Alumni

About the Friends of the BSC

The Friends of the BSC a.s.b.l. was founded in 2021 by eight alumni of the BSC LL.M. program. The purpose of the Friends of the BSC a.s.b.l. is to provide a forum for networking and professional development for the alumni of the BSC (LL.M. programme and others), students enrolled with the BSC, and other interested parties.

The Friends of the BSC promote discussion of and interest in competition law, economics, and policy as a professional field and academic discipline. This allows our members to remain engaged through events organised and/or hosted by the Friends of the BSC.

Projects of the Friends of the BSC already include a successful online-event series called “Competition Law and Economics @ Lunch Time”, where esteemed speakers address topical subjects to large audiences. In addition, the Friends of the BSC have recently launched the ‘Ask a Friend of the BSC’ Career Hub, which allows students of the BSC study programs as well as young professionals to connect with BSC alumni and ask them for advice.

‘Ask a Friend of the BSC’ Career Hub

The Alumni Career Hub has been established as a peer-to-peer platform to connect alumni who are seeking advice on career questions in the area of Competition Law and Economics to those Alumni or “Friends of the BSC” who can help out with advice, both small (e.g. some tips) and large (e.g. mentoring).

In particular, we invite current students to just “Ask a Friend of the BSC” via submitting the below registration form. We will work to allocate you to a “Friend of the BSC” who will reach out as soon as possible.

We warmly encourage all alumni and Friends of the BSC to participate as the “Friend” that current students or other alumni can turn to. Just sign-up with the same registration form. We will always check with you before pairing you. On behalf of the Friends of the BSC community we thank you in advance for your great “Friend”-ship spirit!

After being paired, the Friend seeking advice is expected to get in touch with the Friend offering help, and both can take it from there (without the Friends of the BSC secretariat’s involvement).

Contact details

Friends of the BSC a.s.b.l., n° d’entreprise: 0765.472.134, Tribunal de l’entreprise francophone de Bruxelles

The Board of the  Friends of the BSC a.S.B.L.

• Valentine Lemonnier – President and Head of Events

Valentine studied law at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich from 2011 to 2016. She is an alumni of the German Academic Foundation. During her legal clerkship from 2016 to 2018, she worked with esteemed German law firms, the legal department of Allianz SE and a law firm in New York City, NY. Valentine graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2020.

Since 2018, Valentine works with Kapellmann und Partner at the firm’s Brussels office and advises companies as well as federal, regional and local authorities on specialized issues of EU law. Her key areas of expertise are EU State aid law and general EU law, including regulatory issues. Valentine also advises on questions of EU and German Competition law. She represents her clients primarily in proceedings of the European Commission and before the EU Courts.

• Sonny Gaarslev – Vice-President, Co-Head of Partnerships and External Affairs

Sonny holds a Master of Laws from the University of Copenhagen, during which he also attended courses at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Furthermore, he holds a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration from the Copenhagen Business School, specialised within organisation and management, and he graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s specialised LL.M. programme in 2020. Sonny is admitted to the Danish Bar and has the right of audience before the Danish High Court.

Sonny is a Director with Kromann Reumert’s Competition Group in Copenhagen and provides specialist advice on all competition, State aid, and EU law matters to a range of Danish and international clients. He continuously contributes to the academic literature within his practice areas, and he previously part-time lectured competition law at the University of Copenhagen. Currently, he is appointed External Examiner for the Law programmes at the Danish Universities.

Also, he is a member of the Council of the Danish Bar and Law Society’s International Committee, working closely with colleagues from the CCBE, and serving as a member of the CCBE’s Permanent Delegation to the Court of Justice, the General Court, and the EFTA Court.

Sonny is fluent in Danish and English, understands Swedish and Norwegian, and has an elementary proficiency in German and French.

• Matt Williams – Head of Communications and Co-Head of Social Media

Matt is a Consultant in Kekst CNC’s Brussels office where he is advising clients on their public affairs strategies as they relate to competition policy. Prior to joining Kekst CNC, Matt was working in another Brussels-based public affairs agency, also advising on these topics across a variety of sectors including healthcare, transport and financial services. His recent work has focused predominantly on clients in the technology sector, having advised several large EU and US companies on their public affairs strategy on the EU’s Digital Markets Act.

Matt graduated summa cum laude from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2019. He also holds an LL.M in European Law graduating cum laude from Maastricht University, and an LL.B. in Law from the University of Birmingham.

• Max Berre – Treasurer

Max is a research economist affiliated to both Audencia Business School and Université de Lyon. He graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2020. In addition to his BSC diploma, he holds master degrees in Economics and Finance from Maastricht University and Ghent University respectively, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Venture Capital Finance.

Originally a native of Washington DC, Berre has years of experience working on economic policy, entrepreneurship, trade and finance in the United States and the European Union.

• Benjamin Ledwon – Head of Communications and Co-Head of Social Media

Benjamin holds a master’s degree in political sciences from the London School of Economics, a bachelor’s degree in history & international relations, a certificat d’études politiques and graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. Programme in 2020. He is alumni of the German Academic Foundation and founding member of the Friends of the Brussels School of Competition.

Benjamin is senior expert European Affairs at Deutsche Telekom’s Group Public and Regulatory Affairs team and vice-chair at GSMA’s digital economy policy group. Previously, he was heading the Brussels office for the German business association Bitkom and worked for a member of the European Parliament. He is fluent in German and English, understands French and has elementary proficiency in Russian.

• Julian Jacobitz – Head of Career Services

Julian is a business consultant at Finsbury Glover Hering. He works in the Government Affairs, Policy & Advocacy practice and is based in the company’s Brussels office, having previously worked in the Berlin and Frankfurt offices. In his close to ten years at the company, he has advised on many EU-level advocacy strategies as well as in special situations such as cross-border M&A, trade cases, corporate crises, and change situations. He began his career in the office of Christian Lindner, then general-secretary of the German Liberals/FDP in his home state’s parliament in Düsseldorf.

Julian holds a M.Sc. in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics (LSE). He previously studied at Maastricht University and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2020. Apart from his native German, he speaks English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, and Spanish.

• Dieter Engel – Head of Development

Dieter studied law at the University of Bayreuth from 2009 to 2016. He graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2020.

After graduating from university, Dieter worked as a research assistant in a tax consulting firm in Bayreuth. During his legal clerkship from 2016 to 2018, Dieter worked for a large German tax consulting firm, for the financial administration of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Compliance Department of Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe. From 2019 to 2021, Dieter was employed as a Legal Compliance Officer at Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe, responsible inter alia for innovation and sales and working primarily in the area of competition and antitrust law. After leaving Thyssenkrupp Dieter joined Luther at the firm’s Munich office and advised companies on all aspects of competition and antitrust law. In mid of 2022 Dieter joined Kloeckner & Co SE for his new role as the Head of Legal of the German subsidiary Becker Stahl-Service. In this role he is responsible for all legal aspects of M&A besides competition and antitrust law (compliance).

• Lucas de Carvalho Silveira Bueno – Co-Head of Partnerships and External Affairs

Lucas is graduated in Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) and he holds a Lato-Sensu Post-Graduation degree in Corporate Law from Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV-SP). He graduated from the Brussels School of Competition’s LL.M. programme in 2020. He is also a certified DPO – ECPC-B, Maastricht University. He is fluent in Portuguese and English, has a B level proficiency in Spanish and has an elementary proficiency in Danish. Lucas is licensed to practice law by the Brazilian and the Portuguese Bar Associations.

Lucas is an associate at Souza, Mello e Torres Advogados in Brazil. He has been counselling and representing, for over eight years, companies with a wide range of corporate, antitrust and competition law matters, as well as compliance, anti-corruption and data protection issues. His international experience includes acting as a legal assistant at the office of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, in Brussels.

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If you prefer not using this form feel free to contact the Friends of the BSC by e-mail info@bsc.brussels.