About ELSA Alumni
Our Mission & Vision
Our Vision: Towards A Just World
ELSA Alumni promotes a just world in which there is respect for human dignity and cultural diversity - by leading with courage and integrity, by amplifying each other’s impact, and by supporting the next generation of ELSA leaders.
Our Mission: Leading By Example.
ELSA Alumni is a unique network that brings together a diverse group of Alumni from all walks of life, from different generations and from different countries. By joining forces, we aim to make the world more just every day, by:
- Inspiring others in a community of like-minded peers.
- Helping ethical, impactful leaders to grow, develop and be recognized.
- Actively advocating for a just world and inspiring others to do so.
- Giving back by supporting the vision, activities and talent of ELSA.
Board of Directors
The Board of Directors is responsible for the strategic direction and day to day management and operation of ELSA Alumni. The Board of Directors consists of a President, a Vice-President and a Treasurer, as well as up to five additional members. Members of the Board of Directors are elected by the General Assembly of ELSA Alumni that meets once a year.
THÉSA PRISSE
President
After her law degree and her year in Brussels on the ELSA International Board, Thésa worked for four years in a large law firm in Rotterdam. She then moved to Shell, where she found her calling in the commercial division, remaining with Shell for 25 years. Until early 2022, she worked as a Senior Commercial Advisor in Shell's Deal Delivery outfit for many years and is experienced in complex commercial and technical negotiations with governments, oil, gas and new energies companies. She has a proven affinity for stakeholder engagement, collaboration, coaching and motivating others. She has a passion for shaping long-term, equitable relationships between project stakeholders and now works part-time for Wetlands International on ecosystem restoration projects. In her role as ELSA Alumni's Director for Rule of Law Education from 2020-22, she was instrumental in developing the project and creating a full, interactive curriculum for the Rule of Law program. Thésa is now president of ELSA Alumni.
KATJA SCHAGER
Vice-President
Katja is a legal professional from Austria with a demonstrated history in an international environment, currently working as a Policy Advisor for the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in the office in Brussels.
SHANNON MCLAUGHLIN
Treasurer
Shannon was President of ELSA QMUL, Director for Financial Management at ELSA UK and also Treasurer of ELSA QMUL. She works as an Oceans Campaigns Assistant at Environmental Justice Foundation in London.
SAMUEL EHLERS
Director for Professional Development
Samuel was Vice-President for Academic Activities of ELSA Germany in 2017/18. After completing his first state examination in Göttingen, he is now studying International Law and Global Governance at the Tilburg University, with a specific focus on matters of Global Sustainability. Samuel is responsible for the Professional Development pillar of ELSA Alumni.
MARIA FERNANDES
Director for Events
Maria is an experienced Senior Commercial Account Manager with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. She is a Senior Legal and Commercial Account Manager at Fujitsu. Currently she is the Treasurer of ELSA Alumni.
PIERANGELO GRAZIANI
Director for ELSA Alumni's Giving Back Program
Pierangelo is a founding father of the alumni association of ELSA, and has been an active member for nearly 20 years.
LISA MEAD
Director for Rule of Law Education Program
Lisa is a former City of London Commercial solicitor, now focusing on legal activism in the areas of Earth Law and Rights of Nature.
GARRY PARKER
Director for Funraising
Garry is a Board Professional and Public Affairs adviser to C-suite execs and MSME (micro-, small and medium-sized enterprise). He is a facilitator, trainer, cross-cultural coach and mentor to politicians, private and public sector personalities in Finland/Nordics. Garry co-founded the Royal Commonwealth Society Nordic-Baltic Hub 2017, and established the office base and executive team in central Helsinki.
SANDRA POGLITSCH
Head of IT
Sandra was Vice President for Marketing of ELSA WU, Editor ELSA Austria Law Review and also Director for STEP of ELSA WU. She works as an Referent for the Lower Austrian Economic Chamber.
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board of ELSA Alumni is a group of Alumni who are especially committed to supporting the development of a stable, professional and dynamic alumni network that brings together a diverse group of Alumni, adds value to their professional and personal development and that truly supports ELSA.
Advisory Board Members do so by pledging their financial support and expertise to ELSA Alumni. Without their support and engagement, we could not offer discounted fees to career starters, reward scholarships or realise many of our membership benefits.
Advisory Board members also act as “ambassadors” of ELSA Alumni: their commitment to ELSA Alumni is intended as a clear signal to all alumni that ELSA Alumni is a diverse and unique network that Alumni from all generations and life stages will benefit from joining.
Membership of the Advisory Board is open to all alumni and we are always on the lookout for new champions and supporters! If you are interested in joining the Advisory Board and would like to help ELSA Alumni thrive and support the community, please contact the President of ELSA Alumni, Thesa Prisse for further information.
Advisory Board Members
MORITZ AM ENDE
Moritz is a partner at Schima Mayer Starlinger attorneys-at-law in Vienna, Austria. Before being admitted to the bar in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, he clerked for five years for the President of the EFTA Court in Luxembourg. He specialises in European and Austrian competition and energy law. Moritz was VP Marketing of a German local group, ELSA-Konstanz, during his studies and later on served four years each as President of ELSA Alumni Germany, and thereafter of the ELSA Lawyers Society (now ELSA Alumni), respectively. Furthermore, he is a proud founding member of ELSA Luxembourg. He believes in a Europe united in diversity, mutual respect and the rule of law, and in inspiring the next generation of young lawyers for those ideals.
LUCA BARBERO
Luca was a founding member and first President of the ELSA TORINO and also of ELSA ITALY in 1987. He was also amongst the founding members of the ELS (ELSA Lawyers Society) in 1991 in Vienna and Member of the ELS International Executive Committee (in charge of Marketing) in 1994/1995.
Luca has a J.D. from Turin Law University and a Master’s in International Business from University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and is an Italian and European Trademark Attorney. After seven years in a leading IP firm where he became Partner in 1999, he established in 2000 Studio Barbero SpA, a Turin based IP Law Firm focusing on the monitoring and enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights on the Internet. With a team of 18 partners and associates, he advises in this area of law multinational corporations operating in various fields including luxury products, Formula 1, fast-moving consumer goods, coffee production, motorcycles, pharmaceutical and also International Law firms. Luca also founded and is one of the Directors of Barbero & Associates Ltd, an ICANN accredited registrar company based in London, specialized in the registration and management of Corporate domain names worldwide.
Luca is a World Intellectual Property Organization Domain Name Panelist since 2000 and serves on different panels as arbitrator and mediator including the Czech Arbitration Center based Prague and the Chamber of Commerce of Milan. He is also a Professor at the “Master of Laws (LL.M.) in Intellectual Property” (WIPO Worldwide Academy and the University of Turin), at the “LL.M in International Trade Law” (University of Turin) and a regular speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide on domain names and mediation/arbitration issues. He is a member of the ADR Committee of INTA, Cyberspace Team of MARQUES, Internet Committee of ECTA, Intellectual Property Constituency of ICANN and serves in the Board of Directors of the Brand Registry Group.
DANIELE BARINI
Daniele was the Vice President of Marketing for ELSA Italy in 1996, and President in 1997 and 1998.
He is currently CEO of Gestione Servizi Assicurativi SRL and Help SRL, Loss adjusting companies, and Chairman of Proclaims SRL, an Insurtech company.
Daniele is the President of ANPRE ( Associazione Nazionale Periti Rami Elementari).
SUSANNE BEYER SVENDSEN
Susanne was President of ELSA Germany 1990/1991 and Director of the Law Review, ELSA International 1992/1993. She is currently responsible for compliance at the Danish Rail. Previously she was working with procurement and contract management in the private industry, primarily in the telco business. She is a qualified lawyer in Germany and Denmark and started her career as a corporate lawyer in Copenhagen and Berlin.
JANE DEANE BABB
Jane is Chief Development Officer at Alexandra College, a school for girls in Dublin. Having sat on the boards of a number of theatre companies, she currently chairs Shift a theatre initiative to drive social change.
She started professional life as a corporate lawyer, specialising in employment law. She set up and led the talent acquisition and new professional development programme at Arthur Cox in Dublin. She then led business development strategy and client relationship policy at Swiss law firm, NKF in Zurich. An executive and business coach she has coached leaders and teams from all sectors and across industries.
Jane was President of Elsa Ireland and Director for Training Elsa International a long time ago. She works to put the conditions in place for a sound society grounded in the rule of law, human dignity and rules-based international cooperation.
ANDREW BROOKE
Andrew was President of ELSA England and Wales in 1989-90 and a founder member of the ELSA Lawyers’ Society in 1991. Until June 2019 he worked for the Association of Financial Markets in Europe (based in London) covering primary wholesale capital markets. Previously he worked in the legal/compliance departments of Credit Suisse, Nomura and Credit Lyonnais in various roles. He is a qualified solicitor (England and Wales).
REYES CHARLE
Reyes is the gender adviser of the EU Special Representative in Kosovo. After graduating from Law School at Complutense University in Madrid (where she became one of the first members of ELSA Spain), and a tour of European Studies at the ULB in Brussels, she started a career in human rights within in International organisations, which took her first to Latina America and Africa. For the last 20 years she has lived in the Western Balkans, where she has worked as a legal adviser, as well as a gender and human rights adviser for the OSCE and the EU. Although she never hold any position within ELSA, she was involved for years in different ELSA activities, organising two conferences in Madrid and attending various seminars and Board meetings, where she represented ELSA Madrid. Since then, she has kept in contact with many former ELSA friends.
TITIA COPPES
Titia studied law at the University of Groningen as well as the University of Utrecht from which she graduated in 1989. Titia was a member of ELSA Groningen and was the Assistant of the Director of the first ELSA Handbook ever written.
After moving to Haarlem, she became a lawyer at van Koppen en Jager, a small law firm. In December 1998, Titia became the owner of her own law firm, Kochheim en Coppes advocaten en mediators, in Aerdenhout. She specialises in national and international Family law, as a lawyer and a mediator. She is also a specialised lawyer in International Child abduction cases. The ELSA Alumni network has been a great platform for getting to know colleagues from all over the world, whenever she has questions about Family law in the countries where her clients come from. Helping parents go through a difficult period in their life but not forgetting the interests of the children involved is Titia’s passion.
In July 2019, Titia started as an honorary Judge at the court in The Hague, hoping to be able to have a positive effect on parents and their children in the decisions she needs to make.
HUBERT GAMBS
Hubert is a director in the European Commission dealing with the modernisation of the Single Market, in particular in the areas of services and digital platforms. He has worked over 20 years in the European institutions, in areas like competition, external relations, regional policy, maritime affairs and fisheries. During his time in ELSA, he was president of ELSA Innsbruck, Vice-President Academic Activities of ELSA Austria and Director for Institutional Relations for the International Board of ELSA in 1993-1994.
TIAGO MAYAN GONÇALVES
Tiago joined ELSA in 1996 and was active in several positions, such as President of ELSA Portugal in 2000-2001. He subsequently joined the Alumni network, being President of the ELSA Alumni in 2009-2010. He resides in Porto, Portugal, his native city. Tiago works on the private sector as a lawyer and as the General/Board Counsel to Maiêutica, which operates two higher education institutions. He is also the President of the Jurisdicional Council of Iniciativa Liberal, a Portuguese political party.
PIERANGELO GRAZIANI
Pierangelo is a founding father of the alumni association of ELSA, and has been an active member for nearly 20 years.
PAUL HERMANT
Corporate & finance partner at Bird & Bird LLP in Brussels
Professor at the ULB (University of Brussels)
Mainly former president of ELSA-Belgium and Director in charge of the ELSA Law Review
FERNANDO HERRERA INARAJA
He qualified as a lawyer in 1993 after his legal studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Universitat Konstanz (ERASMUS). At that time, war broke up in former Yugoslavia where many of his ELSA friends were from, and he oriented his career to humanitarian assistance in which he spent from 1993 to 2000. He initially worked for the European Community Task Force as Humanitarian Aid Monitor for Croatian IDPs, followed by four years at the European Community Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) as Field Officer in Serbia and Head of the Vojvodina Regional Office (Novi Sad). From 1998 to 2000 he worked for the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) as Head of Office and Human Rights Officer in Trebinje (Bosnia & Herzegovina). At the beginning of the XXI century he specialized in asylum and immigration law, and worked until 2008 for the Spanish Refugee Council (CEAR, Comisión Española de Ayuda al Refugiado) as Head of Valencian Community delegation and Head of European Projects and International relations (2005-2007). He participated in World Social Forums in Bamako (Mali) and Karachi (Pakistán), and the organisation of World Social Forum on Migrations in Rivas Vaciamadrid June 2006. During 2006 and 2007 he was Director at the Executive Council for Southern European refugee-assisting NGOs of the ECRE (European Council for Refugees and Exiles). He became a civil society expert on externalization of EU, participating in encounters on this issue in Morocco and Crimea. He also participated in fact finding missions on expulsions of migrants and human rights violations that took him to the desert in Mauritania. From 2008 to 2012 he worked at public diplomacy institutions of the Spanish Ministry Foreign Affairs (“Casa Sefarad-Israel & Casa Mediterraneo”). After a short period as attorney, when the conflict started in Ukraine in April 2014 he joined the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to that country, where he has worked since then as Monitoring Officer focusing on Human Dimension issues, both in Luhansk (where he was one month captive of rebel forces in June 2014) and in Kyiv. During his ELSA years, Fernando founded and headed ELSA Madrid from 1989 to 1992, and he was the first director of the Studies Abroad Program in the International Board, promoting and coordinating the first guide “Legal Studies in Europe 1992-1993”. .
VOLKER HIRSCH
Volker is a Partner at Amadeus Capital Partners an early-stage Venture Capital Fund where he invests in the areas of AI, human-machine interfaces, autonomous systems, enterprise software and medical technologies.
Volker has founded or co-founded 6 companies. He is currently the co-founder of Blue Beck, a mobile development house, a Venture Partner at Emerge Education, Europe's leading EdTech investor and an angel investor in companies like Pi-Top, Bibblio (where he is also Chairman) and Wonde. Previously, Volker was the Chief Strategy Officer at Scoreloop, a mobile social gaming platform with 450m users at its peak, which was sold to BlackBerry where he subsequently served as Global Head of Business Development – Games.
Volker started his career as a corporate lawyer at Luther & Partner in Hamburg. Director for Fundraising, ELSA International 1993, VP Marketing, ELSA International 1994.
THOMAS JACOBSEN
Thomas Jacobsen, graduated from the University in Oslo, Norway. Worked as an assistant lawyer for the Royal Norwegian Air Force before spending 10 years with PwC in Malta. Set up my own firm in 2007, and am currently the Managing Director of the firm. We are a licensed Company Service Provider in Malta, involved setting up and administering entities in Malta, providing all relevant compliance services to entities and individuals, including tax, accounting and residence services. My involvement in ELSA started in 1991 and I was involved in local and national level, mainly in the Academic Activities sphere. I was involved at international level in 1994 as director of SAP and in 1995 as VP S&C. I have been auditor of ELSA in 1999 and treasurer of the ELSA Lawyers' Society.
MARTIN JOHANSSON
Martin Johansson, juris dr h.c., specializes in EU and competition law, in particular state aid, public procurement, the four freedoms, regulatory issues as well as the construction and application of EU regulations and directives. He has more than 30 years’ experience of EU law, including more than 10 years at the EU Court of Justice, and acts as counsel in proceedings before the European Commission, the CJEU and before Swedish courts and tribunals.
WOJCIECH KOSTRZEWA
Wojciech Kostrzewa is a Polish manager and entrepreneur, CEO of Billon Group - a Polish-British fintech company, president of the Polish Business Roundtable. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Stadler Rail, member of supervisory boards of the Ergo Hestia Group’s companies, owner and president of the supervisory board of Pascal Publishing House, and investor and chairman of Quedex Bitcoin Derivatives Exchange. He held the position of president & CEO of ITI Group, chairman of the supervisory board of TVN, president of BRE Bank and Polish Development Bank. He was an advisor to the Polish Minister of Finance, Leszek Balcerowicz. He graduated from the Faculty of Economics at the University of Kiel in 1987 and in 1979-1981 studied law at the University of Warsaw. In 1981, together with four other students from Austria, Hungary, and West Germany, he founded the European Law Students' Association (ELSA). He is a member of the Advisory Board of ELSA since 2019.
ANU MATTILA
Anu Mattila specializes in international corporate law and cross-border M&A. Anu is an authoritative and prominent expert, specifically on transactions involving a Russian dimension, where she has over 20 years of experience. Anu advises clients on international corporate transactions and cross-border investment projects with a particular emphasis on real estate, financing and industrial investments, as well as international contractual arrangements. She also advises companies on sanctions-related issues and other corporate compliance matters.
MORAY MCLAREN
Moray is Partner and co-founder of Lexington, the global law firm consultants.
He advises the top independent law firms as they review their practice focus, governance, remuneration and ownership models. He also assists the global law firms as they enter new markets. Over recent years his work has focused on continental Europe, Latin America, Africa and India. He has spoken and published widely on law firm strategy and was the inaugural Chair of the Strategy Group of the IBA´s Law Firm Management Committee (LFMC). Moray is also an Associate Professor at IE Business School, where he teaches on their MBA program, and a faculty member of the IE Financial Times Corporate Learning Alliance. He is a Fellow of Harvard´s Institute of Coaching and a member of the Möller Institute at the University of Cambridge.
Moray was the Treasurer of ELSA UK and then ELSA International.
WOJCIECH WIEWIOROWSKI
Wojciech Wiewiórowski is the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) - elected for the term 2014-2019 as an Assistant Supervisor he has become an acting EDPS after the death of G.Buttarelli in August 2019.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski was the VP AA ELSA Poland (1992-94), SecGen ELSA Poland (1994-95) and Dir. Computerised Information of ELSA International (1995-97) as well as the President of ELSA Lawyers Society (2000-2001).
In his professional life he is the adjunct professor at the Law Faculty, University of Gdańsk (Poland) where he was the head of Legal IT Department (2003-2010). Since 2006 he has been working for public administration. He was among others adviser in the field of e-government and information society for the Minister of Interior and Administration, as well as Vice-president of the Regulatory Commission of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. In 2008 he took over the post of the Director of the Informatisation Department at the Ministry of Interior and Administration. He also represented Poland in committee on Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (the ISA Committee) assisting the European Commission. He was the member of the Archives Council to the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
In 2010 he was elected by Polish Parliament for the post of the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data (Polish data protection commissioner) which he served by November 2014 being re-elected for the second term in 2014. In that capacity, he was also Vice Chair of the Working Party Art. 29 from February until November 2014. In December 2014, he was appointed by the common accord of the European Parliament and the Council for the post of Assistant European Data Protection Supervisor.
LENITA LINDSTRÖM
Lenita was Secretary-General of ELSA from 1991-1992. She is currently a Senior Expert a the European Commission (Directorate General for Health and Food Safety) where she is working on international relations in the field of pharmaceuticals. She graduated (LL.M) from the University of Helsinki in 1992 and then moved to Brussels as Secretary-General of the first ELSA Board that was (partially) based in Brussels. She is the Vice-President of ELSA Alumni since 2019.
BENITA LIPPS
Benita is a senior association leader and non-profit strategist. She's working as director of the DaVinci Institute Brussels and Head of Association Management at Interel EU. A great ELSA fan, but sadly never a member, Benita has worked with the last 3 ELSA IB's on strategic planning and organisational transformation. She also acted as key advisor to ELS in its transformation to ELSA ALUMNI..
FREDRIK LOFTHAGEN
Fredrik Lofthagen is an independent management consultant and senior advisor at the GR Group, which is the leading government relations and public affairs consultancy in Japan and Korea with offices in Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, London and Washington DC.
Drawing on close to 25 years’ experience as a consultancy leader, he leads the development and implementation of the GR Group’s growth strategy, including the build out and consolidation of the company’s corporate functions, governance structure, mission and brand. He also provides strategic advice and campaign support to a growing number of clients.
Before relocating to Japan, he was the CEO of Brussels based public affairs consultancy Interel for 13 years where he earned his reputation as one of Europe’s leading public affairs professionals, supporting companies and organisations across a multitude of industries and policy areas.
Growing Interel by 400%, he initiated and spearheaded the company’s management buyout in 2011 as well as the acquisition of public affairs and association management companies in Brussels, Berlin, London and Washington DC. He also established green field operations in Beijing and Delhi and built out a global network of affiliated firms covering 70 countries around the world.
He started his career as a lawyer in Brussels in 1992 before moving into public affairs as an EU representative at the joint Brussels office of the Law Society of England & Wales and the Law Society of Scotland. He joined Interel in 1996 to create and lead the development of its European Affairs practice, which earned him the prestigious SABRE award in 2005 in the category public affairs consultancy of the year.
He holds a Master of Laws from the University of Lund. Besides his native Swedish, he speaks English and French.
DAGMAR MEKKING
Dagmar was active in Germany (ELSA Passau) in 1990 – 1993. She became ELSA Germany Board member for S&C and was the main organizer of the first ELSA Conference ever organized (“European Integration – a challenge for law” 19-22 November1992 , Munich/Bernried). She lived in the ELSA-house in Brussels in 1995 during an internship at the European Commission. She is a qualified lawyer in Germany and has a PhD from the University of Amsterdam (NL) in the area of mediation.
Moving to the Netherlands in 1999, she started a career in Human Resources in Energy industry (Royal Dutch Shell). After 16 years she left Shell to become the CEO of Foundation Care4BrittleBones. The charity has been set up to improve quality of life of people living with OI (Osteogenesis Imperfecta). Dagmar has 3 children and one of them has OI. Next to her work for the charity, Dagmar has a consulting business.
ANJA MENGEL
- Partner, Schweibert Lessmann & Partner, German specialized law firm, since 2019
- Attorney, specialized in employment & labor law, Berlin, since 1999 (i. a. with GleissLutz, Linklaters, WilmerHale)
- Professor, Bucerius Law School, Hamburg, since 2017
- Member of the Board of German Lawyers’ Association (Deutscher Juristentag e.V.), since 2014
- Member of boards and committees in various German professional organisations
- Graduate Studies (Master of Laws), Columbia University, New York, NY, 1995-1996
- Graduate Studies (Ph.D.), University of Cologne, 1994-1996
- ERASMUS Studies (Diplome en Droit), University of Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, 1991-1992
- ELSA: Secretary to the International Vice President for Academic Activities, 1990-1991
- ELSA: Member of the Board of ELSA Germany (Academic Activities), 1989-1990
KAROLINA MIKOLAJOW
Karolina was VP STEP of ELSA from 1997-1998 and President of ELSA Gdansk in 1999. She is currently an Executive Director at UBS Investment Bank. Previously she was a Head of Risk at GE Capital. She graduated from University of Gdansk, Faculty of Law in 2001.
PATRICK OLIVER
Patrick was Secretary-General of ELSA from 1989-1990 and President from 1990-1991. He is currently a Senior Advisor at Interel and Executive Director of IP2Innovate. Previously he was a Managing Director at Accenture. He is a qualified lawyer in the UK and the US and has been President of ELSA Alumni since 2019.
ENDER ÖZEKE
Ender Özeke (born 1969). Founding President of ELSA Turkey, 1989-1992. I am a graduate of Istanbul University Law School 1991. I did an LLM in Vrije Universiteit Brussels, Program on International Cooperation, in 1995 and completed my PhD. on Administrative Law at İstanbul University Law School in 2004. I worked in Hergüner Bilgen Özeke, a major Turkish law firm still in existence, as a name partner until 2016. After leaving the large law firm environment, I held a number of board memberships, which I have since left, and am still pursuing a number of non-profit projects as well as working in an advisory capacity with a number of lawyers. Until recently, I have worked as a freelance advisor on project financings but since the beginning of 2019, I am working as a an in-house advisor in ERG Group International, a group of companies active in project development and financing in heavy infrastructure sectors.
TOMÁŠ PAVLÍČEK
Tomáš Pavlíček was active in ELSA Czech Republic since 1994, he was member of the OC of CM 1994 in Prague and head of OC of CM 1997 in Prague and President of ELSA Czech Republic in 1997. After competion of studies he held various positions in management of telco, logistic and utility companies and advised to various M&A transactions in the CE region.
Currently he helds position of COO of HELIOT Group, dedicated IoT network operator and IoT solution provider and position of supervisory board member of ZSE Energia, part of E.ON Group and one of the biggest energy trader in Slovakia.
CATHARINA PIPER
Catharina Piper, lawyer and partner at Moll Wendén Law firm, has 20 years of professional and specialized experience in the field of public procurement and procurement related law. She is ranked as one of the best in her field in Europe. Catharina has also been the General Counsel of the largest private healthcare and care group in the Nordic countries. Catharina has extensive experience from among others commercial law, commercial social and administrative law and dispute resolution within these fields. Catharina Piper is also one of the co-authors to The commentary on Swedish Public Procurement Act, has written reports for the The National Agency for Public Procurement and have lectured on public procurement for leading universities and institutions.
Catharina Piper was active in ELSA during 1993-1996. First as a Treasurer for ELSA Lund and ELSA Sweden and then as a Fundraiser for the 1996 IB.
THÉSA PRISSE
Having worked for many years as Senior Commercial Advisor in Shell's Deal Delivery outfit, Thésa is experienced in complex commercial and technical negotiations with governments, oil, gas and new energies companies. Externally focused with proven affinity for stakeholder engagement, collaboration, coaching and motivating others.
After her law degree and her year in Brussels on the ELSA International Board, she worked for four years in a large law firm in Rotterdam. Then she moved to Shell where she found her calling in the commercial function, leading and/or negotiating new business development projects for the upstream, integrated gas and new energies businesses. At the moment she coordinates and performs assurance on contracts negotiations for large deals and coaches the younger commercial people.
She has a passion for shaping long term, equitable relationships between project stakeholders and volunteers in nature conservation (projects).
BARTEK RACZKOWSKI
Advocate, founder, currently the Managing Partner. Specialising in labour law for over 20 years. He has been advising the biggest international and Polish companies. In 1993-1995 he was an assistant in the Department of Labour Law of Jagiellonian University. Lawyer and later on, a partner at Sołtysiński Kawecki & Szlęzak – 1995-2007. He is the author of many scientific and popularizing articles in specialist periodicals and newspapers. Since 2017 Chairman of European Employment Lawyers Association, and since 2008 the member of its Board. Since In 2016-2018 Chair of Employment Committee of the Warsaw Bar. Since 2009 member of the editorial board of Monitor Prawa Pracy (Employment Law Monitor). In 2014-2017 member of Steering Committee of International Forum on Employment Law. The founder and, in the years 2013-2015, Chair of the Employment Law Association (Stowarzyszenie Prawa Pracy). Member of International Bar Association, as well as American Immigration Lawyers Association and American Bar Association. During studies he was Vice-President of the International Board of European Law Students Association (ELSA), and President of the ELSA Cracow. From many years he has been mentioned as a leader in labour law by all renowned Polish and international publications such as Chambers&Partners, Legal500, Rzeczpospolita.
LUKASZ REDZINIAK
Attorney-at-law with more than 20 years’ experience both in private practice and public bodies, member of the District Bar Association in Warsaw.
Between 1990 and 1991 worked as an Assistant at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the Jagiellonian University. During the years 1991-1992 in-house Lawyer at Consoft Consulting sp. z o.o. Since 1997 to 2000 worked as an Attorney - individual practice closely co-operating with Dewey Ballantine sp. z o.o. In the years 1993-2007 he worked in the law firm Dewey and LeBoeuf LLP, in 2001 he was appointed a partner. Then, in the years 2007-2009 he was Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Poland. Since 2009 a Partner and Managing Partner at the Warsaw office of the Law Firm Studnicki, Płeszka, Ćwiąkalski, Górski sp. k. In 2013 became a Member of the Board at Kulczyk Investments S.A. The same year also appointed a member of the Supervisory Board at Firma Oponiarska Dębica S.A. Board member of QKR Namibia Navachab Gold Mine (since 2015), Autostrada Wielkopolska and Autostrada Wielkopolska II (both since 2017). Chairman of the Board of Directors of Serinus Energy (since 2016) and Director in Kulczyk Privatstiftung (since 2019).
In his legal career he has worked on the largest M&A transactions in the energy, automotive, brewery and mining sectors. He is a graduate of law and political science faculties at the Jagiellonian University.
ANDREAS RICHTER
Dr. Andreas Richter, LL.M., is a partner and a former member of the management board at P+P Pöllath + Partners. Some of Germany's leading family offices, family businesses and foundations as well as their peers abroad are the client basis for Andreas Richter's work as a legal and tax adviser. Andreas is widely acknowledged as one of Germany's preeminent private client lawyers. The quality of his cross-border work was recognised when he was elected as academician of the International Academy of Estate and Trust Law. The international Who’s Who Legal Private Clients 2015 lists Andreas Richter among the 15 “Most Highly Regarded Individuals” worldwide.
CARMEN ROMERO MATUTE
Carmen graduated in 1991 from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and then moved to Brussels, where she was a member of the International Team in 1992 & 1993. She moved back to Spain in 1995, and is currently the Director-General of the Spanish Federation of Enterprises for the Cadiz Region.
COLIN SCICLUNA
After qualifying as a lawyer in 1993, Colin has been a diplomat since 1994, serving in Brussels, Dublin, Helsinki, New York and Vienna, the latter as Ambassador of Malta. He was a member of the team that negotiated Malta's accession to the EU in 2004. He has also worked for the EU, as an advisor to High Representative Javier Solana, a member of the Cabinets of High Representative Cathy Ashton and of Commissioner Johannes Hahn and Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Gulf region in the European External Action Service. He is currently the Chief of Staff of the Vice President of the European Commission responsible for Democracy and Demography. The experience in ELSA was a unique preparation for a career in foreign policy as well as EU and multilateral affairs. In his long involvement with ELSA, Colin was successively President of ELSA Malta (1988-92), Editor of Synergy (1992) and Vice President for Marketing on the International Board (1993).
RICHARD SJØQVIST
Richard Sjøqvist is currently Chairman and partner of the Norwegian lawfirm BAHR and head of BAHR’s Banking and Finance practice. Before joining BAHR, Richard was in-house counsel at a leading Nordic bank, DNB ASA, where he headed the bank’s legal debt capital and restructuring teams. He has held various positions within ELSA, and assisted in establishing ELSA Norway and several other local ELSA branches throughout Europe. Richard was from 1987 – 1989 the Secretary-General of ELSA.
PHILIPP VON TROTHA
Philipp was President of ELSA Germany 1996/1997. He is currently CEO at the Association Print and Media NorthEast. Previously he was Co-Founder and CEO of REALEYES, which was sold to FEV Group in 2018. REALEYES was a tech startup that developed, produced and marked glasses-free 3D displays based on light field technology for the advertising and automotive lighting industry. He is a qualified lawyer in Germany.