Speaker Biographies

Speakers

Pamela Brumter-Coret

Head of Unit, DG MARKT, European Commission

Mrs Brumter is the head of unit in charge of business to consumers in the Directorate for services in the Directorate general for Internal market and services at the European Commission. Lawyer by training, Mrs Brumter, a French national, has been working in various sectors in the European Parliament and in the Commission since 1986. Over the last ten years she has been in charge of public procurement law and of recognition of professional qualifications. Her latest assignment was in the single market policy unit where she was entrusted with the re launch of the single market which led recently to the adoption of the single market act by the Commission. She took over the business to consumers unit recently and will follow the implementation of the services directive.

Jürgen Creutzmann

MEP, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection; Rapporteur for the Green Paper on Online Gambling, European Parliament

Education and professional career
1966 A-levels at the commercial grammar school in Heidelberg
1966-1971 Nine semesters of studies in Business Administration at the University of Mannheim with a focus of auditing, tax and law
1971-1973 Employee of an auditing firm in Heidelberg
1973-2006 Senior executive of BASF SE, Director Subsidiaries Accounting Services as last position, responsible for the accountancy of around 50 subsidiaries and affiliated companies of BASF SE

Functions in politics and society
1965 Member of the German Young Democrates (Deutsche Jungdemokraten, DJD)
1966 Member of the FDP
1974-1994 FDP-group chairman in the municipal council Dudenhofen
Since 1974 Member of the council of the association of municipalities Dudenhofen,
1974-2009 party group chairman
Since 1983 Treasurer of the Rhineland-Palatinate FDP
Since 1989 Member of Rhein-Pfalz District Council, 1989-2009 party group chairman
Since 2004 Member of Palatinate District Council, 2004-2009 party group chairman
01 Dec 1998 - 02 Sep 2009 Member of the Rhineland Palatinate State Assembly
1999-2001 Vice-chairman of the party group
2001-2006 Vice-President, Rhineland-Palatinate State Assembly
2006-2009 Chairman of the committee for European affairs
Since July 2009 Member of the European Parliament

Peter Naessens

Head of Unit, Regulatory Advice, Research & Development, Belgian Gaming Commission

Peter Naessens is head of the unit Regulatory Advice, Research & Development for the Belgian Gaming Commission. He studied law at the university of Brussels, criminology at the university of Leuven and social work at Campus Kortrijk. He has a large experience in legislative advice. Within the Gaming Commission his focus of activities is on the development and maintenance of the regulatory framework of gambling, the implementation of internet gambling and he follows with special interest the European debate on regulation of the Gambling Market.

Sigrid Ligné

Secretary General, European Gaming and Betting Association

Sigrid Ligné joined the European Gaming and Betting Association in March 2007 as Secretary General and spokesperson. The European Gaming and Betting Association (EGBA) is the industry body representing the leading online gaming and betting operators established, licensed and regulated within the EU. EGBA promotes the implementation of fair and competitive regulations for online gaming operators throughout Europe in line with EU law. Such regulations should be based on genuine public order and consumer protection concerns and be adapted to the cross-border nature of the online market. Sigrid Ligné started her career working for the Legal Service of the Council of the EU and the European Commission. She then moved to consultancy. Over the last fifteen years she has been responsible for several Brussels-based and pan-European advocacy and communications campaigns, advising a wide range of corporations and trade associations.

Annette Kok

President , Euromat

Annette Kok, President of the VAN Speelautomaten Branche-Organisatie (Dutch Gaming Machine Organisation), was elected as EUROMAT President in May 2008 and has been recently re-elected for a second term. Ms. Kok holds a Master’s Degree in Law from the Erasmus University (Rotterdam, Netherlands) and an Executive MBA from the Nyenrode Business University (Breukelen, Netherlands). Having held several positions in the VAN Dutch Gaming Machine Organization and JVH games, she has more than 20 years of experience in the gaming and amusement sector.

Laurie Korpi

Legal and Research Director, International, GamblingCompliance

Laurie is the legal and research director, international at Gambling Compliance Ltd. A lawyer by training, Laurie has been researching and writing on regulatory and market developments for Gambling Compliance for over 4 years. Laurie has had a specific focus on developments across European markets during this time and has spoken at conferences, parliamentary hearings as well as various in-house seminars and workshops on gambling regulation. Laurie has co-authored GamblingCompliance's "The European Court of Justice Update: The Dutch Betting Cases" (2010); "Market Barriers: A European Online Gambling Study 2009"; "The Russian Federation - A Gaming Market About To Fold?" (2008) reports among other research reports.

Andrew Gellatly

Editorial Director, GamblingCompliance

Andrew Gellatly was part of the founding management team of Gambling Compliance in 2006. Before that had an extensive background in covering technology, gambling and sport. He wrote the Financial Times special report on the global gaming industry and has been a regular FT contributor on sport, gaming and technology for FT Digital Business. He has chaired and spoken at gambling conferences worldwide including GlobalGamingExpo (G2E), the Global I-Gaming Summit (GiGSE), The Gaming Executive Summit (GES) and the International Casino Exhibition (ICE).

Juan Carlos Alfonso Rubio

Deputy General Director. General Direction of Gambling, Spanish Ministry of Finance

Juan Carlos Alfonso has been working as Deputy General Director of Gambling since March 2011, being responsible for regulatory matters in the recently established Spanish General Direction of Gambling. Juan Carlos Alfonso is also highly involved with the Establishment and Services Working Group of the Council of the European Union, being the Chairman during the Spanish Presidency. He is a qualified lawyer with experiences and broad knowledge of regulatory matters, having previously worked as Coordination Director for the Spanish Lotteries (LAE) in charge of legal affairs, international legal matters participating in the European Lotteries Executive Committee, as Director for the Legal Affairs Department at CANAL + Spain, as partner at KPMG and also as Secretary of the board and Director of the Legal Department of the Spanish Post Office.

Pedro Velazquez

Deputy Head of the Sports Unit, DG for Education and Culture, European Commission

Pedro VELÁZQUEZ has worked for the European Commission since 1987. Currently he is Deputy Head of the Sports Unit at the Directorate General for Education and Culture, which prepared the White Paper on Sport adopted by the Commission in July 2007. Following the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty which includes a new EU competence in the area of sport, the Unit prepared the Communication “Developing the European Dimension in Sport”, adopted in January 2011. He was also responsible of the European Year of Education through Sport 2004. Within the European Commission he worked previously at the Directorate General for Agriculture and at the Directorate General for Interpretation and Conferences.

Antonio Costanzo

Board Member, ESSA and Director of Sport Integrity and Regulation, Bwin.Party

At bwin since 2006 where he’s currently Director of Sport Integrity and Regulation. He was formerly interim CEO in Italy and France, leading the license acquisition process in both countries. Before joining bwin, from 1998 to 2006, he was Head of Editorial Development at Eurosport Italy, launching the Italian version of Eurosport 2 and Eurosportnews. From 2003 to 2006 he also worked on the conception and creation and was deputy Director of Sportitalia, the first free-to-air terrestrial all-sport television network in Italy and of Si Live 24, the first Italian sports news channel. Graduated in journalism in Paris at the CFPJ and started his career as a professional sports photographer and journalist. He was born in Milan in 1973.

Tatiana van Lier

Executive Director, ACLEU

Tatiana van Lier is the executive director of the Association of Charity lotteries in the European Union (ACLEU) since 2008. ACLEU was established in 2008 by a number of private charity lotteries, among which the Dutch Charity Lotteries. Tatiana is head of public affairs at the Dutch Charity Lotteries (Postcode Lottery, Sponsor Lottery and BankGiro Lottery) since 2006. As head of PA she is responsible for all relations with the government and other relevant stakeholders. Before taking on this position she worked at the Free University of Amsterdam, where she did research on lotteries in Europe. She was the co-author of the book “The Leeway of Lotteries in the European Union” . Tatiana is member of the board of the Dutch Association of Public Affairs Professionals and she lives together with her partner in Amsterdam.

Helen Day

Consultant, Helen Day Consulting and Head of European Policy, European Sponsorship Association

Helen Day has worked in sponsorship agencies for over 30 years and she now acts as an independent consultant. She provides strategic analysis and implementation skills, for sponsors and rights holders, as well as for government agencies. She also has extensive experience in the staging of major events, having advised and worked on many international sports championships. She has recently worked for the British Council on the funding of a major global legacy programme for the London 2012 Olympics, called International Inspiration, and with the Brewers of Europe and Sponsorship Ideas on an in-depth pan-European report into the support by breweries of the community. Helen is Head of European Policy for the European Sponsorship Association (ESA), and is particularly involved in working with the EC and UK governments on sponsorship-related issues. She has recently helped update the ICC International Code of Sponsorship, and is involved in developing a pan-European network to exchange ideas and information. In particular, she has been closely involved with the DG SANCO in the European Commission relating to alcohol issues, and following ESA’s signing of the Alcohol and Health Charter, Helen was been appointed to the Forum’s Marketing Task Force. She has worked with DG EAC’s Sport Unit in their investigation into the funding of grassroots sports and with DG Markt on the Green Paper on online gambling. Helen was responsible for setting up a pan-European self-regulatory process for sponsorship, and sits on the EASA Joint Arbitration Panel. Helen is also Editor of the international peer-reviewes Journal of Sponsorship and of an online series of Sponsorship Talks, and she regularly speaks and writes on sponsorship related issues. She has been Chairman of the judging panel of the ESA European Sponsorship Award for the past four years and is a judge of the annual EASA Best Practice Awards.

Daniel Macadam

Journalist, GamblingCompliance

Daniel Macadam joined GamblingCompliance as a journalist in 2010 and since then has focused on the regulatory developments in the gambling industry, with a particular eye on the ever-shifting European regulatory landscape. A graduate of English Literature at Oxford University, Daniel also has experience at trade publications, Press Gazette and The Drinks Business. He also writes on UK public affairs and politics for the Oxford University Press publishing house.

Christel Schaldemose

MEP, Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection; Shadow-rapporteur for the Green Paper on Online Gambling, European Parliament

Christel Schaldemose is a Danish member of the European Parliament. She took up office in 2006 and since then she has been a part of the socialist group - now "Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists & Democrats". She lives in Copenhagen with her husband and 3 children. She has a masters in history from the University of Southern Denmark. One of her major political interests is consumer policy and she feels very strongly about the protection of the European consumers. In the Parliament she is an active member of the Committee of Internal Market and Consumer Protection. In 2009 she was the rapporteur of the report on the integrity of online gambling. Christel Schaldemose is in favour of protecting the consumers against fraud and cheating in online gambling. And she also holds the opinion that it should remain up to the individual Member States to determine how they will design their gambling legislation.

Simon Busuttil

MEP, Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, European Parliament

Simon Busuttil has been a Member of the European Parliament from Malta since 2004. Before being elected to the European Parliament, he led the public communications campaign ahead of Malta's referendum on EU membership and was a member of Malta's negotiating group. As an MEP he leads the European People's Party (EPP) in the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee and covers issues that include the common European immigration and asylum policy. He is also an active Member in the Petitions Committee and the Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee. A lawyer by profession, he specialised in European Affairs and followed EU affairs since 1994. In June 2009 Dr. Busuttil was re-elected to the European Parliament with a record 28% of the national vote (68,792 votes), the highest percentage score in the EU. Dr. Busuttil is an active campaigner for European citizenship and citizens' rights.

Andrew Beveridge

Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director, eCOGRA

As CEO of eCOGRA since early 2003, Andrew Beveridge has become a renowned authority in fair and responsible gaming and online player protection. He brings nearly 13 years of experience in various areas of online gaming and betting to the position. After completing articles and qualifying as a Chartered Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Beveridge embarked upon a career in merchant banking in London and Hong Kong. His online experience began with MultiChoice, an international supplier of pay-television and interactive services, where he played a major role in the start-up of MWeb, South Africa's largest Internet service provider. Beveridge then led global business development for International Gaming Networks, the MultiChoice division created to develop interactive gaming technology across Internet and digital television platforms. Other responsibilities included the implementation of risk management controls and procedures for South Africa's first licensed online gambling organisation. Beveridge was responsible as CEO for a software developer which created the world's first integrated online and telephone sports and spread betting platform that has been successfully implemented at various UK, European and South African operations. In May 2010 Beveridge was appointed Chair of the CEN Workshop Agreement for Responsible Remote Gambling Measures, and initiative involving over 30 participants from trade associations, licensing authorities, operators and experts on gambling behaviour, to develop a set of control measures that will help guide EU regulators and policymakers. Beveridge also has an MBA from Edinburgh University.

Thaer Sabri

Chief Executive, Electronic Money Association

Thaer has more than10 years’ experience in the electronic money industry, in a regulatory capacity as well as in product management and business development. Thaer worked at Mondex International and beenz.com before founding Flawless Money in 2001. He is chief executive of the Electronic Money Association (www.e-ma.org), and leads industry regulatory interface with regulators. He also developed guidance on the application of anti-money laundering legislation to mobile payments. Thaer attended Sheffield University, Imperial College (university of London) and Birkbeck College (University of London) and is a solicitor in England and Wales, he now practices as a consultant.

Geoffrey Godbold OBE

Director, The GREaT Foundation

Geoffrey Godbold is the Director of The GREaT Foundation, set up by the UK Gambling Industry and tasked with raising £5million to fund research, education and treatment of problem gamblers. For three years previously, he was the Chief Executive of GamCare, the leading industry-funded charity for handling all aspects of problem gambling. Prior to this appointment he acted as development director for a wide range of charities and not-for-profit organisations including Harefield Hospital and the Treloar Trust. From 1974 to 1992 he was Chairman and Chief Executive of Godbolds Ltd, his own consultancy specialising in business development and communications. He worked throughout that time for such companies as Yves Saint Laurent Perfumes, and the International Motor Show.