Avi Schneebalg

Avi Schneebalg graduated from Brussels University (ULB) Law School in 1979.

He joined the Brussels Bar in 1981 and has specialised in (international) commercial law and transactions. He is one of the pioneers in Continental Europe of the training in and practice of civil and commercial mediation, which he has taught in Law and Business Schools, Bar Associations, Chambers of Commerce and the like, in several European countries, the US, Canada and Mexico, and has co-authored a reference book on Mediation Advocacy.

He currently teaches Negotiation, Conciliation and Mediation at Antwerp University’s Law School, at the Belgian School for the Judiciary (IFJ-IGO) and at The European Judicial Training Network.

Mr. Schneebalg is a Civil judge (Juge de paix) in Brussels since 2011.

Théophile M. Margellos

Dr Jur. Théophile M. Margellos is President of the Boards of Appeal. He served as Chairperson of the First (Trade Marks) and Third (Designs) Boards of Appeal and is coordinator of the EUIPO Mediation team. He studied law at the Universities of Athens (GR), Strasbourg (FR) and Freiburg i. Br. (DE). He has successively worked as attorney-at- law specialised in IP and as référendaire in the EU Court of Justice (Luxembourg) and has been a member of the legal service of the European Commission and a European Patent Attorney. He has also been law professor at the Jules Verne University in Amiens, France.

Ioanna Anastassopoulou

A law graduate from the Law School of Athens University, Ioanna obtained her PhD (Doctorat d’Etat) in Paris at the University of Paris 2 on International Private Business Law after having studied European Law at the College of Europe in Bruges (Belgium) under a scholarship of the College, and Trade Mark and Patent Law (DESS en Propriété Industrielle) at the University of Paris 2. Ioanna qualified at the Athens Bar in 1981 and practised in Athens in her family’s firm until 1991 when she joined PPT Legal as a partner. Ioanna practices in the field of mediation, negotiation and ADR, shareholder and partnership disputes/corporate governance, EU Law, Mergers & Acquisitions, Distribution & Agency Agreements, Competition Law, Investment Protection, Trademarks & Copyright, General Labour Law, Patents, Intellectual Property Law and General Corporate/Commercial Law. Ioanna has written numerous articles on her field of activities published both in and outside Greece . Apart from being a lawyer, Ioanna is a CEDR accredited mediator (August 2006), has attended the Negotiation course at the Harvard Law School (July 2007) and obtained the CEDR Certificate in Advanced Negotiation (2013). Ioannais on the official list of mediators of the Greek Ministry of Justice, CCPIT & CCOIC Mediator, CEDR Finalist in the ADR Champions Category 2013 and participated in the ad-hoc Committee of the Ministry of Justice entrusted with the implementation in Greece of the EU Mediation Directive. Ioanna is the Secretary General and sits as the head of the Legal Department of Association of SA and Ltd Companies in Greece, which is a non-profit association, established in 1922, and which has operated without interruption since then in Athens. She is a founding member (a member since 1987) and former President (1993-1995) of the European Lawyers’ Association (Union des Avocats Européens). Ioanna is a founding member and sits in the Board of the Hellenic Mediators’ Association, President of the Hellenic Mediation and Arbitration Centre, and Director of the Hellenic Centre for Workplace Mediation. Ioanna has mediated cases in Greece and internationally. She speaks and writes in Greek, French and English and understands German and Italian.

Gordon Humphreys

Gordon Humphreys is currently Chairperson of the Fifth Board of Appeal at EUIPO, having joined the Boards as a Member in 2005. He was Head of the Register Service from 2002-2005 and joined EUIPO’s Legal Department in 1997. He is also an accredited mediator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and has been a member of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal Mediation Service since 2011. Prior to working at EUIPO, he was in private practice in Luxembourg and Brussels and qualified both as a barrister (England and Wales) and avocat (Brussels bar). He was also a member of the CIArb Sub-Committee on the Revision of Mediation Rules between 2016 and 2018. Gordon was educated at the universities of Buckingham (LL.B), Cardiff (LL.M) and Liège (masters in economic law). He also holds a post-graduate diploma in EU law from the University of Alicante. He frequently speaks and writes on ADR, trade mark and design matters, including most recently, co-editing, together with three other colleagues form the Boards of Appeal, Mediation: Creating Value in International Intellectual Property Disputes, Wolters Kluwer (2018). He is also a contributing author in Hasselblatt’s Community Design Regulation: Article-by-Article Commentary, Second Edition (2018), Beck.

Alya Ladjimi

Alya is a French and Tunisian qualified lawyer with nearly 15 years of experience in dispute resolution. Her current role is to administer ICC Mediation, Expertise, Disputes Boards and DOCDEX cases. Before joining the Centre, Alya worked with the ICC International Court of Arbitration as Deputy Counsel for seven years. During this time, she managed hundreds of arbitration proceedings across Europe, Africa and the Middle East with an average value of over 100 million US dollars. In Tunisia, Alya worked extensively in litigation and corporate law, advising banks, foreign investors and corporations. Alya holds master degrees from the Université de Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and from the Faculté des sciences juridiques politiques et sociales de Tunis in International Public Law and International Organizations and in Common Law. Her working languages are Arabic, French and English. She is also fluent in Italian.

Stephen Bate

Stephen Bate is a mediator in business disputes, practising as a member of the CEDR Chambers. Over the past 15 years, he has mediated in a wide range of commercial cases, including intellectual property matters. The Legal 500 2018/2019 recommends Stephen as a leading mediator, noting that his ‘grasp of detail and his ability to mediate pleasantly and persuasively between parties who could not be further apart are the main contributory factors to the success of his mediations.’ Stephen practised as a barrister for over 25 years in commercial law, advising clients and representing them in court. He was consistently ranked in tier 1 of the professional directories in his specialist fields of media and entertainment law. As a chartered arbitrator, Stephen is regularly appointed in domestic and international arbitrations. He is currently writing a book on how to resolve business disputes.

James South

James is CEDR’s Managing Director, a barrister and solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand and has been mediating for over 24 years. Recent mediation experience includes a wide range of disputes including general contract, property and discrimination with particular emphasis situations where there is a perceived or actual power imbalance between the parties. James is also trained and experienced in mediating cross-border and cross-cultural disputes recently mediating cases with Spanish and Austrian parties. James has experience in the design and project management of complicated and multi-party disputes through facilitation, mediation and other dispute resolution processes. Recent feedback includes ‘He was fair and reasonable’; ’James was excellent and had a good handle on things’; ‘He got to the heart of the problem straight away’.
James is also one of the world’s most experienced mediation and dispute resolution trainers and consultant. He has extensive experience in delivering training and consultancy services to governments, corporates, the judiciary and universities and has worked in over 30 jurisdictions. In recent years, James has provided consultancy advice to the EBRD, the IFC/World Bank, the UNHCR, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Ministries of Justice of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Moldova, the Commercial Court of Zagreb, Croatia, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the High Court of Sindh, Pakistan. Recent assignments include Lead Consultant for an EBRD funded mediation capacity building project in Moldova and a World Bank-funded skills training and capacity building project in four countries in the Middle East and North Africa. He has directed and managed numerous other projects funded by the World Bank, the International Finance Corporation and other international donors in a variety of alternative dispute resolution initiatives.
He holds a Masters in Law (Distinction) in Dispute Prevention and Resolution from the University of Westminster, London, and has developed and lectured on International Commercial Mediation modules and other Negotiation/Mediation Courses for masters and undergraduate students at many universities around the world.

Susanne Schuler

Susanne Schuler is CEDR’S director of training & consultancy, an experienced business and intercultural facilitator, mediator and coach. She speaks five languages fluently and has worked in more than 30 different countries. Susanne works with international institutions such as the UN and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as well as major UK organisations including the BBC and Lloyds Bank. Susanne leads a programme focused on resolving board conflicts which she delivers around the world. She is a published author and her most recent publication is a chapter in How To Master Negotiation, published by Bloomsbury.

Eve Pienaar

Eve is a solicitor and a highly experienced commercial mediator. She has a wide range of expertise and mediates high-value, multi-party and complex mediation cases. Her practice specialises in property & construction, intellectual property and professional negligence disputes but she also works on workplace and employment matters. CEDR accredited in 2007, Eve is a member of the CEDR Chambers Panel, a member of the CEDR Faculty, and mediates on a weekly basis. Eve’s strong legal skills add to her commercial approach to risk management and negotiation. Her calm, engaging manner and professional approach keep the focus on realistic yet creative settlement opportunities. Client feedback credits her creativity, perseverance and consideration for the parties involved.

Wolf Von Kumberg

Wolf spent nearly 30 years in London, England, as European Legal Director and Assistant General Counsel to Northrop Grumman, a global aerospace/security company. In that position he was responsible for its international legal affairs. Prior to that, he served for five years as the Vice President – Legal Affairs for Litton Canada, after having spent several years in legal practice with a major Toronto Law Firm. He retired from Northrop Grumman in 2015 as its Assistant General Counsel and is now a member of ArbDB Chambers in London and the Managing Director of Global Resolution Services, a provider of dispute resolution services. Wolf has received law degrees from Canadian and European Universities and is qualified as a lawyer in both Canada and England.
Wolf was involved in many of Northrop Grumman’s international legal disputes and has been a keen advocate for early dispute resolution (ADR), as well as conflict management. In that context, he is both qualified as an arbitrator and mediator and is an advocate for the broad use of dispute boards by industry and government. He has also been instrumental in bringing mediation to investor/state disputes through work with the ECT, CEDR and ICSID. He sits on the AAA/ICDR AANS Panel which specialises in aerospace, security and defence related disputes, as well as on the mediation panels of CEDR, AIAC and SCCA.
Wolf was the first Chair of the International Mediation Institute (IMI), which has advocated international standards for mediators. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and the former Chair of its Board of Management. He also serves as a Director of the American Arbitration Association (AAA) and of CEDR in the UK. In addition, he has been widely involved in arbitration, mediation and conflict avoidance board training for the CIArb, AAA and CEDR.

Charlotte Gerrish

Charlotte Gerrish, a solicitor in England & Wales and Ireland and registered at the Paris Bar (98/5/EC) (France), is a legal expert in data protection and privacy matters with a strong background in both advisory work as well as in dispute resolution. Working in Paris, London and Stockholm, Charlotte has over 10 years of commercial law experience gained in international law firms and more recently heading up the France-Benelux legal team of an LSE-listed consulting company. In 2018 Charlotte founded a boutique digital law firm, Gerrish Legal which specialises in IP, IT and Privacy law. Alongside Gerrish Legal, Charlotte also lectures on International Commercial Law LL.M at Edinburgh University with a focus on corporate compliance, privacy and online surveillance issues and wireless technology and has been a mediator within the digital, technological and IT sectors.

John Zeleznikow

John Zeleznikow has conducted research on the application of artificial intelligence to law, dispute resolution and negotiation for thirty years.  In that time he has published three research monographs (Cambridge University Press, Springer and Kluwer), eighty-five refereed journal articles and over two hundred refereed conference articles and book chapters. He has received over five million euros in grants from the European Union, the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council, the Australian Research Council and the French and Dutch Science Councils. He has successfully supervised twenty PhD students and developed award-winning software that advises upon BATNAs and assists disputants to develop successful trade-offs during negotiations.

Arno R. Lodder

Arno R. Lodder is professor of Internet Governance and Regulation (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Transnational Legal Studies, Centre for Law and Internet), and Counsel (SOLV lawyers). In his research and lectures he focuses on law and internet topics, such as algorithms, security, privacy, liability, contracting, freedom of speech, cybercrime; and phenomena related to big data, social media, cyberwar, the internet of things, smart devices and apps. He has published over 30 (co-)edited and (co-)authored books, such as DiaLaw on Legal Justification and Dialogical Models of Argumentation (1999), Information Technology and Lawyers. Advanced Technology in the Legal Domain (2006), Enhanced Dispute Resolution Through the Use of Information Technology (2010), Cyber law in the Netherlands (2016), EU Regulation of E-commerce (2017), Concise European Data Protection, E‑commerce and IT Law (2018).

Ryan Abbott

Ryan Abbott, MD, JD, MTOM, is Professor of Law and Health Sciences at the University of Surrey School of Law, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS. Professor Abbott has published widely on issues associated with law and technology, health law and intellectual property in leading legal, medical, and scientific journals. He has worked as a partner at a litigation firm, general counsel of a biotechnology company and as counsel at law firms specialised in transactional matters and intellectual property litigation for biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. He is a licensed and board-certified physician and patent attorney in the United States, and a solicitor (non-practicing) in England and Wales.

Barrou Diallo

M. Barrou Diallo received a PhD in Computer Sciences, a M.Sc. in Biomathematics, as well as a M.Sc. in Law and Cyberspace. He started his career as Assistant Professor in France and worked for large international groups (e.g. Villeroy & Boch, Vodafone) before joining the European Patent Office. He has been active in various capacities (Director R&D, Head of Research and Head of Innovation). He has been recognised for actively promoting innovation and technical international cooperation through the conclusion of multi- and bilateral-agreements (China, Eastern Europe). He is the author of a number of publications and a speaker at a series of international conferences.

Sven Stürmann

Sven is a graduate of Law and Mediation from the Universities of Göttingen, Berlin (Germany) and Alicante (Spain). In 2004, he completed a Master’s Degree in Intellectual Property Law in Alicante and is an internationally accredited Mediator (CEDR). Sven started working at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) in January 2004, having previously practiced as an Attorney-at-law (Rechtsanwalt) and Mediator in Berlin (Germany).Over the past fourteen years at EUIPO he has worked as a Lawyer Linguist, Opposition and Cancellation examiner, Legal Assistant of the 1st Board of Appeal, Legal Advisor and as a Mediator. From 2014 to 2017, he was Team Leader of the Knowledge and Legal Support Team at the Boards of Appeal and Leader of the Knowledge Circle Appeal Processes. In August 2017, Sven became the Chairperson of the 2nd Board of Appeal at EUIPO. He is also a Member of the Board of Appeal of the Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) in Angers, France and a Member of the Advisory Board of the online Intellectual Property Magazine (IPM), a joint venture with the German newspaper group Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Fachverlag. He is one of the pioneering mediators at EUIPO, having contributed decisively to the establishment of the EUIPO's Mediation Service in 2011. Sven is a frequent speaker on Mediation and European Union trade mark issues, both at the EUIPO and international conferences, and has published a broad range of articles relating to Mediation and European Union trade marks in German, English and Spanish.

Dr. Christian Lemke

Dr Christian Lemke has been an attorney since 1993 and a partner with the law firm Heissner & Struck in Hamburg/Germany since 1996. He is both a Bar Certified Specialist Lawyer in Industrial Property Law and a Bar Certified Specialist Lawyer in Information Technology Law. He practises industrial property law, data protection law, IT law, copyright law and competition law. Besides his professional activities, Christian Lemke currently serves as President of the Hamburg Bar (Hanseatische Rechtsanwaltskammer Hamburg). He is also Vice‑Chair of the ‘Future of the Legal Profession and Legal Services’ Committee of the Council of Bars and Law Societies (CCBE, Brussels), and Co-Chair of the International Trademark Association’s Bulletin Committee’s ‘Law & Practice Europe’ Subcommittee. From 2015 to 2017 he was Head of the German Delegation to the CCBE

Petr Hostaš

Petr Hostaš is a member of the Board of the Arbitration Court attached to the Czech Chamber of Commerce and the Agricultural Chamber of the Czech Republic (Czech Arbitration Court) entrusted with the supervision of domain name disputes and on-line dispute resolution services. He is an expert of the ADR centre for EU, CZ and gTLD (UDRP) domain name disputes and arbitrator of the Czech Arbitration Court. Petr Hostaš has more than 20 years long practice as an attorney-at-law specialized in telecommunications, IS/IT technologies, IP rights, trademarks, domain names, litigation and arbitration. He is actively engaged in the Intellectual Property Rights Section of the Czech Bar Association, engages in numerous publishing activities in the field of domain names and often lectures on the arbitration and domain name disputes at conferences and workshops

HH Nicholas Chambers

Nick Chambers first practised as a commercial barrister in London. In 1999 he became an accredited  CEDR  mediator  and then a  specialist  judge  trying  commercial, chancery, IP and construction  cases.  He was a Judicial Studies Board Course Director for Senior Judiciary Seminars on Competition Law and the first Course Director for Specialist Civil Continuation Seminars.  Between  2001  and  2013  he  was  Chairman  of  the  ICLR which  publishes  the Law Reports  and  the Weekly  Law  Reports  having overall  responsibility for negotiating licence agreements and development  of  the new online  platform.  He retired as a judge in 2012 and returned to Brick Court Chambers as a mediator and arbitrator being involved with a large variety of disputes including complex IP. In 2015 he established the UK section of Groupement Européen des Magistrats pour la Médiation of which he has been a vice president.

Angel Galgo Peco

Angel Galgo Peco graduated in Law at the Complutense University of Madrid, in 1985. He joined the Judiciary in 1989. He was employed by the Council of Europe in 2002, and from 2003 to 2008, by the European Union (The Hague and Brussels). Back in Madrid in 2008, he assumed the office of the President of Chamber No 28 (Commercial Matters), at the Court of Appeal of Madrid, his current position. He has also worked for the UN, participating in programmes relating to Judicial Capacity Building, in Guatemala and El Salvador. Having taught at diverse Universities, he has also been responsible for several continuous training programmes for judges, organized by the Spanish High Council of the Judiciary. Mr Galgo participated as an EU expert in the IP key Project (China) in 2015 and 2016. He intervenes as a speaker on a regular basis in both national and international fora, and is author of various publications about IP Law. Mr. Galgo was appointed a legally qualified member of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the EPO with effect  from 1 January 2018. He is a member of IPAJ (Association of Judges in Intellectual Property) and AECLJ (Association of European Competition Law Judges)

Monika Rhein

Born in Munich in May 1963, Monika grew up in South America. After graduating from high school obtaining the German Abitur in Caracas, Venezuela, she started studying law at the LMU München and translation and interpreting (Spanish and English) at the SDI in Munich, graduating from the SDI in 1984 and the LMU in 1988. She completed her legal traineeship in Munich and started working as a Judge at the Regional Court of Munich in September 1991, where she was a member of various chambers dealing with IP cases, mostly concerning patents, trademarks and copyright issues. She was also a research assistant at the Federal Supreme Court (BGH), where she was assigned to the I.Zivil senat, in charge of IP cases. In 2009 she received training in mediation and alternative conflict resolution and is the Presiding Judge of a chamber dealing with commercial matters in the field of IP since 2012. Monika has two children and loves singing as a member of the Munich Bach Choir.

Paola Lucarelli

Paola Lucarelli is full Professor in Commercial Law at the University of Florence, Department of Legal Science. Currently she is Director of ‘Un Altro Modo’, Research and Training Centre for Relationship Management and ADR Culture; Member of the DG Justice Programme: Contractualised Distress Resolution in the Shadow of the Law, Effective Judicial Review and Oversight of Insolvency and Pre-insolvency Proceedings; Project Manager of the experimental research on Mediation ordered by the Judge: ‘Giustizia Semplice’ in the Tribunal of Florence; Project Manager of the experimental research on Mediation ordered by the Judge: ‘Giustizia in Mediazione’, in the Tribunal of Perugia. Clinics: Mediazioni fiorentine (5 editions); International Mock Mediation. Some recent publications: Crisi del contratto commerciale e produzione privata dei rimedi, in Crisi della legge e produzione privata del diritto, 2018; The three targets of insolvency mediation: dispute resolution, agreement facilitation, corporate distress management, in transnational dispute management, 2017; I contratti commerciali di durata. Crisi di cooperazione e governo del cambiamento, Utet giuridica, 2016; Il diritto della mediazione nella visione ottimistica di una gius-commercialista, in Scritti per Luigi Lombardi Vallauri, Milano, 2016, Long Term Commercial Contracts and the Need for Relational Intelligence, in M. Stürner, F.G. Inchausti, R. Caponi, The Role of Consumer ADR in the Administration of Justice, 2015.

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Louise Otis

Louise Otis practised law for 15 years, specialising in labour and administrative law. In 1997, she was appointed as a judge to the Quebec Court of Appeal. During her time there, she developed an internationally renowned programme of judicial mediation. Afterwards, she was invited by many countries to develop programmes to train judges, diplomats and other civil society actors in mediation. On a global level, Ms Otis has participated in justice reform programmes in many International Organizations (UN, IMF, WB, GF).  She is now President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), President of the Administrative Tribunal of Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF) and Deputy Judge of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Administrative Tribunal (EUMETSAT). She is a distinguished fellow of the International Academy of Mediators (IAM).  She is also an adjunct professor at the McGill Law Faculty and works as a mediator and commercial arbitrator.

Winnie Tam

Winnie Tam SC is a leading barrister-advocate in intellectual property and commercial law, an international arbitrator and mediator. Winnie was appointed Senior Counsel of the Hong Kong Bar in 2006, and was Chairperson of the Hong Kong Bar (2015 - 2017) and Co-chair of the Forum for Barristers and Advocates of the International Bar Association 2017-2018. She currently chairs the Standing Committee on Intellectual Property of the Hong Kong Bar, and sits as a Recorder of the Court of First Instance, High Court of the HKSAR. She is a former member of the Steering Committee on Mediation of the Department of Justice, and one of the first batch of Chinese neutrals to be appointed to the JAMS panel, a member of the SCMC and WIPO panel of mediators, and listed by both CIETAC and the Hong Kong Mediation Council as a mediator for Investment Agreements under the CEPA Arrangement between Hong Kong and Mainland China.  Winnie is also active as an international arbitrator on investment, commercial, entertainment and IP disputes under UNCITRAL, ICC, HKIAC, CIETAC and SIAC rules.

Natalija Kaminskienė

Dr Natalija Kaminskienė is a CEDR (UK)‑ accredited mediator, assoc. professor at the Institute of Private Law at Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), head of Mediation and Dispute Resolution Laboratory, practising advocate and arbiter. Areas of her specialisation ‑ peaceful resolution of business disputes (legal negotiations, mediation, arbitration). Natalija has published numerous scientific articles on the topics of mediation and legal negotiation. She is the author of the book Legal negotiation (2019), Alternative civil dispute resolution (2011) and Mediation textbook (2013) with co-authors. Since 2012 she has been a member of the Judicial Mediation Commission in Lithuania, since 2017 a member of Lithuanian Commission on Copyright and Related Rights, fostering application of mediation in disputes between collective copyright management associations. She is one of the main mediation founders, supporters and developers in Lithuania.

Ignacio de Castro

Ignacio de Castro is a Spanish lawyer and an English solicitor. Ignacio holds an LL.M. degree from King's College London. Before joining WIPO in 2002, he was on the legal staff at the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva and, prior to that, practised with the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London in the areas of international arbitration and litigation.

Sophia Bonne

Sophia Bonne is Head of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Service at the EUIPO Boards of Appeal and is qualified as a mediator with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators ( CIArb). Prior to joining the Boards of Appeal, she was in charge of the IP Policy and Guidelines team at the International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department of the EUIPO where she was in charge of defining policy in trade mark and design matters. She is also a litigator before the Court of Justice of the EU. She has extensive experience in the IP area including representing the position of the EUIPO before WIPO and other international organisations. She has been a member of the Boards of Appeal of the Community Plant Variety Office in Angers, France. Before joining the EUIPO she was an attorney-at-law at a leading international law firm in Brussels. She holds degrees in law from the universities of Namur, Leuven and Ferrara and was awarded a DAAD scholarship for German legal studies. She has published various articles and has been a speaker at several events in the field of IP.

Stephen Probert

Steve Probert is Head of the UK IPO Mediation Service.  He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering & Technology. He joined the UK IPO in 1990 after several years working in the automotive electronics industry. Steve has been an Inter Partes Hearing Officer at the IPO since 1996.  His hearings’ caseload includes opposition, entitlement, validity & infringement disputes across all the rights granted by the IPO (i.e. patents, trade marks and registered designs). Steve first trained as a mediator with WIPO in Geneva in 1997, and then with CEDR in 2006, and has led the UK IPO’s Mediation Service since its launch in April 2006. He has mediated in over fifty cases; mostly dealing with intellectual property, but also including boundary disputes, employment, housing and international shipping contracts. Stephen Probert BEng MEng CEng FIET

Nadja Alexander

Nadja Alexander is Director of the Singapore International Dispute Resolution Academy and Professor of Law at the Singapore Management University. Nadja has long been engaged as a policy adviser and conflict intervener in diverse legal, corporate and development settings. She has advised on mediation policy for international bodies, such as the World Bank Group, and national governments in Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. In 2018 she joined the Singaporean delegation to UNCITRAL WG II for the deliberations on the Mediation Convention. Nadja’s books and articles in journals have been published in English, German, Chinese, Spanish, Russian and Arabic. Among her numerous books are the award-winning International and Comparative Mediation: Legal Perspectives, Global Trends in Mediation and The EU Mediation Handbook: Regulatory Robustness Ratings for Mediation Regimes. See www.nadjaalexander.com.

Geert Glas

Geert Glas is a senior IP counsel at the Brussels office of global law firm Allen & Overy (Belgium) LLP and is widely reputed for his broad expertise in IP. He advises companies on a wide range of IP issues and represents clients before the European, Benelux and Belgian courts. From 2009 until 2017, Geert was the chairman of the Benelux Council for Intellectual Property (BCIP), which advises the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) on all aspects of IP legislation. Geert also advised the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) on IP issues related to the Internet, and he is an accredited WIPO and ICC arbitrator. He is also regularly asked to mediate in IP conflicts. For more than 15 years, Geert has been ranked as market-leading individual in the area of IP by various independent legal directories such as Chambers, Legal 500, WTR 1000 and Managing IP.

George Lim

George was called to the Singapore Bar in 1982, and appointed Senior Counsel in 2010. He was President of the Law Society of Singapore between 1998and 1999. George was Singapore’s mediation consultant to UNICITRAL Working Group II, which led to the adoption of the UN Convention on International Settlement   Agreements Resulting from Mediation (‘the Singapore Convention’) by the UN General Assembly on 20 December 2018. He is the co-editor of Mediation in Singapore: A Practical Guide. In 2018, George was identified by The International Who’s Who of Commercial Mediation as being among 380 of the world’s leading commercial mediators and was named a global thought leader in mediation.

Dids Macdonald

Dids Macdonald has over 25 years’ experience within the design sector and co-founded ACID (Anti Copying in Design) because her products were consistently copied. ACID represents thousands of designers and campaigns for design law reforms, most notably the introduction of criminal provisions for the intentional infringement of a registered design enshrined in the 2014 IP Act. Dids is passionate about helping micro and SMEs protect their valuable IP via education and awareness and by creating a proactive IP Strategy. She is a CEDR- trained mediator and passionate about ADR. She has championed an informal dispute resolution service at major UK ACID accredited exhibitions. Dids was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in Her Majesty’s Birthday Honours for her services to the design industry in 2015. She was nominated for the Design Week Hall of Fame and in July 2016 ACID was named as IP Champion by the Alliance for Intellectual Property on its first British IP Day at Westminster.

José Checa

José is currently the General Counsel — Brand & Marketing Properties at Nestlé and has responsibility for overseeing the legal protection of the Nestlé brand and design assets across all company businesses and geographies. Before joining Nestlé, José was IP Counsel EMEA for DuPont, where he held various responsibilities, including the managing of DuPont Nutrition & Health trademarks and copyrights, and commercial and corporate legal support to Spain & Portugal. Prior to DuPont, José worked as Legal Adviser to the International Standards Organization (ISO) Central Secretariat, leading the legal department and providing legal advice to the Secretary-General in the standard-setting context. He also worked at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and in  Spanish and US law firms. José is a Spanish qualified lawyer with a Master's Degree in Intellectual Property from the University of Alicante (Spain), a Diploma in EU Competition Law from King’s College London and a Postgraduate in Mediation from the Instituto Superior de Estudios Psicológicos(ISEP). He is also a mediator with the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center. José has also mediated family and labour disputes.

Jean-François Bloch

Jean-François is the founder and CEO of StartingBloch, an IP-specialized start-up that offers customized support in the creation, management and optimization of IP strategy. He is managing a team that provides technical, legal and business skills to innovative companies, thus making IP accessible to them. Previously, he was a co-founder of a biotech start-up company (PROTEUS). He was, notably, in charge of negotiating numerous types of contracts (IP licensing, R&D, collaboration and consortium agreements, etc.). He started his career by managing the IP & Licences Department from Oris Group, a medical subsidiary of the ‘Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique’ (CEA).He graduated from the Faculty of Pharmacy (University of Strasbourg) and of CEIPI (Center for International Intellectual Property Studies). Jean-François Bloch is also a speaker, and an author of several publications in the field of Intellectual Property.

Pierfrancesco C. Fasano

MFSD Mediation and Scientific Director. Mediator, ICOM-WIPO, Art and Cultural Heritage. Scientific Director of  MFSD accredited by the Italian Minister of Justice for as Mediation Academy. Theoretical Trainer for Mediators accredited by the Italian Minister of Justice. Admitted as Avvocato (advocate) to Milan Bar and before the Italian Supreme Court (Corte di Cassazione). Arbitrator, Czech Arbitration Court, for Top Level Domain Name ‘eu’ disputes. Arbitrator, Registro .it (Institute of Informatics and Telematics of CNR(IIT-CNR),for country code Top Level Domain Name ‘.it’ disputes. Arbitrator, Court of Milan, Intellectual Property special field. Technical Expert, Court of Milan, ‘trademarks, domains and advertising’ special fields. Lecturer, Florence University, Fashion Law. Member of the Inter Pacific Bar Association (IPBA). Articles, lectures and conference speeches on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) since 2000.

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Rachel Jones

A firm believer in ‘look up, look out’, Rachel has driven export strategies in every business for which she has worked, or founded. Creating the ‘Totseat chair harness’ (for babies who lunch) in 2005, with no prior knowledge of manufacturing, logistics or importing, Rachel invested heavily in the Totseat’s intellectual property before beginning an export journey which would involve 40 countries, copies and counterfeits. Fast forward a few years and, thanks to its robust IP portfolio, the Totseat (somewhat astonishingly) survived, and continues to generate 85% of its income from outside the UK. Armed with the successful experience of defending the Totseat, Rachel founded SnapDragon to help other SMEs fight fakes online. SnapDragon’s Swoop software delivers affordable, accessible brand protection to businesses - keeping brands, revenues and customers safe around the world. The team of 26 is split between Edinburgh and Lerwick and speaks 14 languages between them. Rachel is an active member of the Scottish Trade Board, The Scottish Business Resilience Centre and the Scottish Anti Illicit Trade Group.

Aleš Zalar

Aleš Zalar graduated in law. From 1989 to 2008 he was a judge. From 1991 to 2007 he was the President of the Basic Court in Ljubljana and later the District Court in Ljubljana. He was then the EU's legal consultant for EU law with the Romanian Supreme Court and for mediation with the Croatian Ministry of Justice. From 2008 to 2012 Mr Zalar served as Minister of Justice in the Republic of Slovenia. Currently he is working as a President and ADR expert at the European Centre for Dispute Resolution. Mr Zalar has been a President of the European Centre for Dispute Resolution since 2012.

Dirk De Meulemeester

Dirk De Meulemeester is a lawyer at the Brussels Bar and Partner at DE MEULEMEESTER & DE BRABANDERE LAW, a boutique law firm focusing on international arbitration. He is also  Chairman of CEPANI–The Belgian Centre for Arbitration and Mediation, Visiting Professor at Ghent University and Leiden University and Substitute Judge at the Commercial Court of Ghent. He has been practising dispute resolution for over 18 years in both national and international commercial and investment arbitration. He has acted as counsel or arbitrator in over sixty arbitration proceedings, administered and ad hoc, governed by various procedural  and substantive laws, both civil law and common law, and by international law.

Thomas Frydendahl

Thomas Frydendahl has broad experience in IP law, including in particular trademark law and matters related to this field. Thomas has particular experience in European Trademark law and has written numerous decisions while on his 5-year secondment to the EUIPO which included 3 years at the Boards of Appeal. Moreover Thomas has represented the EUIPO in several cases before the European Courts in Luxembourg. Thomas has been a frequent lecturer for lawyers in the Nordic countries and has given several lectures at international conferences on topics related to European trademark law

Christian Archambeau

Christian Archambeau is Executive Director of the EUIPO since October 1, 2018. He has been part of the Office’s top management team since 1 December 2010, when he was appointed as Deputy Executive Director by the Council of the European Union. A native of Belgium, he graduated from Université libre de Bruxelles as a civil engineer and worked in construction in the Middle East before moving to the European Space Agency in facility management. Prior to joining the EUIPO (formerly known as OHIM), he held a number of senior  positions in the European Patent Office in Infrastructure, Administration  and Human Resources

Patrick Sensburg

Prof. Dr Patrick Sensburg is a German politician (CDU) and Professor of Public Law and European Law. He has been a member of the German Parliament since 2009. Since 2018, Dr Sensburg has been chairing the Committee on Scrutiny of Elections, Immunity and the Rules of Procedure. From 2009 to 2017 he was chairman of the subcommittee of European law. Since 2008 he is Professor for Public Law and European Law at the University of Applied Sciences for Public Administration and management of North Rhine-Westphalia in Muenster. Since 2018 Patrick Sensburg is visiting professor at the University of Vienna and also at the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE).

Francisco Fonseca Morillo

PhD in Law and graduate in Political Science, Mr Francisco Fonseca has extensive experience in the field of European institutions where he has developed most of his professional life since 1986, when he joined the Directorate General of Budgets. Over the last three decades he has combined his activity in different Directorates General, areas and levels of the European Union with his passion for teaching that originated at his alma mater, the University of Valladolid, as a lecturer in Public International Law. He is currently the Head of the European Commission Representation in Spain.

Dr. Anuy Lee

Dr. Anyu (Andy) Lee is chairman of Dispute resolution Committee of China Trademark Association, the president of Beijing eBridgeChina Research Institute, visiting professor at Qinghua University, Beijing, China and adjunct professor at East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, before this position, Dr. Lee was a professor at University of International Business and Economy in Beijing, China since 2010. Dr. Lee served as the chief scientist of the university’s eCommerce Research institute and headed the university’s Shenzhen Research Institute, which is a thinking tank founded jointly by the university and Shenzhen municipal government. Prior to the university position, Dr. Lee was the director of eCommerce technology research center at China Academy of Sciences for 10 years. Before coming back to China, Dr. Lee worked in Silicon Valley for over 12 years as an engineer and research scientist in various companies including LSI Logic, Silicongraphic, HP Lab. Dr. Lee founded Internet Image Inc. in 1997 and successfully merged with Intraware, a Nasdaq listed company. Dr. Lee was educated in Shanghai JiaoTong University (BS, MS), University of Arizona (MS), and Stanford University (Phd.) with HP corporate fellowship. He is Online Dispute Resolution and Cross-Border Commerce Expert.

Fei Xu

Judge XU Fei is a senior judge of the Third Rank of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court. She was the Deputy Chief Judge of the IP Division of Pudong New Area People’s Court, Shanghai, before the Shanghai IP Court was established in 2014. She was honored as Judiciary Backbone of Shanghai Courts, and has settled nearly 2,200 IP cases, some of which were categorized as being among the Top 10 IP Cases Decided by Chinese Courts, Top 10 Copyright Cases in China, Top 10 Shanghai Judiciary Cases, and Top 10 IP Cases under Judicial Protection by Shanghai Courts. She received her Ph.D. in law from Fudan University, and was an international fellow of Yale University. She has published dozens of articles in academic journals and is a council member of the Competition Law Research Association of the Shanghai Law Society, guest professor of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics and guest tutor of Shanghai Maritime University.

João Negrão

Mr João Negrão LL.M. holds a Master Degree in International Law and a University Degree in International Relations. He also holds a High Level Degree on Public Administration Management by the National Institute of Administration and has completed a number of IP related courses, namely a General Course on IP at the WIPO Worldwide Academy and a Specialised Course on the practice and functioning of the IP system in the USA given by the USPTO.

Before joining EUIPO, João held different positions in the Portuguese Public Administration in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs/General Directorate for EU Affairs, in the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and in the Ministry of Justice/ National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). In 2001, João joined INPI, initially within the International Relations Cabinet and, from 2004, as its Head of Cabinet. In 2008, he was appointed as Director of International Relations and Promotion of Innovation at INPI.

In 2010, he joined EUIPO as Head of the President’s Cabinet. Since July 2011, he has held the position of Director of the International Cooperation and Legal Affairs Department of EUIPO.