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Michel Nussbaumer
Director, Legal Transition Programme of EBRDBefore becoming Director of the Legal Transition Programme, which is the EBRD’s initiative to help its countries of operations upgrade their legal framework for business, Michel worked for almost three years as counsel in the banking operations section. There he was responsible for legal aspects of various investments of the Bank, with a particular focus on SME financing.
Michel has practiced as a commercial lawyer in Geneva, Moscow and London. While in private practice, Michel acted as Swiss correspondent for various legal publications and has also published a number of articles on Swiss and Russian legal matters. Michel, who is a Swiss national, received his Masters Degree in Law from the University of California at Berkeley and also was a visiting scholar at Moscow State University.
Caroline Nicholas
Head of Technical Assistance, Senior Legal Officer at UNCITRALCaroline Nicholas is a Head of Technical Assistance, Senior Legal Officer with the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (the UNCITRAL Secretariat). She has served as Secretary to its Working Group on Procurement and Infrastructure Development, which drafted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement (issued in 2011), an accompanying Guide to Enactment (2012), and other UNCITRAL documents in the field.
As Secretary to this and other UNCITRAL Working Groups, she provides legal and policy advice and works in partnership with other international bodies engaged in public procurement policy activities. She advises on public procurement reform and its role in supporting international trade and development and the rule of law and provides regular technical assistance to national governments in all regions.
Hubert Reisner
Judge at Federal Administrative CourtJudge at the Federal Administrative Court of Austria since 2014. from 2002 to 2013 judge at the Federal Public Procurement Review Authority. Before at the Administration of the Federal State of Lower Austria and the Austrian Ombudsman Office. Regular publications on public procurement law and administrative procedural low, running a legal journal on public procurement, regular seminars on public procurement in Austria and abroad
Andrei Rogac
Legal consultant at PPI EBRD UNCITRALAndrei is a qualified lawyer in Moldova since 2012 specialized in commercial law, competition and public procurement with a small academic experience.
Since April 2017 he works with EBRD on public procurement TC projects in Moldova.
Andrei holds an LLM in European Law from the Queen Mary University of London and an M.A. in EU Public Procurement from King’s College London.
Eriks Mezalis
Procurement Expert at EBRD GPA TC FacilityEriks Mezalis is an international public procurement consultant based in Latvia. Eriks has been involved in international cooperation projects, led by the EBRD, European Commission, OECD/Sigma, GIZ, NATO DCB Trust Fund and UNEP in Eastern Europe, Western Balkan and Southern Caucasus regions. He has been engaged in regulatory development in the area of public procurement and public private partnerships (PPP’s), providing assistance in capacity building of public sector institutions, designing and leading seminars and workshops on public procurement and PPP and assisting countries in the process of accession to WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. He has also served for 6 years as a member European Commission Public Procurement Stakeholders Expert Group.
Kakha Demetrashvili
Deputy Chairperson at State Procurement Agency of GeorgiaSince June 2014, Dr. Demetrashvili is Deputy Chairperson of the State Procurement Agency of Georgia – the single public procurement authority in the country. The agency is functioning under the Prime-Minister’s supervision, managing, regulating and monitoring the whole public procurement ecosystem and developing legal landscape. The agency is operative as a Central Purchasing Body on behalf of the Government and in favor of all contracting authorities. The agency is maintaining and developing the entire electronic platform – Georgian Electronic Government Procurement system as well.
During January 2013 – June 2014, Dr. Demetrashvili has been appointed as a deputy head of a leading Georgian EGOV and ICT agency – Financial-Analytical Service at the Ministry of Finance, supervising development of an ePFMS - Electronic Public Finance Management System.
Dr. Demetrashvili has more than 25 years of experience in international public aid and development programs as a senior management team member, team leader, project manager and a consultant to a wide variety of donor, governmental and academia organisations. He has a strong background in Public Management, ICTD and e-Governance in the context of democratic development and good governance. Since 1997 being as a project manager, team leader and a leading expert/consultant/analyst of UNDP, EU, USAID, CoE, WB, Dr.Demetrashvili was involved in a variety of specialized democratic governance programs including public administration reform, civil service reform, parliamentary strengthening, public finance management reform, government oversight, supreme audit reform, civil registry reform, regional development, decentralization and local governance reform, as well as institutional-building and capacity development projects.
Irina Gutnic
Deputy Director General of National Complaint Settlement AgencyIrina Gutnic is the Deputy Director of the Moldovan Review Body in Public Procurement (National Complaint Settlement Agency) since 2017.
Irina holds a Bachelor Law degree from Moldova State University with more than 18 years of work experience. More than half of the professional life was devoted to public service, from which 3 years as leading lawyer in the Moldovan Court of Accounts.
She is appreciated by peers for her deep expertise in public procurement and is often invited as speaker in public events.
The stakeholders involved in review proceedings recognise Irina as a guardian of the equal-treatment and transparency in public procurement.
Olha Pishchanska
Chairwoman at Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU)Olha Pishchanska has more than 20 years of work experience, starting as an engineer and afterwards procurement manager in large State-owned Enterprises (Kryvorizhstal SOE and Arcelor Mittal Kryvyi Rih - formerly Kryvorizhstal SOE). Starting from 2016, Olha Pishchanska moved to the private sector holding positions of Head of Procurement Unit at Metinvest Holding and afterwards director of a private enterprises specializing in consulting in the sphere of procurement. In September 2019, she was appointed Deputy Chair – State Commissioner at the Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU). Since July 2020 holds the position of Chairwoman of the Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee.
Olha Pishchanska holds an MBA in engineering and construction (Kryvyi Rih National University), MBA in economics (Kyiv National Economic University) and currently is studying for an MBA in Law at Edinburgh Business School
Olha Nechytailo
State Commissioner at Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU)Olha Nechytailo started her career at Ukrainian Antimonopoly Committee (AMCU) as Chief specialist in the natural gas and oil unit between 2010 – 2017. Afterwards she became an Energy analyst for EU Support to Ukraine to re-launch the economy project (EU SURE) and Better Regulation Delivery Office(BRDO). Since 2019 Olha Nechytailo holds the position of State Commissioner at AMCU. Olha Nechytailo holds an MBA in antitrust law
Eliza Niewiadomska
Senior Counsel, Legal Transition Programme at EBRDEliza is responsible for regulatory advice on digital transformation of government commerce and leads technical cooperation activities under the EBRD UNCITRAL Public Procurement Reform Initiative and the EBRD GPA Technical Cooperation Facility. Lawyer and economist, Eliza holds postgraduate degrees from the Warsaw University, Poland and the University College London and King’s College in the United Kingdom. Eliza worked for Polish government during regulatory reforms of Poland’s accession to European Union and upon leaving civil service, as a general counsel in the IT industry. Prior to joining the EBRD in 2009, Eliza was head of procurement at power&energy company, PGE Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA in Warsaw.
Yulia Shapovalova
Counsel, Legal Transition Programme at EBRD, Moderator of the webinarYulia has over 15 years of professional legal experience, including 8 years as a consultant and in-house counsel working with respected international finance institutions and international development agencies. These include EBRD, IFC World Bank Group, USAID, ADB and OSCE on providing legal and policy advice and assistance to government officials on the implementation of high profile legal and regulatory reform projects aimed at improving the investment climate in developing countries. Yulia also served as a senior legal official at the Ministry of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic for 7 years.
With academic qualification and professional experience in both civil and common law jurisdiction, Yulia was awarded a master’s degree in International Business Law at Queen Mary University of London (UK) in 2015 focusing on International Investment and Trade Law (WTO), and International Commercial Arbitration.
Yulia has been working with the EBRD since 2016, when she joined as a consultant on the public procurement reform projects. Over the past two years (2017-2019), she worked as a Counsel for the Legal Transition Programme (LTP) at the EBRD on public procurement legal reform projects in the EBRD countries of operation. Since July 2020, Yulia started working as a Counsel on public procurement and dispute resolution reform projects for the LTP at the EBRD.
Yulia drafted more than 20 pieces of regulatory legislation and is an author of several publications and a chapter in co-authored textbook. She is fluent in English and Russian.