IIC Italy Chapter Webinar: The governance of Telecoms markets – Competition and investments in the EECC

Alexandre de Streel is professor of European law at the University of Namur, Hauser Global Fellow at New York University Law School and visiting professor at the College of Europe (Bruges) and SciencesPo Paris. Dr de Streel is also academic director at the Brussels think-tank Centre on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), chair of the expert group on the online platform economy advising the European Commission and part-time judge at the Belgian Competition Authority.

His main areas of research are regulation and competition policy in the digital economy as well as the legal issues raised by the developments of artificial intelligence.

Previously, Dr de Streel worked for the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister, the Belgian Permanent Representation to the European Union and the European Commission.

Dr de Streel holds a PhD in Law from the European University Institute and a Master Degree in Economics from the University of Louvain.

Dr Annegret Groebel is Director International Relations/Postal Regulation at the German mul-tisector economic regulator Bundesnetzagentur (BNetzA), regulating the following network industries: electricity, gas, telecommunications, postal markets and railways.

Dr Groebel is also President of the Council of European Energy Regu-lators (CEER), a non-profit association representing 39 independent energy regulators.

Dr Groebel has worked for BNetzA since 1998. She has been CEER President since January 2019 and was a Vice-President of CEER as of 2012. She was appointed Vice-Chair of the International Confed-eration of Energy Regulators (ICER) in June 2020 which was con-firmed for a second term in August 2023. She has also chaired the CEER Market Integrity and Transparency (MIT) Working Group since 2013. She is a member of the Board of Regulators of the Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). She has excellent knowledge of the European regulatory framework for electronic communications as well as the regulatory framework for the internal energy market and is actively involved in the work of the Body of Eu-ropean Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC). Since 2020 she has been Chair of the BEREC Office Advisory Group (BAG) and has been Co-Chair of the Remedies WG for many years. She is actively involved in the work of the European Regulators Group for Postal Services (ERGP) and IRG Rail. She is also a member of the OECD’s Network of Economic Regulators (NER) and its Bureau, a working group of the OECD looking at cross-sectoral governance issues of economic regulators. She has experience in advising public authorities on regulatory reform and sector specific regulation in nu-merous projects.

Apart from her professional duties, she has also been lecturing for a considerable time on various subjects in the fields of economics, fi-nance, social policy, trade policy and European Integration, as well as on the regulatory framework in the German and European tele-communications and energy markets at a variety of universities and vocational training academies in Germany, the FSR in Italy, and Switzerland. Dr Groebel is the author of various publications in the field of telecommunications and energy regulation.

Dr Groebel has a doctoral degree in Economics from the University of Mannheim, a M.A. (Master of European Administrative Management) from FH Bund (Bruehl) and a Diploma in Economics from the Univer-sity of Heidelberg.

Antonio Nicita is a Professor  of Economic Policy at Lumsa University, Italy.

Professor Nicita was previously Commissioner of the Italian regulatory authority (AGCOM) until October 2020.  He has also been Associate Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Siena and Visiting Fulbright Professor at Yale University. From 2005-06 he was a Non- Governmental Adviser to the International Competition Network (ICN) for the report on telecommunications sector. From 2006-07 he was an economic adviser to the Italian Minister of Communications and member of the Governmental Unit for the Improvement of Regulation. He was Economic Adviser for the 2009 OECD Regulatory Report on Italy.

Professor Nicita is a member of the Regulatory Scrutiny Board, European Commission, as well as the Board of Directors of the Italian Society of Law and Economics, European Association of Law and Economics and of the International Society for New Institutional Economics (ISNIE).

He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Siena, Italy. His research interests cover industrial organisation, law and economics, competition economics and regulation.

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.

Giacomo Lasorella is, since October 2, 2020, President of Autorità per le Garanzie nelle Comunicazioni (AGCOM), the independent Italian regulatory Authority in charge of electronic communications, media and postal services, recently designated as Digital Services Coordinator pursuant to the DSA regulation.

Mr Lasorella has served as Chairman for 2023 of the European Regulators Group for Audiovisual media services – ERGA, and he has been reappointed for 2024.

Lawyer and expert in legislation and in parliamentary procedure, he has been Deputy Secretary General of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, and he has held for many years the responsibility to assist the President and the vice Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies in conducting the work of the Assembly.

In his long career as parliamentary officer (to which he was appointed after an official public contest), he was also Secretary of the Communication Parliamentary Commission and responsible of the staff to the Parliamentary Commission on radio and television services.

He is a contract Professor of parliamentary law at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome, and he is author of many publications on parliamentary and constitutional law published in relevant academic
journals.

Dr Kamila Kloc joined the European Commission in December 2004.  Since January 2019, she holds the position of Head of Unit Markets in Directorate B Electronic Communications Networks and Services of Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology.

Previously Dr Kloc served as Deputy Head of Cabinet for Vice President Ansip responsible for Digital Single Market (DSM). Prior to joining the Cabinet, she worked at Directorate General for Energy coordinating exemptions from regulatory access rules for gas pipelines. During the Polish Presidency in 2011 she was seconded by the Commission to the President’s office of the Polish Energy Regulatory Authority. Earlier, Ms Kloc worked for 5 years at the Directorate General for Competition dealing with merger and antitrust cases. Prior to joining the Commission, she was employed at the Office for Competition and Consumer Protection in Poland as Adviser to the President.

Kamila Kloc started her professional career in academia and taught at Warsaw School of Economics as Assistant Professor. She has written her PhD on the role of competition policy in the public utilities sector with a special emphasis on telecommunications. She was a Fulbright scholar at the University of California in Berkeley and a Chevening fellow at Oxford University.

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’.

Martin Cave is an economist specialising in competition law and the regulation of network industries, particularly communications. He is also chair of the GB energy regulator, Ofgem.  He has held professorial positions at Warwick Business School and the London School of Economics, where he is now a visiting professor.

From 2012 to 2018 he was an inquiry chair at the UK Competition and Markets Authority. He is the co-author of several books in the regulation field, including Taming the Corporation – How to Regulate for Success, Oxford University Press, 2021 and Spectrum Management, Cambridge University Press, 2015. He has written extensively on many aspects of telecommunications regulation and on spectrum management, and advised regulators and other bodies in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australasia, and Europe. In addition he undertook independent sectoral regulatory reviews for the UK Government in the fields of airports, social housing, spectrum management and water.

Mr Antonio Manganelli is professor of Antitrust and Regulation at LUMSA University (Rome, Italy). Since March 2021, Mr Manganelli has worked as Advisor to the Italian Minister of Economic Development on policies for telecom, media, and digital markets. Mr Manganelli previously served in other public institutions, i.e., the Italian Regulatory Authority for Telecom, Media, and Postal sectors (AGCOM); the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), the European Commission, at the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC); the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD); the Research department at the Italian Central Bank (Banca d’Italia).

Mr Manganelli was also research associate at the European University Institute, in Florence (Italy), where he coordinated the Florence School of Regulation and the Centre for media freedom and media pluralism. Mr Manganelli holds a M.Sc. in Political Science and Economic Policy and a Ph.D. in Law and Economics from the University of Siena (Italy).