elisa Giomi is an Associate Professor at Roma Tre University, Department of Philosophy, Communication and Performing Arts, where she teaches Sociology of Media and Communication, Television Narrative, and Advertising. Prof. Giomi also teaches at the MA course in Cultural Leadership Research, a double postgraduate degree programme (University of Groningen and Roma Tre University) and coordinates the Media and Communication module of the MA in Gender and Political Studies.

Prof. Giomi is the author of more than 60 publications for major italian and international publishers and peer-reviewed journals.  Her latest publication is “Male and Female Violence in Popular Media” (Bloomsbury 2022) and “The Media today. Technologies, markets, socio-cultural issues and regulatory responses” (forthcoming).

Prof. Giomi has coordinated national and international scientific projects aimed at studying the media and identifying good practices in the sector, on behalf of various bodies and institutions including: European Parliament, EJC-European Journalism Center, EIGE-European Institute for Gender Equality. She has coordinated television content analysis projects on behalf of italian broadcasters, including monitoring the representation of women in public programming.

Prof. Giomi has collaborated with the “Commission of enquiry on feminicide, as well as on all forms of gender-based violence” of Italian Parliament; she is a member of the board of the “Gender Studies” section of the AIS-Italian Association of Sociology and of the magazine “AG.About Gender-International Journal of Gender Studies”.

By decree of the President of the Republic, Prof. Giomi was appointed on 15 September 2020 as a member of the Board of AGCOM- Authority for Communications Guarantees.

Emmanuel Gabla was nominated as Membre du Collège at the board of Arcep at the beginning of 2019. He was previously the Head of the Economic Section of France’s embassy in Norway from 2016 until his appointment at Arcep.

Mr Gabla began his career in 1993 at the Ministry of Post & Telecom, which developed the 1996 Act that opened the telecoms sector up to competition. Starting in 1999, Mr Gabla served as an advisor on telecoms, the information society, postal affairs and industrial aspects of the internal market to the Permanent Representation of France to the European Union, as Technical Advisor to the Prime Minister, Jean Pierre Raffarin, in charge of telecoms and postal affairs, industrial property and space, and the head of the Technologies and Information Society department at the Directorate-General for Enterprise.

From 2009 to 2015, Mr Gabla was a member of the Board of the French broadcasting authority, CSA, and a member of the General Council for the Economy, Industry, Energy and Technologies from 2015 to 2016.

Mr Gabla is a former student at the Ecole Polytechnique, a graduate of the Ecole nationale supérieure des télécommunications (ENST), and a Chief Telecommunications Engineer.

With over 20 years’ experience working in the EU regulatory environment, Francine Cunningham leads Bird & Bird’s Regulatory & Public Affairs practice in Brussels. Ms Cunningham advises enterprises on how to prepare for new digital and data-related regulation and understand the practical application of incoming rules to their sectors. She helps businesses to navigate complex EU decision-making processes and is a regular writer on issues related to legal framework for digital services and IP.

Ms Cunningham joined Bird & Bird in 2018 from the U.S. Mission to the European Union where she worked as a senior specialist for the U.S. Commerce Department. She previously ran a trade association in the European news media sector.

Ms Cunningham holds an LLM on Intellectual Property & ICT Law from Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and a master’s degree in UK, EU and US Copyright Law from King’s College London, where she was awarded the Dickson Poon School of Law Prize law. She is also a former Fulbright Scholar at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

Jaymeen Patel is head of EU Digital Public Policy for Amazon. He joined in April 2022, after heading the office for LVMH Government Affairs. He has held roles in public policy for Apple and Telefonica, and started his career working for an MEP in the European Affairs Culture and Education Committee.

Bio coming soon …..

Juan Montero Rodil was appointed Chief Public Policy, Competition and Regulatory Officer at Telefonica S.A in July 2021.

After five years initially practicing law in a firm in Madrid, he joined the Telefónica Group in 1996, becoming part of the Legal Services of Telefónica Móviles at the time when telecom liberalization process began in Spain. From 2006 to 2016, he was head of the Telecommunications Legal Department in Telefónica España. In 2016 he joined the Corporate Legal Services of the Group, at Telefónica S.A., as Director of the Competition Law, Privacy and Legal Regulatory Units.

Mr Montero Rodil holds a degree in Law from the Complutense University of Madrid and a PDD from IESE.

Professor Konstantinos Masselos has been appointed as the President of the Hellenic Telecommunications & Post Commission (EETT) in February 2018 and his mandate has been renewed in February 2022.

Professor Masselos has been elected as Chair of the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) for 2023 and also Vice-Chair for 2022 and 2024. Moreover, he served as Vice-Chair of BEREC in 2019.

He is a Professor in the Department of Informatics and Telecommunications of the University of Peloponnese where is also served as Rector during the period 2012-2017. From 2005 to 2008 he was a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College London. Also during the period 2010-2016 he was an Honorary Lecturer in the same Department. From 2001-2004 he worked in the telecommunications industry.
Since 2005 he has been collaborating as an expert with various units of the European Commission. Also, he was member of the Scientific Committee of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) from 2015 to 2017.

Krzysztof Kuik is the head of unit responsible for State aid control in telecoms, media and internet, where he scrutinizes the rollout of broadband networks across Europe and its compliance with the EU’s State aid rules. He joined the European Commission in 2009 and, as a head of unit responsible for antitrust enforcement in the areas of media and sport, oversaw several landmark investigations into the contracts between Hollywood studios and pay-TV broadcaster Sky, the International Skating Union’s rules, Nike’s practices for merchandising products and Amazon’s contracts with e-book publishers.

Prior to joining the European Commission, Mr Kuik worked as a private practitioner in the Brussels, Warsaw and New York offices of White & Case.

He obtained a law degree from the University of Warsaw, and LLM degrees from KU Leuven and NYU School of Law.

Mr Kuik is a frequent speaker on competition law and media, and a co-author of a chapter on Media in Faull & Nikpay’s The EU Law of Competition (2014).

Lorelien Hoet is Director of EU Government Affairs at Microsoft. In this role, she deals notably with European telecommunications policy, cloud & cybersecurity regulation. Before joining Microsoft in 2018, she worked as a legal executive at Proximus, holding different positions including Head of Legal Consumer business, and at Orange where she worked as Director of Regulatory Affairs.

Ms Hoet holds an LL.M from KU Leuven and was also active as attorney at the bars of Brussels and Stockholm.

Lynn Robinson became Director General of the International Institute of Communications (IIC), in March 2020.

Lynn is an experienced senior director and trustee / non exec-director, having held key senior leadership positions in the technology, built environment, regulation, accreditation and dental industries. She has extensive experience of professional membership bodies working within the full spectrum including, Regulatory bodies, Industry associations and Chambers of Commerce. Lynn is a well-known and established ambassador in these areas having led on many strategic programmes to aid engagement, growth, retention, change management, stakeholder and political engagement.

An experienced Trustee / Non-Executive Director as Vice Chair at Arnos Vale Cemetery Trust, a unique heritage site in the heart of Bristol (UK), Lynn is also a Trustee / Non-Executive Director at The Bristol and Bath (UK), Parks Foundation.

Reflecting on becoming Director General at the IIC at the outbreak of a pandemic, Lynn said, ‘these last two years have been like no other we have known, with many challenges coming our way. In 2020 we successfully pivoted the organisation through a digital transformation programme to maintain a full schedule of events and by increasing the outputs delivered. Transforming the programme enabled us to continue to deliver the professional service and increase our engagement with IIC members and stakeholder community to remain connected to them through such a difficult time.

As we move through 2022, I am delighted to return to a combined in-person and online programme and to continue to evolve the IIC in to the next phase, with the vision and strategic focus to deliver our objectives and to build on our growth, engagement and retention’.

Bio coming soon …..

Madeleine de Cock Buning is the Vice President for Public Policy EMEA at Netflix.  As Vice-President for Public Policy Europe, Middle-East and Africa, Prof de Cock Buning is working with her team to ensure Netflix continues to play an active role in supporting EU institutions and national governments across the region in their efforts to promote and champion the creative industries as a catalyst for innovation and creativity.

Prof de Cock Buning is also a professor of Copyright and Media Law at the University of Utrecht Faculty of Law (UU) and chaired professor of Digital Politics, Economy and Societies at the School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence. Previously, Prof de Cock Buning was Chair of the European Commission’s High-Level Expert Group (HLEG) on fake news and disinformation (2018), chair of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual Media Services (ERGA) (2016 & 2017) and was President of the Board of Commissioners at the Dutch Media Authority (2009-2019). She was Honorary Judge of the Court of Appeal in The Hague (2010-2020) and was a panelist of the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) (2001-2018).

In May 2019 Prof de Cock Buning received a Royal Distinction; she was appointed Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Marc Vancoppenolle is leading the Government Affairs International function at Nokia. His responsibilities include Policy and Regulatory advocacy, geopolitical insight and international relations. He and his team are working with institutions and stakeholders to create a favorable political and regulatory environment fostering broadband investments and cross sectoral digitalization at large.

Prior to this, Mr Vancoppenolle led the Alcatel-Lucent Public and Regulatory Affairs function for EMEA – including the representation office in Brussels – and APAC. Before joining Public Affairs, he led EMEA Strategic Customer Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent.

Mr Vancoppenolle has over 30 years of experience in the telecommunication industry. He joined Alcatel in 1991 where he took various international and worldwide technical, commercial, marketing and communication leadership roles based in Belgium and in France. He has been driving marketing and awareness strategies supporting the growth of the company in the areas of broadband, IP, telecom services and software applications. As Chief Marketing Officer for Alcatel Northern Europe, he led the development of Alcatel’s market positioning in the Industry & Public Sector.

Mr Vancoppenolle is advisor to FITCE Belgium (forum for ICT & Media professionals). He has been Vice-Chair of the BUSINESSEUROPE Digital Economy Taskforce and a member of the board of DIGITALEUROPE (representing the Digital Technology Industry in Europe) as well as of the board of IICB (Innovation & Incubation Center Brussels).

He holds a Master of Science, with a specialization in Telecommunication from the University of Leuven complemented with marketing studies from the University of Antwerp.

Marisa joined Meta (Facebook) in February 2018 as Director of Public Policy and Deputy Head of EU Affairs.

Marisa Jiménez Martín has 24 years of public policy experience.  She worked for the EU Commission at the beginning of her career and held various positions at Time Warner and Deutsche Post World Net Brussels Corporate public policy offices, dealing with a variety of public policy matters, focusing on Privacy and Data Protection, Internet and RFID policy related issues. Before joining Facebook, Ms Jiménez led Google’s privacy public policy strategy both in Brussels, Belgium and Mountain View, California.

Ms Jiménez is a Spanish lawyer by the University of Zaragoza, and is specialized in EU law by the Europa Institut of Saarbruecken, Germany.

Martin Duckworth, an Associate Director in Frontier’s Telecommunications Practice, is a highly experienced regulatory and financial expert with extensive knowledge of competition and commercial issues. Mr Duckworth combines his vast technical and financial telecommunications policy experience with his outstanding analytical ability to deliver results that achieve clients’ strategic objectives. Mr Duckworth has worked since 1995 in the field of communications regulation, first as an employee of OFTEL and, since 1998, as a consultant based in Belgium, Spain and the UK. During this period Mr Duckworth has been at the forefront of regulatory developments in the United Kingdom, the EU and other liberalised markets around the world.

Mr Duckworth has extensive experience on mobile networks and spectrum working on bids in both the 2000 round of 3G spectrum auctions and 2010 round of 4G spectrum auctions. He has also advised on the regulatory clearance for number of mobile mergers in recent years. He also led Frontier’s work last year advising the UK’s National Infrastructure Commission on how to incentivise investment in 5G.

Matt Allison is Senior Public Policy Manager at Vodafone Group, covering Data, Platforms and Artificial Intelligence. Mr Allison has worked at the cutting edge of tech public policy for a decade in a variety of roles spanning industry, consultancy and NGOs. During this time, he has grappled with some of the key public policy challenges facing the technology sector and helped shape the policy landscape as governments and regulators look to confront and harness the rapid growth of digital services. At Vodafone Mr Allison is responsible for developing policy and regulatory strategies for data, AI and digital platforms, influencing new regulation and creating alignment between Vodafone’s local market activities.

Prior to joining Vodafone Mr Allison was a Manager in the International Public Policy team at Access Partnership, a leading government affairs consultancy in the technology sector, as well as working in the NGO sector focused on the development of Internet safety policy.

Mr Allison holds a Masters degree in Politics, Security and Integration from the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES), part of University College London. His studies focused on Russian and Eastern European politics, European integration and national identity. Prior to this he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in History at the University of East Anglia where he specialised in Soviet history and the economic and social history of early modern England.

Bio coming soon ……

Michel Van Bellinghen, Master of Laws (UCL), started off at the university in 1990 as a researcher, then became an assistant under the supervision of Professor Françoise Tulkens, at the UCL Laws Centre for Criminal Law.

Mr Van Bellinghen became an assistant advisor at the Ministry of Justice in 1992 under the supervision of Professor Marc Bossuyt and joined the BIPT in 1997. From 1999 to 2003 he held the position of expert at the private office of Rik Daems, who was the Federal Telecommunications Minister at the time, and afterwards took up the function of Assistant Head of the Private Office. From 2003 until 2009 he was nominated Member of the BIPT Council for the first time. Following this mandate he remained closely affiliated to the Council and supervised the legal department of the regulator during a number of years. He has written scientific publications.

In 2013 Mr Van Bellinghen held a position on the Council as a Member. In January 2017 he was assigned Chairman of the BIPT Council.

Mr Van Bellinghen served as Chair of BEREC in 2021.

Nane Engelhart is EVBox’s Senior Legal Counsel Intellectual Property and Data. Since joining EVBox in 2022, she supports the teams that develop and promote EV charging solutions to help power a more sustainable future. Ms Engelhart  has over 10 years of experience working at European technology companies in various legal roles. She graduated in European and International Commercial law and is a qualified Solicitor in England.

Niamh Hodnett has extensive experience in designing, enforcing and managing compliance with regulatory obligations in the online and communications fields. Her experience includes measures to block access to child sex abuse material and to protect people at risk of gambling addiction, as well as regulation related to data protection, cybersecurity, competition and consumer protection in the communications sector.

Ms Hodnett’s most recent role was Chief Legal and Regulatory officer at Premier Lotteries, the operator of the National Lottery. She was previously Head of Regulatory Affairs at the mobile phone company, Three Ireland, a senior legal advisor with the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg), a regulatory lawyer with An Post and a member of the EU, competition & regulatory law teams at Mayer Brown in Brussels and Matheson in Dublin.

Ms Hodnett qualified as a solicitor in 1998 and is an expert in regulatory law with extensive knowledge and experience of both Irish and European law. She studied Law and German at UCC and has a master’s in law from Universität Passau in Germany. She has co-authored European Law published by Oxford University Press and Regulatory Law in Ireland published by Tottel. She is also a qualified mediator.

Nina Cummins is an EU antitrust and telecoms regulatory lawyer, with over 20 yrs’ multi-jurisdictional legal experience. She graduated from the University of Nottingham, England and Ruhr University Bochum (RUB) Germany, where she specialized in EU law. She has a Masters of Law degree in EU antitrust from RUB. She is admitted as a lawyer in England & Wales, Republic of Ireland, N. Ireland and Germany. She was a partner in international law firm Osborne Clarke, leading UK & EU telecoms regulatory issues. And also worked as senior legal and policy adviser at the Telecoms Regulatory Authority in Bahrain, dealing with complex strategic projects, legal separation of the incumbent fixed telecoms provider, as well as proposals to revise the prevailing communications sector regulatory framework.

Ms Cummins  re-joined Facebook (now Meta) in Oct 2019 where she leads Meta’s Connectivity Policy in EMEA, covering a broad range of regulatory issues regarding OTT regulation and regulation of emerging technology, net neutrality rules,infrastructure and subsea cable projects, spectrum frameworks and accessibility.

Oreste Pollicino is a Full Professor of Constitutional Law at the Bocconi University in Milan, where he teaches Internet Law, Constitutional Law and Public Law and is also the coordinator of the LL.M. in Law of Internet Technology. He has been a visiting professor at the universities of Oxford, Budapest (CEU), Haifa and Fribourg.

Prof Pollicino is the founder and executive director of the portal MediaLaws (www.medialaws.eu) and the “Rivista di diritto dei media”. He is also out of the founders and directors of the “Rivista di diritti comparati”.

He is the author and editor of more than 200 publications, including monographs and edited collections, including: Internet Law and Protection of Fundamental Rights, Egea, 2022; Judicial Protection of Fundamental Rights on the Internet, Hart, 2021; Codice della privacy e data protection, Giuffrè, 2021 with R. D’Orazio, G. Finocchiaro and G. Resta); Blockchain and Public Law. Global Challenges in the Era of Decentralisation, Cheltenham, 2021 with G. De Gregorio); Copyright and Fundamental Rights in the Digital Age, Edward Elgar, 2020 with G.M. Riccio and M. Bassini); La riforma del mercato audiovisivo europeo, Giappichelli, 2020 with G. Abbamonte and E. Apa); Hate speech and disinformation: A European Constitutional Perspective, EGEA, 2020 with G. Pitruzzella); Diritto dell’informazione e dei media, Giappichelli, 2019 with G.E. Vigevani, C. Melzi d’Eril, M. Cuniberti and M. Bassini); Commentario alla Carta dei diritti fondamentali dell’Unione europea, Giuffrè, 2017 with R. Mastroianni, O. Razzolini, S. Allegrezza and F. Pappalardo).
He has a decade of experience as of counsel of a Law Firm leader in the field of media law.

Amongst his most recent appointments at national and international level, from march to november 2021 Prof Pollicino has been designated by the Italian Communications Authority as an expert within the fact-finding investigations relating to services offered on online platforms launched by resolution 44/21/CONS and is also an independent member of the Management Board of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights and member of the Global Partneship of Articial Intelligence, OECD. He is also a member of the scientific committee of Fondazione Leonardo – Civiltà delle Macchine. In the past, Prof Pollicino has been a member of the group of experts charged with drawing up a national artificial intelligence strategy, which was set up by the Ministry of Economic Development in 2019, as well as being a member of the committee of experts of the Ministry of Justice instructed to draft legislation to bring Italian law into line with the GDPR. He also has been designated by the Italian Communications Authority as an expert for the Digital Copyright enforcement Regulation and for the White Paper on TV 2.0. Prof Pollicino is currently an Honest Independent Broker for Drafting the ‘European code of practice on disinformation.

Prof Pollicino is a member of the editorial committee of the journals, among others, ”Global Privacy Law Journal”, ”Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht”, ”Opinio Juris in Comparatione”, “European Law Journal” and ”Sistema penale”.

Richard Wronka is a Director in Ofcom’s Online Safety Policy Team, and has been involved in Ofcom’s online safety policy work since the outset in 2018. Mr Wronka’s responsibilities include policy input into our advice around the Online Safety Bill, and overseeing our engagement with the platforms we will be regulating in the new regime. As Ofcom establishes its new Online Safety Group structure Richard will transition to a role as Director of Supervision.

Previously, Mr Wronka was a Director in Ofcom’s Strategy Team, where he led high-profile projects such as the public interest assessment of the proposed Fox-Sky merger and Ofcom’s efforts to improve rural mobile coverage. He joined Ofcom from HM Treasury, where he oversaw media and broadcasting policy, and was also responsible for policy relating to digital, aviation and water infrastructure.

Rosa Barcelo was appointed Partner, McDermott Will & Emery in April 2022.

Rosa Barcelo has nearly 20 years of experience in European data protection and privacy, including expertise in compliance and policy. Her experience covers diverse sectors and is drawn from working in private practice, as well as in public service with the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and the European Commission.

Rosa Barcelo advises clients on data protection and privacy, including compliance with the GDPR and the e-Privacy Directive. She has a particular focus on cutting-edge ICT issues, including AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles, programmatic advertising and online tracking technologies.

Prior to McDermott Will & Emery, Ms Barcelo was Partner and Deputy Co-Chair, Data Privacy & Cybersecurity Practice Group, Squire Patton Boggs.

Ms Barcelo was also Deputy Head of Unit of the Cybersecurity and Digital Privacy Unit of DG CONNECT in the European Commission, where she led legislative deliberations over the proposed e-Privacy Regulation.  During her tenure with the European Commission, Ms Barcelo also worked in the Data Protection Unit where she was responsible for international data transfer issues (BCRs and adequacy decisions). Ms Barcelo’s work with the office of the EDPS focused on a wide range of ICT-related issues. In these roles, Ms Barcelo worked closely with national supervisory authorities participating in the former Article 29 Working Party (now the European Data Protection Board).

Ms Barcelo has also worked in academia and as a private lawyer in the Brussels offices of various international law firms, where she advised on EU privacy and data protection issues, as well electronic commerce and technology laws.

Ms Barcelo is a frequent lecturer on data protection, privacy and cybersecurity.

Sabine Verheyen has been a Member of the European Parliament for the German Christian Democrats (CDU) since 2009. In 2019 she was elected as Chairwoman of the Committee for Culture and Education, after having served as coordinator for the European People`s Party in this committee for five years. She focuses in particular on education and media policy as well as digital agenda issues. Furthermore, she is a member of the special committee on disinformation. As former mayor of Aachen (1999 to 2009), she focuses additionally on issues that are of relevance to the local authorities.

Thomas Ekman Jørgensen is Director of Policy Co-ordination at EUA. His responsibilities include ensuring coherent policies for universities as well as overall policy development and managing cross-cutting issues with policy relevance.

Dr Jørgensen worked with EUA as Head of the Council for Doctoral Education for a number of years. He studied History and German Studies at the University of Copenhagen and the Free University Berlin. He received his PhD in History and Civilisation from the European University Institute in Florence in 2004 and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Copenhagen and at the Université libre de Bruxelles before coming to EUA. As a historian, he has worked on students and left-wing movements around 1968. He has also published on youth movements during World War I.

Thomas Spiller was named Vice President, Global Public Policy, Europe, Middle East & Africa of The Walt Disney Company in September 2011. Mr Spiller serves as head of the Brussels EU office for the company and drives the company’s global public policy initiatives throughout the region.

Previously, Mr Spiller was Vice President, Global Public Policy for SAS, the leader in business analytics software and services, a company he joined in 2007. Before working at SAS, Mr Spiller was Counsel, Transport & Energy, Europe, Middle East, Africa at General Electric. He joined GE in 2003 after over seven years working in the nuclear industry as International Affairs Manager for Orano, the global nuclear services company. Mr Spiller joined Areva from the Office of the French Prime Minister where he was a Policy Officer for two years.

Mr Spiller graduated from La Sorbonne University in Paris with degrees in Law, Political Science, Defense, and International Relations.

Dr Tobias Schmid is Director of the Media Authority of North Rhine-Westphalia. He is also elected as the European Affairs Commissioner of the Conference of Directors of the German Media Authorities (DLM).

Dr Schmid is also Chairman of the Federal Media Committee of the German Music Council. Since 1st April 2021, he is also a Member of the Expert Committee for Communication and Information of the German UNESCO-Commission.

Dr Schmid holds a doctorate in law.

William Carter is Global Policy Lead for Responsible AI, AI Governance and AI Regulation at Google, leading Google’s engagements with policymakers on AI governance and regulation, as well as Google’s internal policies around responsible AI development and AI governance. Before joining Google he was Deputy Director of the Technology Policy Program at CSIS, where his research focused on international technology policy and AI innovation and governance. He has testified before the U.S. Congress and spoken at events and conferences around the world, and participated in Track 1.5 dialogues on cyber and AI policy with China, Russia, India, Australia and the EU. Before joining CSIS, he covered geopolitical risk and the technology and telecom sectors at Goldman Sachs.

Mr Carter graduated from New York University with a B.A. in economics.