Academic

Pontifical University Comillas, Madrid, Spain (www.upco.es): Degree in Law (1987).

Pontifical University Comillas, Madrid, Spain: Degree in Economics (1988).

Collège d'Europe, Bruges, Belgium (www.coleurop.be): LLM in Hautes Etudes Européennes, 1989.

Professor of Corporate Law, Law School, Pontifical University Comillas.

National Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford University, 2007-08.

Visiting Scholar, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), Stanford University, 2007-08.

Rock Center Fellow, Stanford University, 2007-08.

Has published articles as author, co-author or co-editor in newspapers, legal reviews and books (see exhibit).

Professional

Member of the Madrid Bar Association since 1987 (www.icam.es).

Laureate lawyer of the European Commission (open competition Com A/638).

Has wide-ranging corporate and M&A experience, and specialises in private equity, antitrust, litigation and arbitration.

Partner of Ashurst (www.ashurst.com).

Founded the Spanish office of Ashurst in 2001.

Head of the Ashurst Corporate and Litigation and Arbitration departments of the Ashurst Madrid office.

Has worked in corporate, finance and contentious matters for companies like Apax Partners, Coller Capital, TA Associates, Mercapital, Barclays Bank, JP Morgan Chase Bank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Royal Bank of Scotland, Stada Arzneimittel, Conserve Italia, Bank of Scotland, ING, ONCE, Anschutz Investments, QXL Ricardo, ACS Dragados, Wella, Rothschild, Cerberus, Morgan Stanley, Candover, Citigroup, TetraPak, Castle Harlan, Ferrovial, etc.

Prior to joining Ashurst, he was a partner at Melchor de las Heras (now, CMS' Albiñana & Suárez de Lezo).

He was also Secretary General of the Spanish State owned TV and radio group Radio Televisión Española (www.rtve.es), the largest media group in Spain.

Mentioned as recommended or leading lawyer in Spain in M&A, Corporate, Restructuring and Insolvency, Private Equity and Media by Chambers Global, Who's Who Legal, Global Counsel 3000, European Legal Experts, Experts Guides Euromoney, Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook, etc.

Member of the following arbitration courts:

• CIMA, Civil and Commercial Arbitration Court of Madrid (www.cima-arbitraje.com).
• Arbitration Court of the Spanish Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Navigation (www.camaras.org).
• Arbitration Court of the Madrid Bar Association (www.icam.com).
• Spanish-Moroccan Arbitration Court.

Has also acted as arbitrator in the Swiss Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

Member of the "Círculo de Empresarios" (www.circulodeempresarios.org), a non-profit, non-partisan and private Spanish association formed by around 200 Spanish business leaders whose companies together employ over 715,000 workers and who share an interest in the major issues affecting the country's economic and social well-being.

Other

Member of the British Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (www.bvca.co.uk)

Born in Madrid, on January 21, 1964. Married. Four children.

Speaks Spanish, English and French.

Publications

• "Culpable Insolvency", International Corporate Rescue, Kluwer Law International, Volume 3, Issue 6, London, 2006.
• "Subordination of claims under the New Insolvency Law", International Corporate Rescue, Kluwer Law International, Volume 3, Issue 5, London, 2006.
• "Understanding the New Insolvency Law", International Corporate Rescue, Kluwer Law International, Volume 3, Issue 2, London, 2006.
• "El libro blanco de la competencia española", Expansión, Madrid, May 31, 2005.
• "Brief Analysis of the new Spanish Insolvency Code", International Corporate Rescue, Kluwer Law International, Volume 2, Issue 4, London, 2005.
• "Comparing civil litigation procedures across Europe", Ashurst, London, 2004.
• "Principios generales y principales novedades de la Nueva Ley Concursal", Ashurst, Madrid, 2004
• "Study on the conditions of claims for damages in case of infringement of the EC competition rules", European Commission, Brussels, August, 2004.
• "Principales novedades de la Ley de Arbitraje", Madrid, June, 2004.
• "Public to Privates in Spain", Ashurst, Madrid, Abril, 2004.
• "A guide to investing in Europe. Spain", BVCA, London, 2004.
• "La polémica modificación de la ley de propiedad intelectual", Expansión, Madrid, April 16, 2003.
• "Derechos audiovisuales de los partidos de fútbol", Expansión, Madrid, January 11, 2003.
• "Nuevo Derecho de las Infraestructuras", Revista del Derecho de las Telecomunicaciones e Infraestructuras en Red (REDETI), Madrid, 2001.
• "Móviles", REDETI, Madrid, April 2001.
• "Liberalizaciones 2000", Fundación de Estudios de Regulación & Editorial Comares, Granada, 2000.
• "Algunas ideas sobre las empresas de Internet y el control de las concentraciones económicas", REDETI, Madrid, October, 2000.
• "Control de fusiones y participaciones empresariales", Expansión, August 2, 2000.

Hicham Ben Abdallah received his B.A. in Politics in 1985 from Princeton University, and his M.A. in Political Science from Stanford in 1997. His interest is in the politics of the transition from authoritarianism to democracy.

He has lectured in numerous universities and think tanks in North America and Europe. His work for the advancement of peace and conflict resolution has brought him to Kosovo as a special Assistant to Bernard Kouchner, and to Nigeria and Palestine as an election observer with the Carter Center. He has published in journals such Le Monde,  Le Monde Diplomatique,Pouvoirs, Le Debat, The Journal of Democracy, The New York Times, El Pais, and El Quds.

In 2010 he has founded the Moulay Hicham Foundation which conducts social science research on the MENA region. He is also an entrepreneur with interests in agriculture, real estate, and renewable energies. His company, Al Tayyar Energy, has a number of clean energy projects in Asia and Europe. 

Nozima Kamalova, a human rights defender and lawyer, is the director of the Public Defense Office of the Tashkent Board of Lawyers and the founding chair of the Legal Aid Society of Uzbekistan, a nongovernmental organization that works with international human rights organizations, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, to safeguard and promote the rule of law. Kamalova has been instrumental in the revision of several Uzbek laws related to torture and human rights, and her lobbying activities have influenced much policy and legislation adopted both internationally and in Uzbekistan. She has served as a chief consultant to agencies of the United Nations, and in since 2002, she submitted a number of alternative reports to the United Nation's Committees on human rights violations and concerning the use of torture in her country.

In 2005, Kamalova was awarded the Chevening Fellowship by the United Kingdom's Foreign and Commonwealth Office. In 2003, she completed an advanced course on human rights in Poland at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, and in 1999, she was an International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) Fellow. She holds a diploma with highest honors in law from Tashkent State University.

During her fellowship at CDDRL (2007-09), Kamalova continued her research on how Western antiterrorism policies limit civil liberties and freedoms in less-developed, transitional countries. She studied the impact of the war against terrorism on authoritarian countries, with Uzbekistan as an example, and will develop recommendations for legislation and practice.

Greg Domber received his A.B in History and Philosophy from Lafayette College in 1997 and recently completed his Ph.D. in History at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. His dissertation, "Supporting the Revolution: America, Democracy, and the End of the Cold War in Poland, 1981-1989,"utilized a multi-archival, international history research approach combined with numerous oral history interviews to take a sober accounting of American and Western influences on Poland's democratic transformation from the declaration of martial law in December 1981 through the creation of the Mazowiecki government in August 1989.

At CDDRL, Greg continued his research on international influences on Poland's transformation during the 1980s, focusing further work on the role played by non-governmental actors, particularly labor unions, émigré groups, humanitarian organizations, and American business interests.

Olena Nikolayenko is a recepient of the 2007-2009 post-doctoral fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her research interests include comparative democratization, public opinion, social movements, youth, and corruption. In her dissertation, she analyzed political support among the first post-Soviet generation grown up without any direct experience with communism in Russia and Ukraine. She has a PhD from the University of Toronto, Canada.

At CDDRL, she examined why some youth movements are more successful than others in applying methods of nonviolent resistance to mobilize the population in non-democratic regimes. She has recently conducted fieldwork in Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Serbia, and Ukraine.

Selected Publications

• 2008. "Contextual Effects on Historical Memory: Soviet Nostalgia among Post-Soviet Adolescents." Communist and Post-Communist Studies 41(2): 243-259
• 2008. "Life-Cycle, Generational and Period Effects on Protest Potential in Yeltsin's Russia." Canadian Journal of Political Science 41(2): 437-460
• 2007. "The Revolt of the Post-Soviet Generation: Youth Movements in Serbia, Georgia, and Ukraine." Comparative Politics 39(2): 169-188
•  2007. "Web Cartoons in a Closed Society: Animal Farm as an Allegory of Belarus." PS: Political Science and Politics 40(2): 307-310
• 2004. "Press Freedom during the 1994 and 1999 Presidential Elections in Ukraine: A Reverse Wave?" Europe-Asia Studies 56(5): 661-686