Speaker Biographies

Chairs

Keynote Speakers

Round Table

Imelda Vital

Manager, European External Affairs, Amway

1991 University of Louvain
Master in law with specialisation in European law

1992 Stage in European Commission

1993 Consultant for EU affairs

1993 – 1996 FEDSA – Federation of European Direct Selling Associations
Legal Affairs Adviser

1997 - 2002 AMWAY - Representative office in Brussels
EU Affairs Manager in charge of the relations with EU Institutions and industry and representation of the company in several trade associations

2002 AMWAY - Representative office in Brussels
Head of Brussels Office Corporate Affairs

2008 AMWAY - Representative office in Brussels
Takes additional responsibility as an Area Manager for Corporate Affairs for France, Belgium, Netherlands, Scandinavia


***

Board Member of French DSA since 2002

Board Member of Belgian DSA since 2003

Chair of Amcham EU “Consumer Affairs” committee since 2003

Board Member of FEDSA Execom since 2005

Regional Director of WFDSA since 2005

Board Member and Treasurer of FEDMA since 2008

Jacki Davis

Freelance, Journalist and Analyst

Jacki Davis is a leading commentator and analyst on European Union affairs. She is an experienced journalist, speaker and moderator of high-level events both in Brussels and in EU national capitals, the editor of many publications, a regular broadcaster on television and radio news programmes, and a Senior Adviser to the European Policy Centre think tank. Jacki has been based in Brussels for 17 years, and was previously Communications Director of the European Policy Centre; editor-in-chief of E!Sharp, a magazine on the EU launched in 2001; and launch editor of European Voice, a Brussels-based weekly newspaper on EU affairs owned by The Economist Group, from 1995-2000.

Andreas Schwab

Member, European Parliament

Member
Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection
Delegation for relations with Israel
Delegation to the Euro-Mediterranean Parliamentary Assembly

Substitute
Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs
Delegation for relations with Switzerland, Iceland and Norway and to the European Economic Area (EEA) Joint Parliamentary Committee

Curriculum vitae
Government assistant lawyer at the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for Culture, Youth and Sport, Office of the Minister (2003-2004).

Baden-Württemberg State Ministry, Department of European Affairs, European Convention Section (2002-2003).

EnBW AG, EDF Cooperation Unit.

German University of Administrative Sciences (DHV) Speyer.

Work in a legal practice as a trainee lawyer specialising in procurement and competition law (2002).

Trainee lawyer, Rottweil Regional Court (2001-2003).

Studied at the University of Freiburg, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris (I.E.P), and the University of Wales (L.L.M.); doctorate in law from the University of Freiburg.

Member, District Executive, CDU Südbaden; member, Local Executive, CDU Rottweil; local Chairman, Junge Union (1992-1994); member, District Executive, Junge Union (1994-1996); member, Regional Executive, Baden-Württemberg Junge Union (1996-1998); vice-Chairman, District Executive, Südbaden Junge Union (1998-2003).

Chairman, Franco-German Forum e.V., Freiburg. Member of the Board, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg.

Anders Dölling

Counsellor for Consumer Affairs, Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union

- Master of Laws (LLM), 1996, at the University of Stockholm, specialised in EC law and Marketing Law

- Studies at University level in Business economics and French in France and Sweden

- Employed by the Swedish Governmental Offices since 1998, at deputy director level since 2008

- National expert at the European Commission, DG SANCO/Dir B Consumer Affairs 2006-2008

- Counsellor for Consumer Affairs at the Permanent Representation of Sweden to the European Union, 2009

- Adviser at The Swedish National Board for Consumer Complaints, since 2004

Ursula Pachl

Senior Policy Advisor, BEUC

Ms. Pachl has been with BEUC since October 1997, first as Legal Advisor , then as Institutional Affairs Advisor and recently as Senior Policy Advisor , co-ordinating the BEUC team working on the consumer acquis and being responsible for horizontal policy issues.

Prior to working for BEUC, Ms. Pachl worked for five years at the Austrian Federal Ministry of Health and Consumer Protection in Vienna and for four years at the Austrian Consumer Information Association as a member of the Consumer Advisory Board.

Ms. Pachl is the co-author of a collection of decisions related to consumer law, edited by the Austrian Consumer Association and has written several articles in consumer policy journals. Ms. Pachl graduated in Law - Magister Juris - from the University of Innsbruck in 1990 and later received a postgraduate diploma in cultural management from the University of Linz in 1995.

Alison Mooney

Communications and Marketing Manager, EMOTA

Alison Mooney recently joined EMOTA, the European E-Commerce and Mail Order Trade Association, which represents 23 distance selling associations across Europe. Previously Alison was a Distance Selling business professional. She has spent 9 years working for the German distance seller Peter Hahn GmbH which belongs to the Arcandor Group. She started with Peter Hahn in 2000 and was in charge of launching and then managing the firm's Belgian business (2001) and subsequently in charge of the set up and running of the company's Danish operations (2002). Prior to that Alison was employed as an International Business Developer with distance selling group Redcats, belonging to Pinault-Printemps-Redoute. Alison has hands on experience on how distance selling businesses both online and offline encounter obstacles when selling cross border.

- Masters in International Politics, 2006, CERIS, Université Paris Sud
- Degree in Business Studies, 1996, UCD, Dublin, Ireland
- Maîtrise en Administration et Politique Internationales trilingue, 1995,
Université Grenoble.

Gösta Petri

Deputy Head of Unit, Unit B2 - Unfair Commercial Practices and Other Consumer Protection Legislation, European Commission

Gösta PETRI (DEA in EC law (French version of a Masters degree) at University of Aix-Marseille III, Aix-en-Provence ;LL.M. (Master of Laws) Uppsala University;ERASMUS-studies at Robert Schuman University, Strasbourg; and Studies in law, mathematics and history at Uppsala University) is Deputy Head of Unit SANCO/B2. His overall responsibility : review of the consumer acquis; and Administrator at the European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection, Unit B4 Protection of Legal, Economic and other Consumer Interests – Member of the European Contract Law Team, 2005-2006.

Carlos Almaraz

Deputy Director Internal Market/Legal Affairs, BUSINESSEUROPE

Carlos Almaraz has been working as legal Adviser in BUSINESSEUROPE since 2000. From 2007, he is Deputy Director of the Legal Affairs and Internal Market Departments. Prior to that, he gained experience in EU affairs as legal researcher at the College of Europe in Bruges and through internships with the European Commission (DG Internal Market) and a Spanish-based law firm.

Carlos is specialised in EU and International Law and has lived abroad for over ten years. His mother tongue is Spanish and he speaks English, French and Portuguese.

He is a member of the Institute of Company Lawyers and the European Company Lawyers Association and regularly speaks and participates in conferences on European Law and International matters throughout Europe.

Razvan Antemir

Government Affairs Manager, FEDMA

Mr. Razvan ANTEMIR is the Government Affairs Manager for FEDMA, the Federation of European Direct and Interactive Marketing. He started working for the Public Affairs team of FEDMA in 2008. FEDMA is the European trade association representing the Direct and Interactive marketing sector. FEDMA’s membership comprises companies and associations from the entire direct marketing value chain, including marketing/advertising agencies for all communication channels, service providers, distance sellers (e-commerce), postal operators and the national Direct Marketing Associations.

In his work, Razvan Antemir represents the interests of the direct and interactive marketing sector vis-a-vis the EU institutions and provides advocacy work. He focuses mainly on Postal issues and Consumer Affairs, as well as standardisation and environmental issues.

Prior to joining FEDMA, Razvan Antemir worked for the Public Diplomacy Division of NATO in Brussels.

Razvan Antemir earned a Masters Degree in European Public Affairs (EPA) from the University of Maastricht in the Netherlands. He also holds a BA in Political Science from the University of Bucharest in Romania.

Sirpa Pietikäinen

MEP, European Parliament

Ms. Sirpa Pietikäinen (EPP) is a Finnish member of the European parliament. Ms. Pietikäinen is a former Minister of Environment (1991-1995). Her career at the Finnish parliament is extensive, ranging from the year 1983 to 2003. Economic, environmental as well as social and welfare issues have been the focus areas of her work throughout her career.

Ms. Pietikainen is the chair of GLOBE EU network. She has also actively worked with a number of NGOs promoting economic sustainability, democracy, and human rights.

Ms. Pietikäinen has MSc (Business), and teaches university courses on negotiations theory and practices.

The current parliamentary work:

Member
• Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI)

Substitute
• Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON)
• Committee on Women's Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM)
• Special Committee on the Financial, Economic and Social Crisis (CRIS)