Jacques Steenbergen

President at Belgian Competition Authority

Speaker

Prof. Dr. Jacques Steenbergen (born in Antwerp (Belgium) in 1949) is since its establishment as an independent authority in 2013 president of the Belgian Competition Authority. He was from 2007 to 2013 director general of the directorate general for competition in the Belgian ministry of economic affairs. He teaches competition law at the University of Leuven since 1980. Before joining the competition authority, he was partner in the Brussels office of Allen & Overy, and he has been legal secretary to the President of the Court of Justice under the presidency of Prof. J. Mertens de Wilmars.

He is also member of the Bureau of the OECD Competition Committee, member of the board of editors and former editor-in-chief of the Dutch-Belgian European law review SEW, member of the scientific committee of the law review Concurrences, member and former president of the Board of the Stichting van het Koninklijk Conservatorium of Brussels (the foundation of the royal academy for music of Brussels), and honorary member of the Bar of Brussels (Nederlandse Orde van Advocaten bij de Balie te Brussel). He is a former member of the Brussels and Flemish Bar Councils.

He lectured or gave conferences and served as member of nomination committees or PhD examination committees in institutes and universities in Austria, Belgium, China, France, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. He also spoke at conferences in Brazil, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Japan, Luxembourg, Portugal, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia. He publishes regularly on EU and competition law.

He obtained a PhD at the KU Leuven with prof. dr. W. van Gerven on legal remedies and ailing industries (1978). He holds a masters degree in law from the KU Leuven (1972), and bachelor degrees or equivalent certificates in law, philosophy and economics from the University of Antwerp (UFSIA)(1969).