Biographical statement
Olu Fasan is a Visiting Fellow in the International Relations Department of the
London School of Economics (LSE), and a member of the LSE’s International
Trade Policy Unit. He is also currently a senior adviser on energy and climate
change policy with the UK Government. In particular, he advises and
develops policy on how to minimise the costs of EU and UK energy and
climate change policies for UK businesses so as to support their international
competitiveness. He also advises on state aid issues, working closely with the
European Commission.
Prior to the energy policy role, he served as a senior policy adviser in the Joint
Trade Policy Unit of the UK’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
(BIS) and Department for International Development (DfID). In this role, he
provided expert advice on trade in services and coordinated the UK’s interests
in the EU’s trade policy. He was responsible for all the cross-cutting EU
events on trade, and represented the UK on the EU’s Trade Policy Committee
in Brussels, which meets every week.
Dr Fasan had previously served as a regulatory reform adviser for the UK
Government, working for the Government’s Better Regulation Executive,
located in the Cabinet Office, where he advised on the legal and policy
processes for regulatory reform in the UK, and developed policy and
legislative instruments for improving the UK’s regulatory environment.
Prior to joining the UK Civil Service in January 2007, Dr Fasan worked in
academia and in international organisations. He was a Tutor at the LSE’s
International Relations Department, teaching Economic Diplomacy and the
Political Economy of International Trade. He has also taught WTO Law and
Legal System, the Law and Practice of International Economic Relations, and
Introduction to International Political Economy at Birkbeck College, University
of London, where he has been a Sessional Lecturer since 2004. He is also an
occasional seminar speaker at the University College London.
Dr Fasan has consulted for several international organisations, including the
European Centre for Development Policy Management (ECDPM) in
Maastricht, the South African Institute of International Affairs, the
Commonwealth Business Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat. He
served as Rapporteur for the International Round Table on Trade Facilitation
in South Africa in 2003, and for the Business Forum of the Commonwealth
Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Nigeria in December 2003.
From March to December 2005, he was a Research Fellow at the World
Trade Organisation (WTO), during which he worked closely with the trade
policy community in Geneva, gave seminar talks, and advised some African
trade missions on their WTO participation and trade policy.
Dr Fasan received his PhD in Law (International Economic Law) from the
London School of Economics in 2006, and a Masters in International Political
Economy (with Distinction) from the School in 2001. He also holds an LLM
from King’s College London. He is a member of the English Bar (called to the
Bar in July 2001) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
He has published widely on international law and policy, particularly from a
development perspective, exploring the impact of international economic law
and treaty obligations on domestic regulatory and institutional reforms in
developing countries. His research uses socio-legal and political economy
analytical tools to explain the domestic effects of international economic law.