SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
Session 101: Lawyers as the backbone of the organization and champions for change
Moderator: Thomas Sabatino
Executive Vice President, General Counsel & Corporate Secretary, Walgreen Co
Thomas J. Sabatino, Jr. is executive vice president, general counsel and corporate
secretary for Walgreen Co., based in Deerfield, Ill. He joined Walgreens in September
2011 after having held general counsel roles with United Airlines, Inc., Schering-Plough
Corporation, Baxter International Inc., and American Medical International, Inc.
After beginning his career with a law firm and then moving into corporate law, Sabatino was named
president and CEO in 1990 of privately-held medical products manufacturer and distributor Secure Medical,
Inc., of Mundelein, Ill. In 1992, he joined American Medical International, a Dallas-based for-profit hospital
chain with 40 acute-care hospitals. Three years later he joined Baxter International and was named senior
vice president and general counsel for the company in 1997. Sabatino moved to Schering-Plough in 2004 as
executive vice president and general counsel for global law and public affairs. In March 2010, he was
appointed general counsel of United Airlines and immediately took a leading role in its merger negotiations
with Continental Airlines, Inc. Sabatino left United Continental Holdings, Inc. in 2011 after completion of the
merger.
Sabatino earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., in 1980 and his
law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1983. He is a member of the bar in
Massachusetts, Illinois and California. He serves on the board of directors of Alliance Boots, GmbH; the
board of directors of Unigene Laboratories, Inc.; the board of directors of the Association of Corporate
Counsel as its Chair; the advisory board of Corporate Pro Bono; and the board of directors of the
International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution.
Richard Bennett
Consultant, Norton Rose LLP
Richard Bennett joined Norton Rose as a Consultant following more than 30 years of
experience working at HSBC Holdings plc. Based in London, Richard provides Norton
Rose with his invaluable knowledge of the challenges faced by General Counsel.
Richard joined HSBC in 1979 and held various local and international roles based in
Hong Kong over the next 18 years. He was Deputy Group Legal Adviser in the period
1988-1992 and then served as Head of Legal and Compliance, Asia/Pacific before returning to the UK to take
up the position of Group General Manager and Group Head of Legal and Compliance from 1 January 1998.
He was appointed a Group Managing Director with effect from 3 May 2011 and retired from HSBC at the end
of 2012.
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A qualified lawyer in the UK, Hong Kong and Victoria, Australia, Mr Bennett took an LLB from Bristol
University. He qualified as a solicitor with Stephenson Harwood in London (1976), where he was employed
as an assistant solicitor until he joined HSBC.
Richard is married with two adult sons and his interests include rugby, golf and wine.
Fabrizio Minneci
Chief Legal Officer, Ferrero International
Fabrizio Minneci is Member of the Board of Directors and Chief Legal Officer at Ferrero,
the confectionary group (with brands such as Nutella, Rocher, Mon Chéri, Kinder and Tic
Tac) which he joined in 2008.
Prior to that Fabrizio worked 12 years for Ford Motor Company’s Office of the General Counsel with
assignments in the United Kingdom, United States and Germany. He started his professional career with an
Italian law firm in Brussels specializing in competition law.
Fabrizio is fluent in Italian, English and French.
Ignacio Redondo Andreu
General Counsel, CaixaBank SA
Mr. Ignacio Redondo is the General Counsel of the Legal Counselling Department of
CaixaBank, where he manages all the tax, legal and regulatory issues of CaixaBank and its
affiliates. He manages a staff of more than 80 people (95% lawyers), and works with many
different Spanish and international law firms.
Prior to holding that position, Mr. Redondo was General Secretary and Board Secretary of
the Comisión del Mercado de las Telecomunicaciones (Telecommunications Market
Commission, CMT) for three years.
He started working as a lawyer for the Spanish Government where, during five years, he conducted criminal,
contentious-administrative and social affairs.
Mr. Redondo’s career also includes a teaching role as an associate lecturer in Administrative Law for three
years in Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona), the publication of several articles and the deliverance of
lectures related to law. Trying to complete his skills, he followed an Advanced Management Program at
Esade University (Barcelona).
Axel Viaene
EMEA Legal Director and Corporate Counsel, Starbucks Coffee EMEA BV
Axel Viaene joined Starbucks Coffee as EMEA Legal Director, Corporate Counsel in 2003.
He is based at the company’s European headquarters and roasting facility in
Amsterdam. His responsibilities include providing legal counsel and training to the
European Starbucks business on a broad range of issues, particularly in the areas of
commercial, licensing, franchise, M&A, real estate, employment, competition, contract
management, corporate governance and environmental law and works councils.
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Prior to joining Starbucks, Axel served from 2000 until 2003 as Benelux Legal Director for Dell Inc., based in
Amsterdam, advising the Belgian and Dutch management teams and helping to set up the company’s
government relations function in Brussels. Prior to Dell, Axel worked as international associate attorney at
the global headquarters of The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta from 1997 until 2000.
Axel has been a member of the New York Bar since 1998 and served as President of the Board of Directors of
the European Chapter of ACC during the 2009-2010 term. Mr. Viaene received an LL.M. from the University
of Chicago Law School, where he was a recipient of Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial and Fulbright
scholarships, and is a graduate of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Law School in Belgium. He is fluent in
English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish and Italian.
Volker Weisshaar
General Counsel Sonos Europe & Member EMEA Board, Sonos Inc
Volker Weisshaar has over 20 years of experience in international legal work in Europe
and in the US, most recently as General Counsel EMEA for Sonos, a global manufacturer
of wireless HiFi systems. He spent most of his career as counsel for the high-tech and
communication industry, at large public companies as well as at start-ups. From 2002
until 2011 as General Counsel EMEA at NetApp, a global Fortune 500 company, providing data storage and
management systems.
Next to his in-house role, Volker is also a co-founder and director of PixFirst, a start-up offering Software-asa-Service for photographers. This dual role helps him to not forget, what the business expects from their
counsel.
Volker holds a law degree from Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, and is admitted to practice law in
Germany.
Session 102: Legal and compliance: two worlds or only two faces of the same coin?
Enrique Aznar
Chief Integrity Officer, Millicom International Cellular
Enrique joined Millicom International Cellular in March 2011 as Head of Corporate
Governance & Compliance - Chief Integrity Officer. Millicom is a leading international
telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin
America and Africa, operating in 15 countries. Millicom offers innovative and customercentric products. The Millicom Group employs more than 8,000 people and provides
mobile services, access to the internet, content and financial services to over 45 million
customers. Founded in 1990, Millicom International Cellular SA is headquartered in Luxembourg and listed
on NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the symbol MIC. In 2012, Millicom generated revenue of USD 4.81 billion
and EBITDA of USD 2.07 billion. Enrique is based in the company's headquarters in Luxembourg and reports
to the Chief Executive Officer and to the Chairman of the Audit Committee. He is responsible to implement
Millicom's Integrity program in the company's operations and is also responsible for monitoring the
company's worldwide activities and transactions to ensure that business is conducted in an ethical and legal
manner and that policies and procedures are followed to reduce the risks of non-compliance with laws and
regulations. Before joining Millicom, Enrique was Nokia Siemens Networks' Chief Ethics & Compliance
Officer, based in Finland, from where he managed NSN's Ethics and Compliance function in its 150
operations worldwide. Between May 2005 and January 2009 Enrique was Deputy General Counsel & Chief
Compliance Officer, Europe, Middle East & Africa for Tyco International. He was a member of the Tyco EMEA
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Legal Leadership Team responsible for the development of the innovative legal services model that Tyco
successfully implemented in EMEA known as 'SMARTER' (Segment and Subject Management, Regional
Teams and External Resources). Enrique is a qualified lawyer in Spain and England and Wales. He earned a
Master of Arts in International & Comparative Business Law in London in 1993 and obtained a Business
Management Program certificate (PDD) at IESE Business School in 2002. Previously, he worked as Western
European Regional Counsel at Dell Inc. (Madrid, 2000-05), Senior Associate at Freshfields (Madrid, 19972000), Solicitor at the Office of the General Counsel of Price Waterhouse (London, 1994-97) and Tax and
Legal advisor with Arthur Andersen (Barcelona, 1989-92). He speaks Spanish, Catalan, English, French and
Italian.
Maria Echeverria-Torres
Head of Legal & Compliance, West & South East Europe, Nokia Siemens Networks
Maria has spent much of her career advising high tech and telecommunications
companies on legal, governance and compliance topics. She joined Nokia Siemens
Networks in January 2010 where she serves the company in the position of Head Legal
& Compliance in West Europe and South East Europe regions. In her current role Maria
acts as advisor to the senior management team across legal, compliance and regulatory
matters and leads a multinational team of lawyers working from different locations.
Maria started her career as an attorney at General Motors, went to Electronic Data Systems (currently
Hewlett Packard) and then to Nortel Networks where she supported global projects and transactions. Maria
holds a Master in Law from the IE Business School in Madrid and earned a graduate in Law from the
University of Spain.
Mark Poag
Senior Vice President, Legal, Marketing & Strategic Alliances, Datacert Inc
D. Mark Poag is Senior Vice President of Legal, Marketing, and Strategic Alliances at
Datacert. In this capacity he oversees all transactional, litigation, and regulatory
activities for the company, as well as Datacert’s marketing and communication
functions. Poag is also responsible for overseeing the evaluation and execution of
strategic alliance opportunities and is credited with driving the execution of Datacert’s
broad-based partner network. Since joining the company, Poag has been instrumental in shaping the
strategic direction of Datacert’s product line. He was also recognized as “Outstanding Solo Corporate
Counsel” by the Association of Corporate Counsel and the Houston Business Journal. As a key industry
thought leader, Poag has authored or been featured in numerous published articles.
Prior to joining Datacert, Poag was co-founder and President and CEO of DigiContract, which was acquired
by Datacert in 2001. Under his leadership, DigiContract successfully raised private equity, built an
accomplished team, and developed a compelling product in a new market. Before DigiContract, Poag
practiced corporate law at Bracewell & Patterson, LLP where he helped clients close numerous structured
finance and M&A transactions.
Poag is an active member of many esteemed professional organizations, including the Association of
Corporate Counsel, American Bar Association, and the State Bar of Texas. He holds a bachelor's degree from
Princeton University, an MBA from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University, and a juris
doctorate from Tulane University School of Law.
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Session 103: Protecting your brand in a global marketplace: enforcing IP rights/arbitration
Katerina Galanopoulou
Intellectual Property Manager, Microsoft Greece
Katerina was born and raised in Varda Ilia, a small town in Greece. She studied law at
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and got a master's degree (LLM) in International
Commercial Law from the University of Canterbury, Kent.
She did her trainee practice at the law office of Mr. Sotiris Felios (ex-president of the
CCBE IT Committee), and later worked with the Ernst & Young law firm in Greece
(Potamitis – Iliadou). Over the last eight years, she has worked as in-house counsel to IT companies,
including Oracle and Microsoft.
She is the Chair of the local committee of the Business Software Alliance and the Intellectual Property Rights
Committee of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce. For the last five years, she has served as one of
the two representatives of the Association of Corporate Counsel (ACC) in Greece. She has appeared as a
speaker on the role of in-house lawyers at various international conferences, including ACC and the Strategy
Meetings of the International Business Development Group.
She has a 1-year-old little girl. In her spare time, she is part of an amateur theater group and enjoys playing
electric bass guitar. Her favorite authors are Jorge Luis Borges and Jose Saramago.
Peter O'Byrne
Group Counsel - Brand and Marketing, The Body Shop International PLC
Peter has been the Group Counsel – Brand & Marketing at The Body Shop International
plc since 2012.
His legal practice commenced in Melbourne, Australia before he joined Baker &
McKenzie, London in 2003. Peter has acted in high profile intellectual property disputes
before the EU Court of Justice, World Motor Sport Council, Federal Court of Australia and the English High
Court and Court of Appeal and has extensive experience in managing regional and global brand enforcement
programmes for famous brands.
Vasco Stilwell d’Andrade
Lawyer, Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva (Lex Mundi)
Vasco Stilwell d’Andrade is an associate of Morais Leitão, Galvão Teles, Soares da Silva
& Associados (MLGTS), the Portuguese member of the Lex Mundi association of
independent law firms. Aside from being an attorney-at-law, Vasco is an accredited
industrial property agent with the Portuguese Patent and Trademark Office, and a
recognised professional representative before the Office for the Harmonization of the
Internal Market (OHIM) in Alicante, Spain.
Prior to MLGTS, where he has been practising intellectual property law since 2008, Vasco worked as an IP
consultant with several other Portuguese and multi-national firms based in Lisbon, also having had a brief
stint at the Portuguese Patent and Trademark Office. His professional experience ranges from litigation to
intellectual property protection and commercial exploitation.
Vasco holds a law degree from the Lusíada University (Lisbon) and a LL.M from the University of Edinburgh
(Scotland). He also holds a M.A. degree in International Relations and Modern History from the University of
St. Andrews (Scotland). He is married with 4 children.
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Vasco is a member of several intellectual property associations, including LES España-Portugal and INTA, and
has several published articles in the field.
Session 104: West meets East: cultural and legal issues from Europe’s eastern frontier into Asia
Moderator: Nicholas Azis
Partner, McDermott Will & Emery
Nick Azis is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery UK LLP, based in its
London office. His practice focuses on cross-border mergers and acquisitions. Nick has
advised on a broad range of UK domestic and cross-border public and private company
M&A principally in the energy/natural resources, IPMT, manufacturing and
commodities sectors.
Nick has “a wealth of experience as well as practical business sense” (Legal 500 UK 2012) and is “able to
straddle a variety of roles simultaneously” (Legal 500 UK 2011). Languages: English and French. Education:
College of Law, LLB, 1992; Bristol University, BA, (Hons First Class), 1988.
Gefion Hauer
General Counsel, HEAD Group
Since 2003, Gefion Hauer is General Counsel of the HEAD Sports Group, a leading global
manufacturer of sporting goods (tennis rackets, tennis balls, skis, ski boots, bindings,
snowboards, sportswear, scuba diving) branded “HEAD”, “PENN”, “MARES” or
“TYROLIA”. HEAD is listed at the Vienna Stock Exchange.
As General Counsel she is responsible for HEAD’s group legal affairs worldwide, which includes all kinds of
International Contracts (such as Sourcing and Supply Agreements, Sponsorship Agreements, Research &
Development Agreements, License Agreements, Distribution contracts), Cross Border Transactions (joint
venture agreements in Asia and Europe; sale and purchases of production sites, due diligences), Corporate
Financial Agreements (issuance of Bonds, credit facility agreements), Intellectual Property issues
(trademarks and patents), and Capital Markets Law.
Prior to joining HEAD Sports Group, Gefion Hauer worked for a number of years as associate for Freshfields,
Bruckhaus, Deringer in Vienna and Brussels.
Gefion Hauer holds a doctor’s degree in law from the University of Vienna, Austria and obtained a master’s
degree in law (LLM) from the University of Manchester, UK. She speaks German, English, Spanish and
French.
Andrzej Marszal
Vice President, Legal & European General Counsel, Quad/Graphics Europe LLC
Since January 2010 Andrzej has sat on the Executive Management Board and has led
the legal department of Quad/Graphics Inc’s European subsidiary, based in Poland.
Quad/Graphics Inc. is publically traded on the NYSE and is one of the world’s largest
printing companies with approximately $5 billion USD in sales. In his role as European
GC, Andrzej is responsible for overseeing the company’s legal activities in over fifteen
countries located throughout Europe, activities which include government relations, compliance, corporate
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and transactional matters, M&A, civil litigation, overseeing the work of outside counsel, insurance matters
and several others. In his role as Vice President, he focuses on business development, looking for growth
opportunities in new and developing markets.
Prior to joining Quad, Andrzej spent over eight years working for Iron Mountain Inc., likewise a publically
traded US based corporation. At Iron Mountain, Andrzej was primarily responsible for opening IM branches
in new markets such as Poland, Russia, Ukraine and Scandinavia. Aside from the legal activities connected
with real estate, transactional matters, insurance and the like, Andrzej in large part managed the company’s
sales and marketing functions in the markets named above.
Andrzej has been a member of the Florida Bar (US) for nineteen years. The first years of his career were
spent in a Florida-based private practice dealing with family and criminal law, then in the legal department
of a Florida-based insurance company. The last sixteen years he has managed a multitude of legal issues in
Central and Eastern Europe. He received his J.D. from the University of Toledo College of Law and is
currently studying for an LL.M. in International Law at the College of Law, London, UK. He speaks English and
Polish fluently, and has workable knowledge of Russian and Spanish.
Session 105: Managing risk in third party relationships
Markus Eckert
Legal Counsel Special Projects, Cigna Life Insurance Company of Europe SA-NV
Markus Eckert is Legal Counsel Special Projects at Cigna Life Insurance Company of
Europe S.A.-N.V. In this role he manages corporate structural governance, compliance
and risk management related projects across Europe, Middle East, and Singapore.
Markus is also the global legal business partner for Cigna’s new business line for
individual health services worldwide. Past project work includes the pioneering and
continued management of a Third Party Risk Management programme in Europe, set-up of a new insurance
branch in Singapore, as well as the development and implementation of a European compliance structure,
including its application to a major acquisition.
Markus is a member of the Munich bar association. He studied law at the Universities of Bayreuth/
Germany, and Leuven/ Belgium. He also obtained a Bachelor in Business Law at the University of Bayreuth
and is an alumnus of the Association of British Insurers’ Future Leaders programme.
Francisco Hernandez-Castillo
VP & General Counsel Growth Markets, Tyco International
Mr. Hernandez has been recently promoted to be head counsel for
international/regional legal, public affairs, compliance and regulatory matters for the
corporate office and all divisions of Tyco International in all emerging markets including
South Africa, India, China, Middle East, and Latin America. Prior to his current role Mr.
Hernandez was Latin America & Caribbean General Counsel for Tyco from July 2007 to
February 2013. Mr. Hernandez joined Tyco in May 2005 as Chief Compliance Counsel and Senior Corporate.
Prior to joining Tyco, Mr. Hernandez held various legal advisory positions for multinational corporations,
private law firms and institutions including The World Bank, Ingram Micro Inc. and the Beracasa Group. He
also held important positions with the Venezuelan Government as Undersecretary for the Legal Department
for Internal Affairs, Legal Counsel for the Office of the Secretary for Decentralization, and Head Counsel for
the Privatizations Legal Department of the Venezuelan Investment Fund. Mr. Hernandez has been a visiting
lecturer at the World Bank, and a law professor at Jose Maria Vargas University School of Law and the
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Central University of Venezuela in Caracas, Venezuela. Mr Hernandez is a frequent speaker in law seminars
and workshops in the US and abroad.
Mr. Hernandez is fluent in English, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. He has an LL.B. from Andres
Bello Catholic University, an LL.M from New York University, and LL.M. from Rome University (La Sapienza),
and an LL.M. from La Sorbonne (Paris II Assas) University. Mr Hernandez is admitted to practice in NY and FL.
Mr Hernandez is active member of the Steering Committee for the South Florida Group of Regional Counsel.
Maryam Kennedy
Partner, Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services, Ernst & Young LLP
Maryam Kennedy is a Partner in Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services
practice. She has led bribery and corruption, accounting manipulation and regulatory
investigations in the former Soviet Republics, Africa, Middle East, Latin America and
Europe. Using over 14 years’ experience of investigating poor governance, fraud and
corruption in both the public and private sector, Maryam also advises clients on design
and implementation of anti- fraud and corruption program.
Prior to joining Ernst & Young, Maryam was the head of Internal Audit and Investigations for Macmillan
Cancer Support, a UK NGO which provides financial and medical support for cancer patients across the UK.
In that role, she reported directly to the board of trustees on the effectiveness of the organisation's
safeguards and controls in relation to donor funds.
Maryam has led forensic projects in Angola, Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, France,
Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Korea, Latvia, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain,
Switzerland, Tajikistan, United Kingdom and United States.
Session 106: Corporate Social Responsibility: multinational companies adopting corporate codes
of conduct with social provisions
Stephen J Hirschfeld
Chief Executive Officer, Employment Law Alliance
Stephen J. Hirschfeld is a partner with the law firm of Hirschfeld Kraemer LLP, in San
Francisco, California. He is also the Chief Executive Officer of the Employment Law
Alliance, the world's largest network of labor and employment lawyers. His practice
involves labor and employment law on behalf of management in both the private and
public sector.
Mr. Hirschfeld advises clients on day-to-day legal issues affecting the workplace. He takes a proactive
approach when advising clients, emphasizing creative solutions to employee relations problems. He
frequently represents employers in federal and state courts and before administrative agencies on a variety
of litigation matters involving the employer-employee relationship.
Mr. Hirschfeld has over 30 years of experience handling wrongful termination, discrimination, harassment
and trade secrets litigation, employment law counseling, collective bargaining, labor arbitrations and union
organizing. He has conducted and overseen hundreds of investigations involving employee misconduct and
has tried to verdict over 100 cases before juries, courts, arbitrators, administrative law judges and
government agencies with a 'win rate' of nearly 90 percent. He has significant cross-border expertise
working closely with European, Latin American and Asian-based companies with operations in the US as well
as US companies with operations abroad.
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Tanya Jaeger de Foras
Vice President and Deputy General Counsel EMEA, Luxottica Group SpA
Tanya Jaeger de Foras is Vice President and Deputy General Counsel EMEA of Luxottica
Group SpA, with responsibility for legal affairs and M&A EMEA, and international
corporate governance.
Prior to joining Luxottica, Tanya was Assistant GC at Pfizer Inc, with responsibilities as Chief Counsel Specialty
Care EU and Legal Director Pfizer Italia. She originally joined Pfizer’s Corporate Compliance Group where she
conducted internal investigations, delivered training and created compliance programming on a global
basis. Tanya began her career at Sullivan & Cromwell, specializing in US securities law and international,
corporate and project finance.
She has extensive experience in international legal affairs and compliance, having lived and worked in
Canada, the US, France and Italy, supporting clients in the Americas, Europe and Asia. At Harvard Law School
(JD’98), Tanya was a Hewlett Packard Law & Negotiations Scholar and research assistant to Prof. Robert
Mnookin of the Harvard Program on Negotiations. She received her BSFS summa cum laude from
Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1993. Tanya is admitted to the NYS bar and is an active
member of associations including the ABA and HLS and GU alumni associations.
Danai Voulgari
Group Legal Counsel, S&B Industrial Minerals SA
September 2011 - today: S&B Group Legal Counsel (& Corporate Governance), and
Member of the executive committee.
January 2008 - August 2011: S&B Corporate Affairs Manager (Legal Counsel and CSR
Manager) and Member of the executive committee.
January 2005 - December 2007: Head of the S&B Legal Department.
January 1998 - December 2004: S&B Legal Counsel.
January 1982 - September 1982: Employee in the National Bank of Greece.
1985-1986: D.E.A. Droit Public – Université de Sorbonne.
1980-1985: Legal studies - Athens University of Law.
Mother tongue: Greek. Other languages: English, French, German (basic user). Teaching: M&A seminars in
Athens Laboratory of Business Administration (ALBA) (2007-2012).
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Session 107: Separating fact from fiction about new software licensing /SaaS/ cloud computing
models: advantages, disadvantages, risks and ethical implications
Javier Fernández-Samaniego
Partner, Bird & Bird LLP
Javier Fernández-Samaniego is Managing Partner and founder of Bird & Bird in Madrid
and head of the Commercial and Dispute Resolution/IT Group in Spain.
Javier has been at the forefront of reaching settlement agreements in some of the
biggest disputes in the IT consultancy and media sectors in Spain. He also has very
relevant experience in enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation dispute resolution. Javier has
advised and represented a large number of local and international companies and is well-known for his
expertise relating to the international data transfer, outsourcing transactions and data protection review
programs.
Javier is an arbitrator at the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid. He is a CEDR accredited mediator and has
advised on a number of alternative dispute resolution cases for clients.
Javier lectures extensively on technology law, his publications include numerous articles relating to IT Law
and data protection issues. He is fluent in Spanish, English, French and Italian. Javier is band 1 in TMT in
Chambers & Partners legal directory and tier 1 in Legal 500. Javier won ILO Clients Choice Award in IT in
2010, 2011 and is Best Lawyers’ IT lawyer of the year 2012.
Manuel García Sánchez
Head of Service International Affairs, Agencia Española de Protección de Datos
Manuel García holds a Degree in Economics and a Master Degree in ICT Management.
He joined the Spanish Data Protection Authority in 2002, first as a Data Inspector and
then, after a secondment in Brussels, as a member of the International Department
with responsibilities in police and judicial cooperation and issues related to new
technologies. He regularly attends meetings of formal working groups at European level
dealing with privacy and data protection issues, particularly those linked with the tasks
of the Article 29 Working Party.
Ulrike Weinbrenner
Deputy General Counsel, Sourcefire International GmbH
Ulrike Weinbrenner started her career as a highly regarded in-house counsel and
successful leader of in-house legal teams in well known IT companies, after studies of
law at the Ruhr University in Bochum and the Rheinische Wilhelms Universität in Bonn.
During her referendariat in Hamburg she spent a nine months faculty with an
international law firm in San Francsico. Her first assingment was with the legal
department of Hoesch AG, the Ruhr steel giant Here she got first contacts with software development and
realated legal issues. In 1992 Ulrike joined Microsoft in the early days, then for 10 years was Sun
Microsystem's Counsel for the DACH region. Then joining Motorola in an EMEA role, leading the newly
formed joint EMEA patent and legal department. For 5 years Ulrike then became Salesforce.com's EMEA
General Counsel building the legal support structure for Salesforce.com's expanding cloud business. After an
interim assignment at Citrix Online, where she helped build a structure to successfully integrate a newly
acquired German company into the expanding US parent company, in August 2013 Ulrike joined Sourcefire
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International GmbH. as Deputy General Counsel supporting Sourcefire's expanding EMEA and Asia Pacific
business.
Session 108: International mediation and negotiation of transnational disputes: cultural
dynamics, language, jurisdictions
James MacPherson
Chief Executive Officer, Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR-AAA)
James MacPherson is CEO of the BCDR-AAA, the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute
Resolution in partnership with the largest ADR service provider, the American
Arbitration Association. The “Free Arbitration Zone” and “Statutory ADR Tribunals” are
both world firsts which distinguish the BCDR-AAA as leaders in innovative ADR.
As a bilingual (English and French) international Conflict Resolution expert with twenty years experience
within the public and private sectors, James has been a successful Mediator, Arbitration and Dispute
Resolution Trainer, ADR Advisor & Systems Designer, and Drafter of ADR Legislation. Currently, he is an
active Board Member of the International Mediation Institute (IMI) in The Hague.
As a Mediator, James has mediated hundreds of disputes including banking, employment, insurance and
commercial disputes for large multinationals. He has helped parties settle thousands of disputes related to
organizational conflict, insurance, contractual, technology & intellectual property, community, agriculture
and indigenous land claim disputes.
James has extensive experience across the Middle East having served as Country Director with the American
Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative, focusing on judicial and legal reform programs within the Ministries
of Justice and delivering training programs to judges and lawyers in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman and
Syria. Recently, he conducted ADR training in French with Moroccan lawyers in Rabat.
James holds a BA in history and political science from Bishop's, University of Toronto and an LLB from the
University of Edinburgh.
Richard Naimark
Senior Vice President, American Arbitration Association (AAA)
Richard W. Naimark is Senior Vice President of American Arbitration Association in
charge of International of the International Center for Dispute Resolution (ICDR). He is
the founder and former Executive Director of the Global Center for Dispute Resolution
Research which conducted research in arbitration and ADR for disputes in cross-border
transactions. Mr. Naimark is an experienced mediator and facilitator, having served as a
neutral in a wide variety of organizational settings. Experience includes work with the United Nations
(UNCITRAL); government; universities; corporate; construction; computer; real estate; land use; insurance;
and non-profit subject areas.
Mr. Naimark is also responsible for legislative monitoring functions and has held positions responsible for
Strategy, Outreach, E-Commerce, and most other areas of operations.
Since joining the Association in 1975, Mr. Naimark has conducted hundreds of seminars and training
programs on dispute resolution and is co-editor of the book Toward a Science of International Arbitration.
Articles recently published include Arbitrators Do Not “Split-the-Baby”: Empirical Evidence from International
Business Arbitration, International Private Commercial Arbitration: Expectations and Perceptions of Attorneys
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and Business People, and Analysis Of UNCITRAL Questionnaires On Interim Relief. Mr. Naimark earned a
Masters of Science – Business Policy in 1983, from Columbia Business School and is a graduate of the
University of Rhode Island (B.A., 1975).
Ute Joas Quinn
Associate General Counsel, Hess Services UK Ltd
Ute Quinn is employed with Hess as Associate General Counsel for Europe, Middle East,
CIS and North Africa. Based in London, Ms. Quinn leads a team working on matters
ranging from upstream oil & gas agreements, to operational issues and conflict
management. Prior to joining Hess, Ms. Quinn was employed with Royal Dutch Shell, in
which she held a variety of leadership roles in matters of conflict management relating
to sustainable development, social performance (including human rights, unconventionals and the Arctic),
HSE, external affairs and compliance. She also served as General Counsel for the joint venture Sakhalin
Energy Investment Company, one of the world’s largest integrated oil & gas (LNG) projects located in Russia.
Ms. Quinn has lectured on various subjects concerning conflict management, CSR and (international)
commercial transactions. A graduate of Vassar College and the Temple University School of Law, Ms. Quinn
started her career in private practice. Ms. Quinn serves as Chair of the International Mediation Institute
(IMI), a non-profit organization promoting consensual decisionmaking and the development of mediation as
a global profession. Ms. Quinn is also a member of the Steering Committee of Corporate Counsel
International Arbitration Group (CCIAG) and Vice Chair of the IBA Corporate Social Responsibility Committee.
Session 109: Negotiation styles and techniques, dealing with confrontation and avoiding common
pitfalls
Eric Evans
Falconbury Ltd
Eric is a management consultant specialising in negotiation and dispute resolution. In
addition to facilitating negotiation training programmes at Practitioner, Advanced and
Masterclass level, he prepares and coaches negotiating teams for major deals. This has
given him experience in inter-governmental negotiations, as well as negotiations in
financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, and public sector outsourcing.
He is involved in negotiating with, and on behalf of, clients across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India,
China and the rest of Asia. He is currently working with one of the world’s largest consumer goods
companies, where he is responsible for negotiating a series of IT and outsourcing deals valued in excess of
£500m. As part of this work he is engaged with both in-house counsel and external legal resources.
He has particular interest in using structured approaches to negotiation planning, and in behavioural
analysis.
He is the author of three books, including Mastering Negotiations, and is a visiting speaker at three
European business schools.
Speaker Biographies
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Session 110: EU data protection regulation: how will it impact businesses worldwide?
Adelaide Deleplanque
Vice President and Group Privacy Officer, Liberty Global Inc
In her current position, Adelaide Deleplanque is a senior executive member of the
Liberty Global’s Compliance Department. Based in Amsterdam, she heads the Global
Privacy Office and oversees privacy risk management throughout the company.
Adelaide started at Liberty Global’s subsidiary UPC in November 1998 and held several
positions within the Legal Department, specializing on international business contracts
and in the last 3 years on privacy and data protection . She joined UPC from Gemplus, a smartcard
manufacturer where she worked since 1996 as International Contract Legal Counsel in Paris.
Adelaide graduated in Business Law and holds a Master Degree from the University of Lyon. She also
attended Chapel Hill School of Law and several post-graduate programs, in Contract Law from the Paris
University Sud, in Private International Law from the Paris University Descartes and in Comparative Law from
the Paris University Pantheon-Assas. She now resides in Amsterdam with her husband and her 3 children.
Demetrios Eleftheriou
Senior Counsel - Privacy and Data Security, EMC Corporation
Demetrios Eleftheriou currently serves as Senior Privacy and Data Security Counsel at
EMC Corporation in Massachusetts (and formerly in Brentford, England). Before joining
EMC Corporation, Demetrios served as Senior Counsel at American Express in New
York. Before joining Amex, he advised diverse clients on complex data protection and ecommerce issues as an attorney with Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in Washington, DC.
Demetrios has published and presented extensively on global data protection issues around the world. His
most recent article addresses in-house data security issues and will be published in an upcoming American
Bar Association guide to cybersecurity. Demetrios has over 13 years of experience in the data protection
legal field, and is licensed to practice law in the US and in Europe.
Nick Holland
Partner, Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP
Nick specialises in international technology projects for in house lawyers across the
globe, particularly focusing on IT, outsourcing, telecoms and data privacy.
Nick Holland has over 18 years’ experience in advising clients on international
technology projects and most of his work is international. Nick was formally senior in
house counsel at Lucent Technologies.
Nick’s main areas of practice are consumer and commercial transactions, global privacy compliance
programs, telecommunications licensing issues and IT outsourcing transactions for a range of clients across
Europe and the Middle East, and as he was in house for many years his main clients are senior in house
counsel.
With extensive experience of working with, and co-ordinating and managing Foreign Counsel, Nick has
advised on all types of multi-jurisdiction technology projects.
Nick is a regular speaker at ACC Europe, Commerce and Industry Group meetings and various lawyer
conferences. Nick also runs an in-house technology forum for senior in-house counsel and is well known to
most technology in-house counsel throughout EMEA. He is regarded by both Chambers and The Legal 500
as a leading individual in technology.
Speaker Biographies
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Session 111: In it to win it: managing governance in your social media agenda
Stathis Mihos
Legal Director, Pfizer Hellas SA
Stathis Mihos was born in Athens, Greece, in 1964. He studied Law at the University of
Athens and later got his postgraduate degree (LL.M.) on Information Technology and
Telecommunications Law from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He also holds a
M.A. degree in Tourism Business Administration. He worked as a lawyer in law firms, and
in recent years he manages in-house legal departments for the Greek affiliates of
international companies (Lafarge from 2001 until 2006, BP from 2006 to late 2009 and the affiliate’s new
owner, the Hellenic Petroleum Group, from late 2009 to 2011, Carrefour in 2012 and Pfizer since 2013). He is
a Board Member and the country representative for Greece of the Association of Corporate Counsel Europe,
a Board Member of the Independent Power Transmission Operator S.A. and a member of many nongovernmental organizations and professional associations. He is a regular contributor (column “In house”) to
the legal magazine Synigoros (‘Counsel’). He is the author of the book Monitoring of Internet
Communications in the Workplace (Sakkoulas Publications, Athens, 2007).
Gant Redmon
General Counsel & Vice President of Business Development, C03 Systems Inc
Gant has practiced law for twenty-one years; sixteen of those years as in-house counsel
for security software companies. Prior to joining Co3 Systems, Gant was General
Counsel of Arbor Networks, now part of the Danaher Corporation. Gant has also been
Counsel at Authentica (sold to RSA/EMC) and AXENT Technologies (sold to Symantec).
In 1997, Gant was appointed membership on the President Clinton’s Export Counsel
Subcommittee on Encryption (PECSENC). Gant holds a Juris Doctorate degree from Wake Forest University
School of Law and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Virginia, and is admitted to practice law
in Virginia and Massachusetts. Gant also holds the CIPP/US certification (Certified Information Privacy
Professional/United States).
Session 112: Being an active player in the market during difficult financial times, buying and
selling companies: what corporate counsel should understand in asset valuations
Yves Heijmans
Lead European Counsel, Chevron Phillips Chemicals Int NV
Yves Heijmans is Lead European Counsel for Chevron Phillips Chemical in charge of the
legal support for EMEA region. Chevron Phillips Chemical is one of the world’s top
producers of olefins and polyolefins and a leading supplier of aromatics, alpha olefins,
styrenics, specialty chemicals, piping, and proprietary plastics. Chevron and Phillips66
each own 50 percent of Chevron Phillips Chemical. Prior to Chevron Phillips Chemical
Yves Heijmans worked for 5 years as international legal counsel for Alcatel, a leading telecom equipment
manufacturer.
Speaker Biographies
Page 14 of 24
Alessandro Macrì
Legal Counsel, GMAC Financial Services
Alessandro Macrì joined the Legal Staff of GMAC Financial Services in 2008 and is based
in its European Regional Office in High Wycombe (UK). He is in charge of the legal
affairs primarily for Italy, France and Benelux, along with Spain, Portugal and Greece.
His areas of practice include contract law, consumer credit, factoring, data protection,
anti-money laundering and M&A.
Before joining GMAC Financial Services, Alessandro practiced law in Rome (Italy) as an associate at two
different law firms with an international capacity (Bonelli Erede Pappalardo and Freshfields Bruckhaus
Deringer), focusing on corporate law, M&A and litigation.
Alessandro has been a panelist at two annual meetings of the New York State Bar Association in 2002 and
2005 with John E. Blyth (Cornell Law School) on the subject of ‘International Title Insurance’.
Alessandro gained a law degree at the University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy, 2001) and attended the Law
School of the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium, 1999) as an exchange student (Erasmus Program). He
obtained an LL.M. degree at Cornell Law School, Ithaca, New York, in 2002. Alessandro is admitted to
practice in Italy and in the State of New York.
Mathias Schulze Steinen
Partner, K&L Gates LLP
Dr. Mathias Schulze Steinen is a partner in K&L Gates' Corporate and Transactional
practice. He has broad experience in the fields of M&A, private equity and corporate
finance as well as in corporate restructuring across a variety of sectors. He does a
substantial amount of cross-border work and acts for strategic and financial investors
and institutions as well as for companies of all sizes, from multinational blue chips to
national start-ups.
Dr. Schulze Steinen is recognised as a leading practitioner in several legal publications. He is a visiting
lecturer and has written numerous articles and spoken on many occasions on corporate issues, both
nationally and internationally. He speaks German, English and Finnish.
Session 113: Thinking globally, acting locally: ensuring a consistent framework with local
enforceability of employment contracts across Europe
Marlene Connolly
Senior Director & Group Counsel, Websense International Technology Limited
Marlene Connolly is Group Counsel for Websense International Technology Ltd.
Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) is a global leader in unified web, email, mobile and data
security, headquartered in San Diego, California. Ms Connolly joined Websense in 2007
and established the International legal team based in Websense’s International HQ in
Dublin, Ireland to support the Company’s business operations in EMEA and APAC. Ms
Connolly’s team are responsible for all commercial contractual negotiations, and also manage all
international employment, labour law and litigation matters. Ms Connolly was appointed to the Board of
Directors of Websense International in 2008. Before joining Websense, Ms Connolly was GC and Company
Secretary of Meteor Mobile, where she was responsible for all legal and corporate governance affairs. Prior
Speaker Biographies
Page 15 of 24
to her time in Meteor, Ms Connolly was Legal Counsel in Eircom, the principal telecommunications services
provider in Ireland, leading the Mergers and Acquisitions legal team. Ms Connolly is a CEDR Accredited
Mediator, and is a graduate of ICSA (Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators) since 2009. Ms
Connolly received her law degree (LL.B) from Trinity College Dublin, before qualifying as a solicitor in Ireland
in 1994 and is also admitted to the roll of solicitors in England and Wales.
Stéphanie Godof
Senior Counsel Labor & Employment Europe, GE Healthcare
Since December 2010, Stéphanie Godof is Senior Counsel Labor & Employment Europe
for GE Healthcare. Prior to joining GE, Stéphanie worked for over 10 years as a French
L&E attorney based in Paris (last law firm JeantetAssociés).
Education: DESS (postgraduate degree) in European law, French and German
competition law, University Paris X (France). Magister Legum, University of Potsdam
(Germany). Master in French and German business law, University Paris X.
John Sander
Partner, Jackson Lewis LLP (L&E Global)
John L. Sander is a Partner in the New York office of Jackson Lewis LLP whose practice
focuses on cross-border labor and employment matters for our multinational clients.
Before joining the firm, Mr. Sander served in senior in-house roles for more than 16
years at Merck & Co., Inc. and its predecessor, Schering-Plough Corporation. At Merck,
he was Vice President and Associate General Counsel, leading the team responsible for
labor and employment law matters outside the U.S. Before the merger of Merck and Schering-Plough, he
was Vice President and Associate General Counsel at Schering-Plough, where he managed the employment
law group, responsible for labor, employment, and immigration counseling and litigation within the U.S. and
globally. At Schering-Plough, he also at various times served as head of commercial litigation (responsible for
product liability, Lanham Act, a wide variety of general commercial litigation and international arbitrations)
and as general counsel to the consumer healthcare and generic divisions of the Company, as well as
managed the compliance and corporate security functions within the law department. Before joining the
Schering-Plough law department, he was a litigator at Cahill, Gordon & Reindel and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky
& Walker.
Mr. Sander also serves as Vice Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce Commission on
Arbitration, and was a member of the Drafting Sub-Committee responsible for the 2011 revision of the ICC
Rules of Arbitration. He is also a member of the ICC Working Group on the Role of In-house Counsel in
International Dispute Resolution. Mr. Sander is President of the Pro Bono Partnership, a nationallyrecognized non-profit which provides business legal services and educational resources to community-based
and public interest organizations by leveraging pro bono services of volunteer attorneys from corporations
and law firms. He is a past member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Corporate Counsel
Association.
Mr. Sander graduated magna cum laude from Cornell University and received an A.M. degree from Harvard
University before returning to Cornell Law School, where he served as Article Editor of the Cornell Law
Review. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Joseph L. Tauro of the U.S. District Court for
Massachusetts.
Speaker Biographies
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Session 114: Mergers and acquisitions: pre- and post-acquisition brand management and
migration
Sean Collin
President, IPWatch Corporation
Sean Collin is an Assistant Professor and is Executive Director of Legal Affairs for The
University of North Alabama’s Institute of Export Research and Technology Transfer. He
is also the President and Co-Founder of Suthún International Corporation and IPWatch
Corporation. For more than two decades Mr. Collin has specialized in advising companies and individuals on
maximizing revenue and asset value from intellectual property.
Mr. Collin is a Georgetown University Law Center graduate, admitted to practice law in three countries. He
has represented Fortune 50 companies, Inc. 500 companies, financial institutions, public and private
technology and brand focused companies, non-profit organizations, and countries. His expertise is in
assisting a global array of clients to nationally and internationally protect and commercially leverage
intellectual property and technology.
Mr. Collin was featured in the May 6, 2002 issue of California Law Business as one of the top twenty lawyers
under the age of 40 in the state of California in recognition of his legal work in the intellectual property and
international fields. He has also been a partner at a number of large, internationally recognized law firms,
and has been an accredited United Nations representative in New York, U.S.A. and Geneva, Switzerland.
Stacey van Hooven
Vice President & General Counsel, SCA Hygiene Products SE
Stacey van Hooven is Vice President and General Counsel at SCA Hygiene Products, a
global hygiene and forest products company with sales amounting to EUR 11.7 billion in
2011. SCA is the world's third-largest supplier of tissue and has approximately 40,000
employees. Stacey has overall responsibility for providing legal support as well as
managing the compliance law program for the European Tissue Business. She has
supported SCA in its acquisition of Proctor & Gamble’s European Tissue Business in 2007 and more recently
in 2012, the acquisition of Georgia Pacific’s European Tissue Business which included approximately 4,500
employees in 27 locations across Europe and 19 manufacturing sites in seven countries with sales amounting
to EUR 1.25 billion. As a member of the executive leadership teams of both the Away From Home sector and
the Consumer sector of the business, Stacey is also involved in corporate strategy, public policy and business
development.
In addition to her role at SCA, Stacey teaches a course in U.S. Business Law at the law school in the LudwigMaximilians-Universität in Munich.
Stacey began her career as a trial attorney, representing corporate clients in civil commercial matters before
both the state and federal courts in New York. Later, she served in New York City government supervising
complex criminal and administrative investigations into suspected corruption by City officials and
corporations doing business with the City. After moving to Munich, Germany, Stacey spent more than a
decade in private practice, most recently at Jacob Associates, gaining significant cross-border legal expertise
on U.S.-German corporate and commercial matters, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures
and international licensing arrangements.
Speaker Biographies
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Bliss White
Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Bliss White is a partner in the Firm’s Toronto office. Bliss is involved in all aspects of
corporate law, including negotiated acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic
commercial alliances. Bliss is the relationship partner for several leading corporate
clients in Canada.
Bliss has extensive experience advising clients and managing transaction teams in structuring, negotiating
and implementing domestic and international mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, corporate and
project financings and reorganizations. He regularly acts for offshore clients acquiring or establishing a
business in Canada.
Bliss has been involved in significant transactions in the automotive, manufacturing, metals, chemicals,
transportation and food and beverage sectors. In addition to his transactional expertise, Bliss has substantial
experience in structuring and negotiating a range of complex long-term supply agreements and other
strategic commercial arrangements.
Bliss regularly speaks on legal aspects of investing in Canada and in 2012 was an invited member of a
Canadian government trade mission to Europe.
Session 115: The General Counsel's mandate: the GC as a strategic thinker
Jonathan Oviatt
Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, Mayo Clinic
Jonathan J. Oviatt is Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary of Mayo Clinic. Mayo
Clinic is an academic medical center with national and international programs in clinical
practice, medical education, and medical research. Mayo Clinic has over $9 billion in
annual revenue and more than 60,000 employees. Mr. Oviatt’s responsibilities include
the Legal Department, International Personnel Office, Research Human Subjects
Protection, and other administrative functions.
Prior to joining Mayo Clinic in 1991, Mr. Oviatt was a shareholder in the Minneapolis office of Moss &
Barnett, P.A. He also served on the Congressional staff and campaign staff of U.S. Senator Larry Pressler.
Mr. Oviatt is the immediate Past Chair and is a Director of the Association of Corporate Counsel; Member of
the Corporate Pro Bono Advisory Board; Member of the Advisory Board of the Salvation Army, Northern
Division; Past Vice Chair of the In-house Practice Group of the American Health Lawyers Association; Past
Chair of the Council of Attorneys of the American Medical Group Association; Past Director and Officer of the
Minnesota State Bar Association Section on Health Law; Past Director of Legal Advice Clinics, Ltd.; Past
President of Olmsted County Legal Assistance; and former Chancellor of the United Methodist Church—
Minnesota Conference.
Mr. Oviatt received his J.D. from the University of Minnesota and his B.A. from Augustana College.
Speaker Biographies
Page 18 of 24
Dirk Tirez
General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Belgian Post (bpost)
Dirk P. Tirez, a Belgian national, is General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at bpost,
Belgium’s incumbent and leading postal operator with 30,000 employees. Dirk is a
Country Representative (Belgium) and Past President of the Association of Corporate
Counsel (ACC) Europe, and is also Chairman of the Legal Committee of the Belgian
Employers Federation (FEB/VBO). He is multilingual and the author of numerous
publications in the area of European securities laws and regulations.
From 1996 to 2003, Dirk was a Member of the Senior Management Committee, General Counsel and
Company Secretary of NASDAQ Europe. He was a founding Executive of EASDAQ. Dirk was also a member of
the SRO committee of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and was vicechairman of the corporate governance committee of the European Association of Securities Dealers.
Prior to this, from 1993 to 1996, he was counsel to the Office of Mr. Philippe Maystadt, the Belgian Deputy
Prime Minister, Minister of Finance and Foreign Trade, and was in charge of banking and finance legislation,
the implementation of European securities directives, and the Belgian privatisation programme.
From 1989 until 1993, he was associated with international leading law firms and worked both in New York
and Brussels, as an attorney admitted to the New York and the Brussels Bars.
Dirk graduated in 1987 magna cum laude from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in 1988 from the College
of Europe in Bruges and obtained in 1989 a LL.M. from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Session 116: Leading through change: inspiring a high performance legal team
Mercedes Carmona
Managing Counsel Iberia, BP Oil
Mercedes serves as Managing Counsel, Iberia for BP. With a total annual turnover of
$297 billion and 80,000 employees spread over 100 countries, BP is one of the world’s
largest companies and is involved in oil, gas, petrochemicals and power. Mercedes is
responsible for advising senior management in Spain and Portugal on legal issues and
risks arising out of the business strategy. She also serves as secretary to the board of
directors of several BP subsidiaries, and is a member of the BP Refining & Marketing
Legal Executive Team.
Before taking on her current position, Mercedes served from 2007 until 2012 as Head of Legal & Compliance
HL&A Europe for Cigna International, advising the management teams across 13 European countries and
helping to set up a company in Turkey. Prior to Cigna, Mercedes worked as Head of Legal & Compliance
Southern Europe for CPP Group.
Mercedes is a member of the Board of Directors of ACC Europe and Country Reps Coordinator. Graduated in
Law, she is admitted to the Madrid bar, and holds a Master degree in Telecommunications Law.
Speaker Biographies
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Adam Smith
Group General Counsel, DCNS
Adam Smith is Group General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of DCNS, based in
Paris. With sales of € 3bn, DCNS builds and supports conventional and nuclear
submarines and surface combat vessels for navies worldwide and is also active in civil
nuclear engineering and marine renewable energy projects. Previously at EADS in Paris
and Munich, Adam joined the group in June 2010 and heads a team of around 40 lawyers and 80 contract
managers in addition to leading the group's compliance function.
A British and French national, Adam holds an LLB from University College London, an MBA from London
Business School and recently completed an MA in History. He hopes shortly to commence a doctoral
research project in comparative literature.
Adam is a solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales.
Session 117: Workshop on innovative approaches to legal and compliance training
Salomé Santos Lorenzo
Senior Legal Counsel, Associated British Foods PLC
Salomé Santos is part of the ABF Global Antitrust and Compliance team. As part of this
role, among other things Salomé deals with merger clearance submissions to various
competition authorities around the world, defends ABF and its subsidiaries in any
investigations, advises on day to day commercial strategy and plans/implements
comprehensive compliance and training initiatives.
Prior to joining ABF, Salomé worked as a competition specialist at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Madrid
and Brussels for 6 years and prior to that at Martínez Lage in Madrid for 7 years. During her career Salomé
has represented various multinationals. Salomé's work in private practice included defending global cartel
prosecutions, acting for leniency applicants, defending cases of abuse of dominance and merger clearance
applicants as well as general advice work. Salomé has regularly appeared before the European Commission
and the Spanish competition authority.
Susann Wolfgram
Assistant General Counsel, SuccessFactors Germany GmbH
Susann Wolfgram heads up the European legal team that supports SAP’s cloud sales
business in EMEA. Susann joined SAP through the acquisition of SuccessFactors, the
leading software as a service provider for business execution solutions: Among many
cloud products enterprise customers may subscribe to learning management solutions
as well as JAM – a social collaboration product in the cloud that facilitates informal
learning. Prior to joining SuccessFactors in 2010, Susann worked at MySQL, an open source database
provider, through its acquisitions by Sun Microsystems and Oracle. She started her legal career as an inhouse lawyer at Aventis (later Sanofi-Aventis) in early 2000 where she was the primary dedicated lawyer for
the global IT organization from a legal and data protection perspective for more than 5 years.
Susann obtained her law degree from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany and an LL.M. from the University of
Edinburgh, UK as a Chevening scholar. Her doctor degree was awarded by the University of Hamburg where
Speaker Biographies
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she also completed a postgraduate program in European law and Economics in 1996. Susann is admitted to
the bar in Berlin, Germany.
Session 118: Small law department: alternative billing methods, sourcing legal work to outside
counsel in foreign jurisdictions
Paul Gagnier
General Counsel, ACN Europe BV
Paul Gagnier is General Counsel of ACN Europe B.V. based in Amsterdam. ACN is the
world’s largest direct seller of telecommunications and other essential home services.
As General Counsel, Paul is responsible for overseeing all legal and compliance matters
in the 18 European countries in which ACN operates. Prior to joining ACN in 2009, Paul
was a partner in the Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group at Bingham
McCutchen LLP in Washington, DC.
Aoife McArdle
Associate General Counsel – Europe, Airbnb.com
Aoife McArdle is Associate General Counsel – Europe, for Airbnb, a leader in the sharing
economy, providing a peer to peer platform for hosts and guests to connect and share
accommodation in unique places in more than 33,000 cities around the world.
Aoife is an international commercial/IT and regulatory lawyer who works in high growth
and rapidly expanding, innovative businesses. She has 15+ years of experience working in diverse, multicultural environments with globally based legal and business teams. Prior to joining Airbnb, Aoife was Head
of the Commercial and Regulatory Legal Team at Skype where she built and managed a team of lawyers
during a period of rapid growth from 196m registered users in 2007 to over 600m in 2011. Before Skype,
Aoife was European Legal Counsel at Apple, where she managed Apple's pan-European distribution channels
and took a leading role in the regulatory challenges associated with the rapid expansion of the iPod and
online sales in general, across EMEA, during a time when e-commerce and online music was in its infancy,
disrupting traditional sales channels.
Session 119: Law department management: outsourcing vs. insourcing, controlling legal costs and
maintaining sanity
Hans Albers
Senior Director and General Counsel EMEA, Juniper Networks Inc
Hans Albers is currently Senior Director and General Counsel EMEA for Juniper
Networks International BV. He is responsible for managing Juniper’s Legal team in EMEA
and providing legal support to Juniper EMEA Executive Leadership team and the overall
Sales organization. Hans joined Juniper in August 2011 from Cisco Systems, Inc. where
his last role was Operations Director for Emerging Markets and prior to that he served
as Legal Director for EMEA from 2000 until 2006 and Legal Director for the US and Canada from 2006 until
2008. From mid 2008 until august 2011 Hans was in a non-legal role, running the Customer Operations
organization for Emerging Markets. Prior to Cisco he served as in-house counsel for ICL-Fujitsu and Nokia.
Hans holds a Law Degree from Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands and is a member of the
Dutch in-house lawyers Association. He is currently based in The Netherlands.
Speaker Biographies
Page 21 of 24
James Bellerjeau
General Counsel & Secretary, Mettler-Toledo International Inc
James T. Bellerjeau is General Counsel and Secretary of Mettler-Toledo International
Inc., a US public company with its worldwide headquarters in Greifensee, Switzerland.
Mettler Toledo is a leading global supplier of precision instruments and services. It is
the world's largest provider of weighing instruments for use in laboratory, industrial and
food retailing applications.
Prior to joining Mettler Toledo in 1998, James worked at the law firms of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
in Frankfurt, Germany, and Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York, NY. His practice included
securities, structured finance, mergers & acquisitions, public company and corporate law.
James serves on the Legal Committee of the Swiss American Chamber of Commerce. He previously served
as President of the European chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, as well as a country
representative for Switzerland.
James received a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude) from Clark University, a Juris Doctor (magna cum
laude) from Albany Law School and a Master of Business Administration from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute.
David Bourdon
Head of Legal for EU Affairs, Competition Law and Group Legal Function, Société
Générale
David Bourdon is Head of Legal for European Affairs, Competition Law and Group Legal
Function. His responsibilities include advising the Group on European Law, lobbying and
interests representation, as well as on competition law issues (merger control, antitrust
& state aid). His team also supports the Group General Counsel on the elaboration of
the Group legal policies, the law firm policy, external legal spend management, and the animation of the
Group Legal Function.
Société Générale is one of the leading financial services groups in Europe. With its diversified universal
banking model, the Group combines financial solidity and a sustainable growth strategy with the ambition of
being the relationship-focused bank, a leader in its markets, close to its customers, and recognised for the
quality and the commitment of its teams. The Group has over 159 000 employees across 77 countries, who
serve more than 33 million customers across the globe.
Session 120: The future starts on Monday morning: charting a smarter plan for success for future
in-house leaders
Enrique Aznar
Chief Integrity Officer, Millicom International Cellular
Enrique joined Millicom International Cellular in March 2011 as Head of Corporate
Governance & Compliance - Chief Integrity Officer. Millicom is a leading international
telecommunications and media company dedicated to emerging markets in Latin
America and Africa, operating in 15 countries. Millicom offers innovative and customercentric products. The Millicom Group employs more than 8,000 people and provides
mobile services, access to the internet, content and financial services to over 45 million customers. Founded
in 1990, Millicom International Cellular SA is headquartered in Luxembourg and listed on NASDAQ OMX
Stockholm under the symbol MIC. In 2012, Millicom generated revenue of USD 4.81 billion and EBITDA of
Speaker Biographies
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USD 2.07 billion. Enrique is based in the company's headquarters in Luxembourg and reports to the Chief
Executive Officer and to the Chairman of the Audit Committee. He is responsible to implement Millicom's
Integrity program in the company's operations and is also responsible for monitoring the company's
worldwide activities and transactions to ensure that business is conducted in an ethical and legal manner
and that policies and procedures are followed to reduce the risks of non-compliance with laws and
regulations. Before joining Millicom, Enrique was Nokia Siemens Networks' Chief Ethics & Compliance
Officer, based in Finland, from where he managed NSN's Ethics and Compliance function in its 150
operations worldwide. Between May 2005 and January 2009 Enrique was Deputy General Counsel & Chief
Compliance Officer, Europe, Middle East & Africa for Tyco International. He was a member of the Tyco EMEA
Legal Leadership Team responsible for the development of the innovative legal services model that Tyco
successfully implemented in EMEA known as 'SMARTER' (Segment and Subject Management, Regional
Teams and External Resources). Enrique is a qualified lawyer in Spain and England and Wales. He earned a
Master of Arts in International & Comparative Business Law in London in 1993 and obtained a Business
Management Program certificate (PDD) at IESE Business School in 2002. Previously, he worked as Western
European Regional Counsel at Dell Inc. (Madrid, 2000-05), Senior Associate at Freshfields (Madrid, 19972000), Solicitor at the Office of the General Counsel of Price Waterhouse (London, 1994-97) and Tax and
Legal advisor with Arthur Andersen (Barcelona, 1989-92). He speaks Spanish, Catalan, English, French and
Italian.
Trevor Faure
Global Leader & Partner, Legal Services, Ernst & Young Global Limited
As Global Leader, Faure focuses EY’s professional services for law firms and general
counsel. EY has over 400 lawyers and revenue of over $26Bn. Faure created “The
Smarter Legal Model: more from less”, the award-winning application of world-class
business methodologies to maximise legal efficiency and effectiveness which is the
subject of conferences and journals worldwide from New York, Los Angeles, Montreal,
London, Moscow and Sydney.
Additionally: member of The Times Law Panel advisory body of 100 top lawyers; Harvard Law School guest
lecturer and case study subject; The Lawyer In-House Counsel of the Year; The Financial Times Innovative
Lawyer of the Year – two commendations; Legal Business Team of the Year; The Lawyer “HR Awards” Legal
Team of the Year; Legal Business Global Power List, the world's top 25 corporate counsel; BSN Lawyer of the
Year.
“… One of the most creative and systematic thinkers about contemporary business law.” -- Ben W.
Heineman, Jr., Former GE Senior Vice President for Law. “… One of a handful of dynamic, young lawyers
who are transforming the legal market…clearly a pioneer” -- The Times newspaper, February 2010.
Benedikte Leroy
VP, EMEA Legal, Dell
Senior Executive with more than 20 years of successful experience with global Fortune100 companies.
Currently Vice President EMEA Legal for Dell Computers with sales exceeding US$50
billion and 100,000 employees, Benedikte is part of Dell’s senior management is leading
a team of 60 lawyers covering 123 countries in Europe, Middle East and Africa, representing 25% of Dell’s
global activities.
Prior to Dell, Benedikte worked for Symantec, where she was a member of the EMEA management team and
the VP of EMEA Legal. In this role, Benedikte was responsible for ensuring effective legal support for sales
and non-sales functions in 24 regional subsidiaries, and managed a team of 25 lawyers across EMEA.
Speaker Biographies
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Previous roles have included establishing and leading the VERITAS legal department in EMEA prior to
Symantec’s acquisition of VERITAS in 2005; EMEA Counsel at GE Information Services; and European Legal
Associate at Apple Inc. based in Apple’s European headquarters in the UK.
Benedikte received her Master in Law degree from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. She is fluent in
Danish, English and Swedish, and also speaks French, German and Norwegian.
Sandra Mori
General Counsel, Coca-Cola Italia SRL
Sandra Mori is currently the General Counsel for the European Union Group of The
Coca-Cola Company.
In her role, she is responsible for the legal affairs of all European Union countries,
leading a team of 20 lawyers, including both Business Unit Counsels and functional
experts. Before joining Coca-Cola in 2011 she held various positions both as in-house counsel and private
practitioner in Italy and the US.
A native of Pisa (Italy), Sandra attended the University of Pisa where she obtained her law degree in 1989.
She then completed her education at the Yale Law School in New Haven, Connecticut, attending a one year
master program in international law.
Speaker Biographies
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