Partner Ilkka Leppihalme heads the Competition & Public Procurement practice of Dittmar & Indrenius. He has been involved in various landmark competition cases, including the largest competition cases in Finland. He regularly assesses potential competition law issues in a transactional context and possesses significant experience in both domestic and multijurisdictional merger control procedures across a wide range of industries. He has represented clients in numerous significant competition law related damages cases; also as an expert on Finnish law in international competition damages cases.

Prior to joining Dittmar & Indrenius Ilkka Leppihalme made a distinguished career as a Partner and Head of Competition in another leading law firm in Finland. Prior to this, he was with Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in Brussels.

Leppihalme is one of the few members of the Competition Law Expert Group of the Finnish Bar Association. He has been a Non-Governmental Advisor to the International Competition Network, a network of more than 130 competition authorities, since 2010. He is a regular chairman and speaker at competition law conferences and seminars. He is listed as a leading competition law expert in all major international ranking publications.

Born 1960 in Gorredijk (Netherlands), Marc van der Woude completed his first years of study at Rijksuniversiteit Groningen (University of Groningen, Netherlands), where he obtained a law degree in 1983. He continued his studies at the College of Europe (Belgium) until 1984.

Following his studies, he was very actively involved in teaching and research at the College of Europe, where he was an assistant lecturer until 1986. He went on to become a lecturer at Universiteit Leiden (Leiden University, Netherlands) from 1986 to 1987. Throughout his career, he has remained in education and was awarded the chair of Professor of Law at Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam (Erasmus University Rotterdam, Netherlands) from 2000. An author of numerous publications, he has contributed to the development of competition law, as evidenced by several reference works on the subject.

Alongside his university commitments, Mr van der Woude practised law. From 1987 to 1989, he worked for the Commission of the European Communities, where he was a rapporteur in the Directorate-General for Competition. He then joined the Court of Justice of the European Communities and worked as a legal secretary to the judges Thymen Koopmans and Paul Joan George Kapteyn from 1989 to 1992. The European Commission appointed him as an administrator in the Coordination Unit of the Directorate-General for Competition, a post which he held from 1992 to 1993 before becoming a member of the Commission’s legal service from 1993 to 1995. From 1995, he became a member of the Brussels Bar (Belgium), where his litigation work focused on competition law.

Mr van der Woude was appointed as a Judge at the General Court on 13 September 2010. His peers elected him as President of Chamber on 18 September 2013 and as Vice-President on 20 September 2016. On 27 September 2019, he was elected as President of the General Court and has served in that capacity since then.

Kirsi Leivo on toiminut Kilpailu- ja kuluttajaviraston pääjohtajana syyskuusta 2018 alkaen. Hän aloitti uransa Kilpailuvirastossa johtajana vuonna 2001 ja on vuosien varrella vastannut useista eri yksiköistä. Ennen virastotehtäviään Leivo työskenteli muun muassa asianajotoimisto Hannes Snellmanilla sekä Euroopan komission oikeuspalvelun kilpailutiimissä

John Ratliff has some 40years of experience as an advocate and adviser on all aspects of EU Competition law.

He retired from WilmerHale, a leading US law firm, at the end of 2022, having joined in 1999.  Before that, he was with Stanbrook and Hooper, a specialist competition and trade law firm in Brussels.  He now works in independent practice as an avocat in Brussels, and as a Barrister with Henderson Chambers in London.

John has assisted with many types of European Commission proceedings (including merger control cases with remedies, alleged infringement cases, cartel defences, complaints and third party actions in merger cases seeking remedies).

He has advised on a wide range of transactions and compliance issues, including JVs, cooperation, Art. 102 TFEU and sustainability issues.

He also advises on REMIT energy market manipulation issues.

John has studied or worked in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.

He has had the pleasure of participating in the Helsinki Competition Conference since 2009.

Asianajaja Leena Lindberg on Krogeruksen kilpailuoikeusryhmän toinen vetäjä. Kilpailuviraston johtoryhmään kuulunut Leena on perehtynyt perusteellisesti ja laaja-alaisesti kilpailuoikeudelliseen sääntelyyn ja prosesseihin toimiessaan 14 vuoden aikana Kilpailuvirastossa eri tehtävissä. Hänen vastuullaan oli muun muassa asfalttikartellitutkinta. Tutkimuspäällikkönä Leena vastasi myös useita vuosia yrityskauppojen arvioinnista sekä useiden yrityskauppa- ja kilpailunrajoitustapausten käsittelystä markkinaoikeudessa ja korkeimmassa hallinto-oikeudessa. Hän työskenteli vuoden Euroopan komissiossa kilpailun pääosastolla.

Virtanen on toiminut yli 20 vuoden ajan KKV:n palveluksessa eri tehtävissä ja vuodesta 2012 lähtien Virtanen on toiminut johtajana ja yksikön päällikkönä. Nykyisin Virtasen vastuulle kuuluu erityisesti kartellien ja muiden kilpailunrajoitustapausten tutkinta.

Mika Pohjonen on työskennellyt yli 20 vuotta julkisten hankintojen ja hankintalainsäädännön parissa asianajajana ja tuomioistuimen lakimiehenä. Pohjonen neuvoo päivittäin asiakkaita julkisten rakennushankkeiden kilpailuttamisessa ja hänellä on erittäin vahva sekä hankintajuridiikan että rakennushankkeiden kokemus mm. sairaaloita, kouluja, ratoja, moottoriteitä ja väistötiloja koskevista hankkeista, sekä hankkeiden kilpailuttamisesta mm. PJU-, KVR-, PPP- ja allianssimalleilla.

Senior Legal Counsel Maarit Taurula vastaa Posti Group Oyj:ssä kilpailuoikeusliitännäisistä kysymyksistä sekä toimii postipalvelujen vastuujuristina ja Postal Services Leadership Teamin jäsenenä. Tätä aiemmin Taurula on työskennellyt Asianajotoimisto Castrén & Snellmanin Kilpailuoikeus ja julkiset hankinnat -palvelussa sekä Kilpailu- ja kuluttajaviraston (KKV) kilpailuvastuualueella. Yli 20 vuoden ajan KKV:ssa työskennelleellä Taurulalla on laaja kokemus kilpailusääntöjen ja yrityskauppojen valvonnasta eri toimialoilla. Hänelle on karttunut osaamista lukuisissa kartellitapauksissa, määräävän markkina-aseman väärinkäyttötutkinnoissa sekä oikeudenkäynneissä. Taurula vastasi myös useiden vuosien ajan yrityskauppojen ja julkisten hankintojen valvonnasta KKV:ssa.

Sari has over 30 years’ experience on competition law enforcement and development. She started her career at the Finnish Competition Authority before joining the European Commission DG Competition. She has held various functions at DG Competition ranging from antitrust and merger investigations and case coordination to international relations with other competition authorities in major jurisdictions. Since 2015 she has been a Head of Unit at DG Competition and currently her area of responsibility is cartel investigations and policy.

Thomas Janssens is a partner in Freshfields’ antitrust and regulatory group, which he led globally for six years. He covers transactional and conduct matters as well as related litigation for clients from a whole range of sectors. In the past year, his work has involved mergers (e.g. HPE/Juniper), cartels (e.g. Norwegian Salmon and End-of-Life Vehicles), dominance cases (e.g. in the pharma sector), DMA (e.g. Meta’s appeal against its designation as a gatekeeper) and state aid (e.g. STMicroelectronics).

Thomas is a regular commentator on global developments and an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA), where he recently concluded a three-year Co-Chairmanship of the Antitrust Section. He has been invited by competition authorities around the world to contribute insights on global enforcement policies, and is Global Contributing Editor of Lexology’s flagship Panoramic Merger Control guide.

He was educated at the University of Leuven and Columbia Law School.

Stéphane Dionnet is co-head of McDermott’s Antitrust Mergers Focus Group and has over 20 years of experience practicing international competition law, and has experience liaising with competition authorities in the European Union, United States and Asia. Stéphane has advised global corporations on how to navigate complex multijurisdictional merger control matters. He has represented clients in numerous cartel investigations and has also successfully assisted companies in obtaining conditional immunity from the European Commission and other competition law agencies in and outside the European Union. Stéphane has experience across a wide range of sectors including consumer products, energy, entertainment, financial services, technology, pharmaceuticals, retail, e-commerce and telecommunications. Earlier in his career, Stéphane worked for three years within the “Merger Network” of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition. He was case-handler in high-profile transactions, including phases 1 and 2 with remedies.

Lotta Väänänen is an economic consultant with 8 years of experience in competition cases regarding merger clearance, abuse of dominance and quantification of damages, and in intellectual property matters. Her expertise is in applying empirical economic analysis, including the use of surveys, econometrics, and experiments to questions in competition policy, pricing, and IPR. Before becoming a consultant, she worked as an economist in the telecommunications and media industries and as a post-doc at the University of Mannheim. Lotta holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Aalto School of Economics. Her research has focused on patents and innovation and has been published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, among other journals.