Introduction of Speakers and their Presentations
ST. MARTIN’S CONFERENCE 2016
RECENT TRENDS AND DEVELOPMENTS IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY
Wednesday, 9 November 2016
PANEL I: WHAT'S NEW IN COMPETITION LAW AND POLICY
Hynek Brom
First Vice-chairman; Czech Competition Authority
Hynek Brom was born on 12 October 1975 in Pilsen. He graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, where he has been also teaching at the Department of Public Administration since 2000. From 2000 till 2002 Mr. Brom acted as a head of secretariat of the Governor of Pilsen region. In the years 2000-2009 he was deputy mayor and later mayor of the city circuit Pilsen 4. Since 2006 Mr. Brom was a member of several expert bodies of the Union of Towns and Municipalities of the Czech Republic, as well as expert institutions dealing with organization and execution of public administration.
Hynek Brom joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in November 2009 as the Director of Section of State Aid and Administration and a month later he was appointed the First Vice-chairman. Since 1 March 2016 he is in charge of the Competition Division.
Tibor Menyhart
Slovak Competition Authority
Tibor Menyhart has been a Chairman of the Antimonopoly Office of the Slovak Republic since November 2011. Prior to joining the Office, he worked for the company Transpetrol, a. s. as a Director of Legal Department and Control, later also as a Director for Transit and Commerce. At the same time he was a member of the Supervisory Board at Transpetrol.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law at Comenius University in Bratislava (2000, Master's degree, 2002, JUDr.). His professional experience includes working as an attorney at the Central Securities Depository of the Slovak Republic (2002–2003) and at the Agency for Support of Regional Development by the Ministry of Construction and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic (2000–2002).
Petr Zákoucký
Counsel; Clifford Chance LLP
JUDr. Petr Zákoucký, LL.M., is a counsel at Clifford Chance in Prague and leads the office's energy, competition and public procurement practice. He represents clients in the development of new projects, M&A, joint venture projects and disputes in the Czech Republic as well as within the region.
Within its regulatory practice, he also regularly lectures at conferences (including, for instance, TOPGAS and CEPKON conferences and Czech Competition Office) and at the retreats of the energy section of the Union of In-House Lawyers. He spent a half a year with the Clifford Chance competition team in Brussels.
Before joining Clifford Chance in 2006, Petr worked for the law firm White & Case; he also completed internships with the General Court in Luxembourg and with the European Commission's DG Competition in Brussels. Petr obtained a master's degree in law from Charles University in Prague (2002), within which completed a one-year exchange study programme at a law faculty in Manchester (2001). He also completed LL.M. study programmes in Tuebingen (2004) and Amsterdam (2005).
KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
David Anderson
Partner; Berwin Leighton Paisner
Dave Anderson is a partner in Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP's Antitrust & Competition Law team and is the Head of its Brussels office. He is a US/UK/Belgian national and is qualified to practice law in the US, UK, Ireland and is a member of the Brussels Bar. Dave has practiced in London and Brussels in the EU and international competition law field for over 20 years. His practice focuses on EU and international antitrust aspects of M&A, joint ventures, cartels, commercial agreements and monopolies. He also advises on EU regulatory law, transport law and on communications and public affairs strategies. In the area of merger control, Dave regularly represents global corporations on international transactions before the European Commission and national antitrust and sectoral regulators around the world. He specialises in handling complex multijurisdictional merger reviews and has led and coordinated filings and reviews in most major jurisdictions with merger control regimes globally. In the area of cartels, Dave has extensive experience representing companies involved in cartel proceedings before the European Commission and other antitrust agencies. He has advised clients in relation to a number of the largest international cartel cases in the chemical, energy, mining and hi-tech sectors. In the area of dominance and monopolies, Dave advises multinational companies on pricing and behavioural compliance issues as well as parties damaged by non-compliance. Dave has represented clients in many sectors in connection with complaints to and investigations by regulators worldwide on abuse of dominance issues. Dave is also very active on the policy side of international antitrust. He serves as a non-governmental adviser to the European Commission on the work of the International Competition Network (ICN). He also advises the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and many national competition agencies on competition law reform and agency capacity building in Europe, Asia and Africa. Dave is also a member of BLP’s Brexit Task Force advising clients worldwide on all aspects of Brexit. Dave is recognised as a leading international antitrust lawyer by Chambers Global and Legal 500.
PANEL II: PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT: Introduction
Michael Mikulík
Czech Competition Authority
Michael Mikulík graduated from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague (Mgr., 2002) and from the University of Cambridge (LL.M., 2008) where his primary focus was on European competition law. Since 2010 he has been working for the Office for the Protection of Competition, initially as Adviser to the Vice-Chairman, then as Head of the Dominance and Vertical Agreements Department and Vice-Chairman of the Section on Protection of Competition. Currently, he is Head of the Appeals Division and a member of the appeals committees of the Office. Prior to joining the Office he worked in a private law firm.
Michael Mikulík specializes in the field of competition, administrative and public procurement law. He regularly represents the Office at meetings organized by the advisory bodies of the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission and the Competition Commission of the OECD. He actively participates as a lecturer in training sessions of competition law organized under the patronage of the United Nations (UNCTAD). He has contributed as an author and co-author in foreign professional publications dealing with competition law issues.
Wolfgang Deselaers
Linklaters Brussels
Wolfgang Deselaers is a senior competition partner at Linklaters LLP based in Brussels and Düsseldorf. He heads Linklaters’ global competition litigation practice group and has over 25 years of experience defending companies in complex cartel/abuse of dominance cases and follow-on damage litigation proceedings, in particular before European and German competition authorities and Courts. Wolfgang is also a non-governmental Advisor for Germany to the ICN (International Competition Network) and a Board Member of the Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht (association of more than 1000 competition lawyers mainly from Germany).
Jiří Kindl
Lawyer; WEIL, GOTSHAL & MANGES
Jiri Kindl is a partner in Weil, Gotshal & Manges (Prague). In his legal practice, he specializes in competition and regulatory matters and complex litigations/arbitrations. He has extensive experience with various competition law cases both before the Czech Office for Protection of Competition, other regulatory authorities and Czech courts.
Jiri Kindl graduated summa cum laude from the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague where he also obtained his Ph.D. He also studied law at the University of Limerick (Ireland) and a post-graduate course at the Faculty of Law, University of Oxford (University College) where he obtained Distinction and Clifford Chance Prize for Best Performance in Magister Juris, Winter Williams European Business Regulation Prize and Monckton Chambers Prize in Competition Law. He is a co-author of a textbook on Competition Law (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2nd edn, 2012) and a Commentary to the Czech Competition Act (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2nd edn, 2009). He also authored a monograph Cartel and Distribution Agreements – Theory and Practice (Prague, C.H. Beck, 2009) and numerous articles on competition law and commercial law issues in various Czech legal journals. Jiri Kindl also lectures competition law at the Faculty of Law, Charles University in Prague. He is regularly referred to in publications such as Chambers Europe, PLC Which Lawyer? – Cross border competition, Global Competition Review,IFLR Guide – World's leading competition & antitrust lawyers, Best lawyers as a leading antitrust lawyer in the Czech Republic.
Jiří Macek
High Court in Prague
Jiří Macek graduated from the Faculty of Law of Charles University in Prague in 1977. He started his professional career in economic arbitration, since 1992 he has worked in the area of justice. Since 1993, Jiří Macek has presided chamber of the High Court in Prague, which has focused on matters of trade disputes and disputes of industrial property rights and competition. He authored several publications focused primarily on the area of industrial property rights and competition issues, among others Collection of Decisions on Company´s Name and Unfair Competition Cases (C.H.Beck, 2000) or Collection of Decisions on Unfair Competition and Company´s Name Cases II, 2000-2010 (C.H.Beck, 2011). He is also co-author of Collection of Decisions and Judgements on Intellectual Property Cases (C.H.Beck, 2008) and its sequel called Collection of Decisions and Judgements on Intellectual Property Cases from 2007 to 2010 (C.H.Beck, 2011). Jiří Macek is a member of the editorial board of the professional journal Industrial Property and lecturer of the Czech Judicial Academy. He was awarded as "Lawyer of the Year 2011" for his professional activity in the area of intellectual property rights.
Kateřina Schenková
Baker & McKenzie, Vienna
Ms. Schenkova is an associate in the Baker & McKenzie office in Vienna and Prague where she handles the full spectrum of competition law matters, including merger filings, cartel investigations, distribution models and abuse of dominance cases. She represent clients before the Office for Protection Economic Competition and the European Commission, as well as before Austrian Cartel Courts. In addition, she routinely works on private antitrust litigation cases. In 2012, she was a member of the Düsseldorf competition law practice of the Firm.
Katerina Schenkova graduated summa cum laude from the Charles Univesity in Prague. Further, she is a graduate of the Univesity of Michigan Law School (LL.M., 2010). In 2014, Ms. Schenkova obtained the Postgraduate Diploma in European Competition Law at the King's College in London. She regularly publishes articles in competition law journals. She is fluent in Czech, English and German and speaks also Hungarian.
PANEL III: PRIVATE ENFORCEMENT: Quantification of harm
Michal Petr
Faculty of Law, Palacký University
Michal Petr has been an assistant professor at International and European Law Department of the Faculty of Law of Palacký University Olomouc since 2008 and at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University since 2003. He has been teaching European law with the focus on competition law, state aid, public procurement and regulation of network industries. Michal Petr gained his extensive experience in such areas when he worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 2011 and 2012 and in particular during his career in the Office for the Protection of Competition. He worked for the Office as a director of Legislative Unit from the year 2003, as a director of Division of Legislation and International Affairs from the year 2006 and finally, as a Vice-chairman of the Office from 2010 to 2015. He authored numerous publications on competition law, sector regulation and on particular issues of administrative punishment. He is a member of the editorial board of the magazines ANTITRUST and Public Governance, Administration and Finances Law Review, a national contributor to magazine European Networks Law and Regulation Quarterly and a member of the science board of Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University.
Doris Hildebrand
European Economic & Marketing Consultants
Professor Doris Hildebrand is Managing Partner of EE&MC - European Economic & Marketing Consultants GmbH, in Bonn, Brussels and Vienna. Nowadays Hildebrand - as one of the founders of the “more economics based approach” in the 90s - is contributing with her team to the European Competition Economics- research cluster at the University of Brussels (VUB).
At the VUB Hildebrand is Professor of Economics and teaches courses on EU Competition Policy for master students. Hildebrand’s other academic affiliations include an Associate Professor of Economics (1994-1998) at the University of Groningen and an Assistant Professor of Marketing and International Management (1991) at the University of Maastricht.
Hildebrand holds a master’s degree (1987) and Ph.D. (1990) in social and economic sciences from the University of Economics in Vienna. She earned a LL.M. degree (1992) and a state doctorate in law (1998) from the University of Brussels (VUB). In 1989, Hildebrand was a researcher at the Department of Economics at Harvard University, Cambridge, USA. 1987-1989 Hildebrand worked as Marketing Manager Eastern Europe for a multinational IT company.
Hildebrand’s current specializations are economic analyses and competition assessments of markets in German and EU competition law proceedings. Hildebrand is also a sworn in, authorized antitrust expert at the Higher Cartel Court in Austria and examines on a regular basis for courts as well as for competition and regulatory authorities’ competition issues.
She publishes extensively on competition economics including her most recent book on “The Role of Economic Analysis in the EU Competition Rules - The European School” This book is categorized by experts as “classical” work in European competition economics which combines theoretical insights with extensive practical experiences in real world cases.
Hildebrand is member of the ICC Commission on Competition and the editorial board of “World Competition”. She speaks regularly on conferences.
Kamil Nejezchleb
Czech Competition Authority
Kamil Nejezchleb studied at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno and at the Faculty of Business and Management of the Brno University of Technology. He joined the Office for the Protection of Competition in the year 2007 and currently he leads the Cartel Unit II. He also acts as an external lecturer at the Faculty of Economics and Administration of the Masaryk University. He gained experience with application of competition law also abroad in particular during the traineeship in the European Commission and from the regular cooperation within competition networks ECN and ICN. Kamil Nejezchleb cooperated on drafting the methodology documents for leniency program and settlement procedures and also on last revisions of the Act on the Protection of Competition. Also, he participated in training courses dedicated to contracting authorities focused on bid rigging detection.
Mr. Nejezchleb published a number of articles in the area of competition law and he co-authored the publication Economic Methods in Competition Law.
Vitaly Pruzhansky
RBB Economics, Brussels
Dr Vitaly Pruzhansky has many years of consulting experience, spanning a wide range of competition policy matters, and has particular expertise in advising clients before competition authorities and courts in Eastern Europe and the CIS countries. His clients come from a broad range of sectors, including banking, chemicals, consumer electronics, energy, FMCG, industrial consumables, media, military equipment, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, software and transport. He has given a number of training seminars on the application of empirical techniques and economics of competition law to the national competition authorities in Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and MENA countries.
Dr Pruzhansky is a frequent speaker at high-profile competition conferences and has published articles on competition policy issues and economic theory. He is listed in the Competition Economists chapter of Who’s Who Legal: Consulting Experts 2016. Prior to joining RBB Economics he worked for the leading international management consulting firm McKinsey & Company where he advised major corporate clients on a variety of strategic issues including market entry, product positioning and regulation.
Pavel Vacek
Economist; Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University
Pavel Vacek acts as an advisor in the field of competition and regulation. He currently works for the CRS Economics. He focuses on mergers, agreements between competitors, abuse of dominant position and significant market power. He has worked on dozens of projects in telecommunications, rail transport, energy sector, transportation of oil, gas and petroleum products, mining and pharmaceutical industries and FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods). During his career, he has represented undertakings before the national competition and regulatory authorities, national courts and in international arbitration.
Pavel Vacek is certified economic expert specializing in economic and financial analysis. He has a PhD degree in economics from Cornell University. From 2007 to 2009 he lectured at the School of Business, University of Alberta in Canada. Since 2009 he has taught competition economics at the Institute of Economic Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, from 2011 to 2015 as the Head of the Department of European Economic Integration and Economic Policy. From 2011 to 2013 he was a member of the Working Committee for Regulatory Impact Assessment of Legislative Council of the Czech Government. Pavel Vacek also provided external expert advice for CRA International and The Competition Economists Group (CEG).
Thursday, 10 November 2016
MORNING WORKSHOP
1. Fines Issues
Igor Pospíšil
Lawyer; Czech Competition Authority
Igor Pospíšil completed his studies at the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 2001. Since 2001 he has been working as a lawyer at the Office for the Protection of Competition. From 2005 to 2008 he held the position of a Head of the Working Group for Liberal Professions and in the period 2006-2007 he was a Director of Manufacturing and Retail Unit. Since the year 2007 he has been working as a Director of the Cartel Unit. From 2004 to 2007 he was also acting as lector of administrative law, registered by the Ministry of the Interior. He co-authored several documents issued by the Office for the Protection of Competition and acted as a speaker in different conferences and seminars in the area of competition law. He also gives lectures on the issues of competition law.
Aleš Roztočil
Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic
2. Distortion of Competition by Public Authorities pursuant to § 19a of the Act no. 143/2001 Coll., on the Protection of Competition
Jana Konopiská
Czech Competition Authority
Jana Konopiská graduated from the University of Economics in Prague and Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno. She has joined the Office for the Protection of Competition since 1993 and in her professional career she has focused on competition issues in network industries. Currently Ms. Konopiská serves as a Head of Dominance and Vertical Agreements Unit.
In addition to her practical experiences arising from the investigation of individual cases of potential competition infringement, Ms. Konopiská has also gained extensive experiences when preparing draft laws or methodical and similar materials. She has participated in working groups at national and international level, dealing with various issues of competition law. Jana Konopiská has also participated as a lecturer in numerous national and foreign educational events in the area of competition law and economics or sector issues.
Martin Nedelka
Lawyer; Nedelka Kubáč advokáti
Martin Nedelka is a lawyer and a partner in Prague and Bratislava office of a law firm Nedelka Kubáč advokáti which is specialized on the areas of Czech, Slovak and EU competition law, regulated industries, public procurement and compliance. Mr Nedelka studied law at universities in Prague, Regensburg and Dublin. He is a member of Czech Bar Association, Slovak Bar Association and Brussels Bar Association. He is also a member of the editorial board of the competition magazine Antitrust.
3. Amendment to the Act on Significant Market Power in the Sale of Agricultural and Food Products and Abuse thereof
Jana Zmeškalová
Czech Competition Authority
Jana Zmeškalová has been a head of the Control over Market Power Unit of the Office for the Protection of Competition since September 2016. Last two years, she worked as a Remonstrance commission´s secretary for the Unit of 2nd Instance Decision-Making in the field of competition and participated in decisions processing as well as in defending the Office before administrative courts in a number of important cases. Before joining the Office, she had served as an assistant to presiding judge of a chamber of Criminal Division at the Supreme Court. From 2005 to 2007 she worked for a law firm.
Barbora Dubanská
Senior Attorney; CMS Cameron McKenna
Barbora Dubanská is a head of unit for competition and EU regulation in the Prague office of the international law firm CMS that has established offices almost in all European countries and also in Asia and the Middle East. Barbora has extensive experience in provision of complex advisor services in the competition area including representing clients in the course of the proceedings with the Office for the Protection of Competition or European Commission.
In her practice Barbora has been focused in particular on adviser services for companies active in food and pharma sector. In the first half of 2015 Barbora completed a traineeship in the London office of CMS where she joined the unit devoted to competition law.
Besides the legal degree gained at the Charles University, Barbora also studied at the prestigious British university in Cambridge, the LL.M. program with the specialization on European law. During her carrier Barbora studied and worked abroad for several years (Heinrich Heine Universität in Düsseldorfu, Universidade de Lisboa, University of Queensland). She is fluent in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Martin Lupa
Government Affairs & CSR Manager, Tesco Stores CR
Martin Lupa graduated from the Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics in Prague. He started his professional career in Procter & Gamble performing for five years in sales department. Afterwards he gained professional experiences in Avon Cosmetics and banks ČSOB and mBank. Martin Lupa currently works for Tesco as Government Affairs & CSR Manager. He is responsible for cooperation with public authorities and non-profit sector as well. Thus he is familiar with issues of suppliers and customers relations from both sides.
PANEL IV: DIGITAL ECONOMY: Competition issues in online markets
Daniel Stankov
Head of Division of External Relations and Administration; Czech Competition Authority
Daniel Stankov has served at the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition since 2006, and served as a director of the International Department since 2010. Since 2012 his responsibilities have covered both international relations of the Czech competition authority and PR as well as external activities at the national level. In 2015 he took over the Division of External Relations and Administration, and has also been responsible also for the human resources policy of the Czech competition authority together with financial, public procurement and administration issues.
Beside the cooperation among competition authorities and within various international platforms, he focuses on international aspects of competition policy, European competition and consumer policy and questions of competition enforcement in emerging markets. His responsibilities have also covered competition advocacy initiatives of the Czech competition authority. He participated in several twinning programs focused on preparation and design of institutions in countries newly establishing competition enforcement agencies.
Anne-Sophie Delhaise
French Competition Authority
Thomas Kramler
EC – DG Competition
Thomas Kramler is Head of the Digital Single Market Task Force in the European Commission's Directorate General for Competition. Previously Mr Kramler was deputy head of the unit responsible for antitrust cases in the information industries, internet and consumer electronics sectors. Before joining the European Commission Mr Kramler worked as agent representing the Austrian government before the European Courts in Luxemburg.
Mr Kramler holds a law degree and a PhD from the University of Vienna, Austria. He has graduated with a Master's degree in European Community Law from the College of Europe (Bruges).
Rainer Lindberg
Head of International Affairs; Finnish Competition and Consumer Authority (FCCA), Competition Division
Rainer Lindberg has completed M.Sc degree in Economics and Master of Laws from the University of Helsinki, Finland and MA (Competition Law) from King’s College London. Before employed by Finnish Competition Authority (FCA), he worked as a private consultant (related especially banking competition). Several positions at the Finnish Competition Authority (case handler/researcher 1995–2000, head of cartels unit 2003-2007, head of international affairs unit 2000-2003 and again since 2007). Has represented the Finnish Government and Finnish Competition Authority in EU, OECD, ICN and other international working groups (eg. relating to EU vertical restraints block exemption, and Council Reg 1/2003 ). Expert panelist and lecturer in various OECD’s Competition Capacity Building Programmes since 2000. Ad hoc country examiner in OECD Country Reviews of Competition Policy. Ad hoc FCA representative in the Finnish Parliament Economic Subcommittee (hearings in antitrust matters). Current Finnish representative in the European Competition Network Plenum. FCCA representative in Finland’s delegation for the EU Council WG on Damages Directive 2013–2014. Articles and publications. Member of the FCCA Competition Division Steering Group. ICN AEWG Co-Chair since 2014.
Zsófia Tari
Hungarian Competition Authority
Zsófia Tari completed her studies at the Faculty of Law of the Pázmány Péter University in Budapest. Since 2007 she has been working as a lawyer at the Hungarian Competition Authority. She worked for the Authority as a case handler at the International Section and later at the Production and Services Section. Zsófia Tari deepened her competition law experiences when she worked at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) from 2011-2013. She specialized in vertical agreements on the online markets. Now she is the temporary deputy head of the Antitrust Section. She acted as a speaker in different conferences and seminars in the area of competition law.
PANEL V: SIGNIFICANT MARKET POWER: Bonuses, Discounts and Services – change of their concept in contractual relations with the impact on purchase prices on the basis of the amendment to the Act on Significant Market Power in the Sale of Agricultural and Food Products and Abuse thereof
Petr Solský
Vice-chairman; Czech Competition Authority
Petr Solský graduated from the Faculty of Law of the Masaryk University in Brno in 1998. At the same Faculty he received JUDr. degree in the field of criminal law. He worked in public administration on a number of managing positions, for example at the Ministry of the Interior or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2003 to 2010 he gained extensive experience at the Permanent Representation of the Czech Republic to the EU in Brussels where he was responsible for management of the division of justice and interior including the coordination of preparations of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. Back in the Czech Republic he worked in private sector in a law firm. Consequently he focused in particular on the area of information and communication technology, among others as a Deputy Minister of the Interior for this area in the years 2013 and 2014. Petr Solský has been focusing on a number of issues of criminal and administrative law including the regulatory framework for public procurement and prohibited state aid. He is a long term member of the Regulatory Impact Assessment Commission of the Government Legislative Council (RIA Commission).
On 5th April 2016 Petr Solský was appointed to the position of the Vice-chairman of the Office for the Protection of Competition and entrusted with the management of the Legislative and Public Regulation Division.
Markéta Chýlková
Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic
Markéta Chýlková graduated from Faculty of Law, the Charles University in Prague. She started her professional career in public administration at the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic. Afterwards, she dealt with waste and packaging issues as an officer at Legislative Unit of the Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic. She has been working at the Federation of the Food and Drink Industries of the Czech Republic (FFDI) for 10 years, where she has focused on environmental legislation as well as significant market power issues. She is an expert on Food law application, in particular food labelling. She represents the FFDI at the European food industry confederation called FoodDrinkEurope.
Robert Neruda
Partner; Havel, Holásek & Partners
Robert Neruda is a Partner of Havel, Holásek & Partners and the head of firm’s team specializing in competition law, state aid and issues related to significant market power. Before joining the law firm, Robert Neruda worked for eight years for the Czech Office for the Protection of Competition, last two years as the Vice-Chairman of the Competition Section.
He served as an assistant to the judge at the Czech Supreme Administrative Court in 2004 and 2005. Robert Neruda is a co-author of the commentaries on the Act on the Protection of Competition and the Act on Public Contracts and he is a frequent speaker at international conferences. He is recommended as a competition expert by the international publications The International Who’s Who of Competition Lawyers & Economists, PLC Which Lawyer?, ILO Client Choice or Chambers Europe Guide. The team of competition lawyers from Havel, Holásek & Partners was awarded in the official legal contest Law Firm of the Year 2013 and 2015 as well as in the Client Choice 2014 for Antitrust and Competition.
Marta Nováková
Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism
Marta Nováková focuses on management and corporate strategy for SMEs; change management; information technologies and processes for Retail/Distribution, support for company start-ups; investment in the area of information technologies, education and agriculture.
She has studied Systems Engineering at the Faculty of Economics of the Technical University of Ostrava. After graduation, she started her professional career as a business manager of department store PRIOR. Currently, Marta Nováková is the Chair of the Board and owner of U&Sluno Inc., company specializing in the development and implementation of information systems in business processes for retail companies, wholesale and distribution companies. She is a director and co-owner of Language Planet Ltd. operating international kindergarten Villa Luna. Since 2014 she has been a president of the Czech Confederation of Commerce and Tourism.
Ivan Višňovský
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic
Ivan Višňovský performed in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic since 2013 his duties as a Director of Trade Policy Department. He is responsible for the preparation and implementation of trade policies on agriculture and food industry in the domestic market relating to the European Union and other international organizations.
He develops strategies and promotes the interests of the Slovak Republic in the decision-making proceedings before EU, WTO, OECD, FAO and others. Mr. Višňovský analyzes the development of foreign agricultural and food products trade and price evolution of agricultural and food products throughout the supply chain in the Slovak Republic and EU. He is involved in composing of Slovak export policy. He is also engaged in Slovak Presidency of the Council of the European Union in 2016.
Ivan Višňovský graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, University of Economics in Bratislava. He studied also at Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien. He worked for ČSOB Leasing Bratislava, RECAP Invest Bratislava and Wine NITRA and CHATEAU MODRA.
