Editorial Team
Best-in-class journalism
With specialist reporters close to trusted sources in the world's legal and regulatory hotspots — and 15 bureaus across North America, Latin America, Europe, the UK and Asia-Pacific — MLex provides the exclusive news and deep-dive analysis you need to make the right decisions for your business and clients, now and in the longer term.
Leadership
Richard Thompson
Editor-in-Chief
An award-winning business news journalist, with nearly three decades of international newsroom experience, Richard oversees global editorial operations and leads the MLex management team in providing strategic direction for our journalists around the world.
For lawyers, companies and investors grappling with an increasingly complicated world of business regulations and litigation, Richard’s goal is to ensure that MLex provides its subscribers with an unbeatable supply of accurate, up-to-date and comprehensive news, and forward-looking insight on global regulatory risk.
Lewis Crofts
Editor-at-Large
Lewis leads MLex's editorial output, having developed the company's editorial approach from its origin through its expansion to a global news agency. He has an unrivalled reputation for breaking stories and providing analysis on complex legal disputes before regulators and courts around the globe. He has been instrumental in developing and leading MLex's unrivalled coverage of competition policy, litigation, regulation and international investigations. A graduate of Oxford University, Lewis has played a defining role in MLex's editorial direction, expansion and public profile.
Tony Cooke
Managing Editor, Americas
Before joining MLex in 2013, Tony led a team of Washington journalists covering regulatory news in-depth for Dow Jones Newswires, and later relocated to New York to take over the wire's Spot News Desk. An expert with more than a decade of experience covering Securities and Exchange Commission filings, he wrote and later edited the Wall Street Journal's Inside Track column.
Kait Bolongaro
Managing Editor, Europe
Kait is the Managing Editor in Europe, where she leads a 25-strong editorial team covering a wide range of policy beats out of Brussels and London. She joined MLex in 2021 as the Senior Editor for the EU and UK. She previously worked as a reporter covering Canadian politics for Bloomberg and EU policy for Politico Europe. She was also a freelancer, reporting on politics, society, business and culture from five continents for outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, VICE and Al Jazeera. Her reporting has won three prizes, including a silver medal from the United Nations Correspondents Association Global Prize on Climate Change in 2017 and a gold medal at the Canada Best in Business Awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2021.
David Plott
Managing Editor, Asia
David is a longtime veteran of Dow Jones and worked for them in the U.S., Europe and Asia, serving as senior news editor for Dow Jones Newswires in Asia and later editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review. He was also deputy director of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong. He helped found Global Asia, a quarterly journal on international affairs, in 2005 and continues to serve as its managing editor. He also led a team that founded the Jakarta Globe newspaper in 2008. He has been in Asia since 1994 and joined MLex in 2014.
David received a BA from the University of California at Berkeley and an MA and Ph.D. from Harvard University.
Joan Grossman
Managing Editor, Intellectual Property
Joan leads a global team of MLex journalists who report on Intellectual Property.
Joan came to MLex from LexisNexis Mealey Publications, a legal news organization that reports on U.S. litigation related to insurance, toxic torts, intellectual property and other niche areas of law. She continues to serve as Managing Editor of Mealey’s.
Joan was also an attorney with an intellectual property law firm, where she drafted patent applications, office action responses and related documents and consulted on trademark, copyright and contract issues.
Chief Correspondents
Mike Swift
Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent
Mike is an award-winning journalist who has been at the forefront of covering data, privacy and cybersecurity regulatory news for more than a decade. As the Chief Global Digital Risk Correspondent for MLex, in addition to reporting, he coordinates MLex’s worldwide coverage in the practice area.
Formerly chief Internet reporter for the San Jose Mercury News and SiliconValley.com, Mike has covered Google, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter and other tech companies and has closely tracked technology and regulatory trends in Silicon Valley. He has wide ranging expertise from the business of professional sports to computer-assisted reporting. A former John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University, he is a graduate of Colby College.
Matthew Newman
Global Chief Correspondent
Matthew is a chief correspondent for MLex and writes about data protection, privacy, telecoms, cyber security and artificial intelligence. Matthew began his journalism career in 1991 in community newspapers. He worked as a reporter in Riga, Latvia in 1993 and then moved to Chicago where he covered local news. In 1995, he became a personal finance reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, and was then transferred to Brussels in 1999. He specialized in EU regulatory affairs, including trade and telecom issues. He began covering competition for Bloomberg News as an EU court reporter in 2004. In 2010, he was named spokesman for Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner. In January 2012, he helped launch the commission’s proposal to overall data protection rules.
Matthew began working at MLex in April 2012 and has covered mergers, antitrust and state-aid cases. He spent a year studying French, history and communications in Grenoble, France in 1988 and 1989 and is a graduate of Boston University with degrees in history and journalism. He earned a diploma in competition law from King’s College in 2016.
Flavia Fortes
Chief Global M & A Correspondent
Flavia writes about merger control, antitrust enforcement and litigation in the U.S. and Brazil. Before joining MLex, Flavia worked as an Antitrust Consultant in the Federal Trade Commission's Office of International Affairs and as a Research Fellow for the American Antitrust Institute. She has written on the intersection of antitrust law and intellectual property law in technology-driven and innovative markets.
Flavia holds a LL.M. in intellectual property from the George Washington University Law School and a Bachelor of Laws from the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Brazil. She is admitted to the bar in New York and Brazil.
Khushita Vasant
Chief Antitrust Correspondent, US
Khushita covers US antitrust enforcement and litigation for MLex. A former Brussels hand, she wrote about about antitrust & mergers for the Policy and Regulatory Report (PaRR), she has covered the EU's actions against Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon to name a few. Khushita specialises in tech and patent policy coverage which featured in the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards.
Previously as a financial journalist for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, she wrote about monetary policy and the bond and currency markets. Khushita studied journalism at Mumbai University, and received an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for a masters from universities in Germany and Austria.
Nicholas Hirst
Chief Correspondent, EU Competition
Nicholas covers EU merger review and antitrust investigations for Mlex in Brussels. He previously wrote about EU affairs for Politico Europe, European Voice and PaRR. After earning an LLM in European law from the College of Europe in Bruges, he spent a year working in the competition practice of a leading competition law firm in Brussels 2009-10. He graduated in modern European languages from Oxford University in 2006.
Joanna Sopinska
Chief Correspondent, Trade
Joanna has covered trade and investment policy for MLex since March 2017, reporting on regulatory-risk and trade defense matters. Formerly trade editor of EU Trade Insights and reporter at Europolitics news agency in Brussels. Before moving to Belgium in 2006, Joanna worked for two years as an expert at the Polish Institute of International Relations (PISM) in Warsaw, providing in-depth analysis on various EU regulation.
She holds a postgraduate diploma in the European public affairs from Maastricht University and the European Institute of Public Administration (EIPA) in the Netherlands and an MA in international relations from University of Lódź in Poland.
Neil Roland
Chief Correspondent, US Financial Services
Neil has covered U.S. financial regulation for over two decades, mostly for Bloomberg and Crain Communications. He received a Loeb award for coverage of regulators' response to the collapse of Enron. He also garnered a SABEW award and some Jesse H. Neal awards for stories on the Federal Reserve's response to the 2008 financial crisis. Roland has appeared as a commentator on Fox TV, NPR, C-Span and Bloomberg TV. He received a Master's degree in public policy from Harvard and a Bachelors degree in economics from Cornell.
Yonnex Li
Chief Correspondent, Greater China
Yonnex has an MA in Journalism from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, after obtaining a BA in Translation at the same university. At MLex, she writes extensively on antitrust developments in the Greater China region, including investigations, court cases and merger control of international transactions. Prior to joining MLex, she worked as a reporter at the English division of the Hong Kong Economic Journal, providing coverage and analysis on China's banking sector, asset management industry as well as currency and financial reforms.
Melissa Ritti
Chief Correspondent, Intellectual Property
Melissa is chief correspondent for MLex IP, where she directs content and offers analysis of breaking intellectual property news in addition to mentoring a global team of MLex journalists. Previously, she served as editor of LexisNexis Mealey Publications Intellectual Property Litigation Report for 24 years. Before joining Mealey's, she was an award-winning daily newspaper reporter covering courts in the Philadelphia region.
Americas
Lesette Heath
Deputy Managing Editor, North America
Lesette previously covered mergers and acquisitions at Dow Jones Newswires. She also served as a writer, editor and programs producer for a museum dedicated to journalism. Lesette's work has appeared in the Daily Press and the quarterly magazine The News Media & the Law. She holds an MA in Communication from Johns Hopkins University.
Can Celik
Assistant Managing Editor, North America
Can covers antitrust enforcement and civil litigation for MLex. He graduated from Cornell University in 2007 with a BA in economics and received his JD from American University Washington College of Law in 2010.
He is currently a member in good standing of the New York State Bar.
Dave Harrison
Editor
Dave previously worked on the international tax and accounting desk at Bloomberg News. He also was a reporter for the Virginian Pilot in Norfolk and won a pair of reporting awards from the Virginia Press Association. He holds a BA in history and mass communications from Virginia Commonwealth University.
Gabriel Pena
Senior Researcher
Gabriel is a research specialist, providing support for U.S. coverage of regulatory risk in antitrust, tech, and financial services. Gabriel graduated from the Washington College of Law in 2011 and is barred to practice in the state of New York.
Eliana Hubacker
Reporter/Researcher
Eliana is an international trade and financial services researcher and reporter based in Washington, DC. She received her master’s degree in public policy from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2022. This is her first foray into journalism.
Curtis Eichelberger
Senior Reporter
Curtis Eichelberger covers mergers and acquisitions for MLex in Washington, DC. He came to MLex from Amazon, where he served as a senior manager for policy communications.
This is the second tour at MLex for Curtis, who worked with the DC team for nearly seven years ending in 2022. He also spent more than 15 years at Bloomberg News, where he covered the business of sports, and he previously reported for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
Curtis is a graduate of the University of Maryland and has a master’s degree from Georgetown University.
Madeline Hughes
Senior Reporter
Madeline is a data privacy and security reporter based in Washington, DC. She got her start in journalism in local news, covering anything and everything in Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire and Massachusetts before coming to DC to report on tech.
Ilana Kowarski
Senior Reporter
Ilana is a senior M&A reporter based in Washington, DC. She came to MLex from US News & World Report, where she covered higher education and specialized in writing about graduate schools. During her journalism career, Ilana has reported on a variety of subjects – including arts and culture, business and politics – and she has significant experience as a data reporter and investigative journalist.
Ilana earned a bachelor’s degree in Law, Letters and Society at the University of Chicago, where she graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa and as a Student Marshal – the highest undergraduate honor at the university. She received her master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University.
Claude Marx
Senior Reporter
Claude has been a reporter for FTCWatch since February 2013 and during that time has written about a range of subjects such as the implications of certain mergers on consumers, the regulation of advertising and attempts by Congress to overhaul the patent system. He also writes regularly for MLex.
Before that, Claude spent four years writing about the impact of legislation and regulations on community banks and credit unions as the Washington reporter for Credit Union Times. During that time, which coincided with the financial crisis, Claude covered the government's rescue of some of the financially troubled wholesale credit unions, which had the potential to bring down the entire credit union system.
He earned his bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis and did graduate work at Georgetown University.
Chris May
Senior Reporter
Chris has most recently been a freelance investigative journalist working for, among other publications, The American Prospect, where he reported on the lack of competition and resulting overcharges in the provision of communication services to inmates. Chris has also covered the consolidation of online charitable giving platforms and published investigations concerning natural gas utility whistleblower complaints and industry capture of state building code regulators.
Amy Miller
Senior Correspondent
Amy is responsible for the coverage of an array of regulatory and litigation issues pertaining to the Internet, including privacy, data security and antitrust. Formerly a legal reporter for the ALM media group, Miller has closely followed legal trends in Silicon Valley and covered corporate legal departments for online and print publications including The American Lawyer, Corporate Counsel, and The Recorder. Miller is a graduate of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is an award-winning journalist with expertise ranging from education and legal reporting to computer-assisted reporting.
Samuel Rubenfeld
Senior Reporter
Samuel covers cases of bribery and corruption and some international trade issues. Prior to joining MLex, he was editor of the Kharon Brief, a news and data analysis platform focused on global security issues, including sanctions and export controls. Earlier in his career, Rubenfeld spent about a decade at The Wall Street Journal, including nearly nine years as a reporter covering corporate risk and compliance concerns such as bribery, money laundering, sanctions, terrorist financing and whistleblowers.
Henrique Santiago
Senior Reporter
Henrique is based in São Paulo, where he reports on antitrust, mergers and acquisitions and data privacy. Previously, Henrique worked for UOL and Metrópoles, two of the most widely read news websites in Brazil, writing stories about economics, politics and culture.
Henrique is a post-graduate student at the São Paulo School of Sociology and Policy.
Dwight Weingarten
Senior Reporter
Dwight A. Weingarten is a senior reporter for FTCWatch and MLex.
Dwight previously worked as an investigative reporter for Gannett newspapers in Maryland. He was awarded Best of Show in Investigative Reporting by the Maryland-Delaware-DC Press Association.
Prior to that, Dwight was a reporting fellow for The Christian Science Monitor.
He is a graduate of the College of William & Mary and has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
Alex Wilts
Senior Reporter
Alex is a senior antitrust reporter based in San Francisco. She came to MLex from CTFN, where she covered regulatory reviews of M&A in Washington, DC. During her career, Alex has overseen coverage of US antitrust news for Global Competition Review and has written for several outlets, including Reuters, Reorg, and The Independent. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2015 with degrees in marketing and journalism.
Xu Yuan
Senior Correspondent
Xu Yuan has worked for MLex for seven years, all of them based in Hong Kong. She has reported on a wide range of regulatory topics, including antitrust, cybersecurity and data security, in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. She has broken numerous stories on policymaking and enforcement involving international companies doing business in the region and done substantial court reporting in Hong Kong. She is currently specializing in covering regulatory issues related to future mobility, including connected vehicles. She previously worked for US TV network NBC in Beijing. She received her undergraduate degree in English Literature and Linguistics from Peking University and a master’s degree from the Journalism and Media Studies Centre at The University of Hong Kong.
Maria Júlia Baumert
Correspondent
Maria Júlia is based in Sao Paulo, where she covers mergers & acquisitions, antitrust, and data privacy. Prior to MLex, she wrote global financial stories and hosted a weekly economic podcast. Maria holds a degree in International Relations from Pontificia Universidade Catolica – Sao Paulo (PUC-SP).
Wesley Brown
Reporter
Wesley is a 2020 graduate of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism who has worked in a number of roles in state and local journalism in Maryland.
Laina Miller
Reporter
Laina covers U.S. trade and financial regulation for MLex in Washington DC. She received her Master of Journalism degree from the University of Maryland and has a Master of Arts in Historical Studies from University of Maryland, Baltimore County. She wrote for Capital News Service, run by UMD, and for Mitzpeh, the school’s independent Jewish newspaper.
Clayton Vickers
Reporter
Clayton graduated in May with a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Missouri, specializing in data and public affairs reporting. Clayton has completed an internship with The Hill, and as a student, worked with Investigative Reporters and Editors, the Columbia Missourian, Missouri Business Alert and the Missouri News Network. Clayton came to D.C. on a White House Correspondent’s Association scholarship.
Europe
Todd Buell
Deputy Managing Editor, Brussels
Prior to joining MLex, Todd was a Senior Correspondent and then Editor-at-Large with MLex's sister company, Law360 from 2018 to 2024. He reported on tax policy. Before joining Law360, Todd worked at the Wall Street Journal, where he covered the European Central Bank, monetary policy and economics from Frankfurt. He also covered economics at Market News International also in Frankfurt.
Originally from the US, Todd graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, where he majored in Government and German and a Master’s degree in Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He studied in Berlin, Germany for part of his Master's studies. He speaks fluent German and French.
Ben O'Neill
Deputy Managing Editor, London
Ben is the deputy managing editor in our London bureau, helping manage the reporting team and editing stories across the range of MLex services. He joined MLex in 2017 after two decades as a newspaper journalist. After starting on regional papers in the UK, he moved to Asia, spending eight years as an editor and then Production Editor at the South China Morning Post in Hong Kong, followed by eight years in Indonesia. There he helped launch the Jakarta Globe and served as Managing Editor, followed by several years as a consultant editor for news media and company investor relations before he moved back to the UK. He has an MA in Classics from the University of St Andrews.
Steve Hillyard
Editor
UK native Steve joined MLex in 2009, ten years into a career in international business publishing that has encompassed Brussels, London and the US state of New Jersey. He has excelled in editing and production roles at Lloyds Bank, The Wall Street Journal and FX Week, among others.
Karoline Del Vecchio
Head of Research, Europe
Karoline holds a degree in translation studies and EU law from Mainz University, Germany. Before joining MLex, she worked for the German Steel Federation and U.S. law firm Latham & Watkins in Brussels where she reported on EU affairs and worked as a legal researcher, providing global monitoring services on EU competition law, trade and regulatory matters. Karoline's working languages are German, English, French, Spanish, Italian and Polish.
Giorgi Dvalishvili
Senior Researcher
Giorgi is a senior researcher at MLex, providing support for EU coverage of regulatory risks in data protection and competition. Before joining MLex, he worked as a legal trainee in a Brussels based German law firm specializing in EU competition and state aid. He also did several internships with the European Parliament. He holds master’s degrees in European and International Law from the Europa Institute of Saarland University, Germany, and from the Georgian Institute of Public Affairs. He also has bachelor’s degree in law from the Ilia State University, Georgia.
Helena Freitas
Researcher
Helena is a researcher covering financial services and energy & climate for MLex in Brussels. Prior to joining MLex, Helena worked for a European affairs consultancy, where she was responsible for monitoring and intelligence gathering as well as the preparation of reports, newsletters and analysis. Before that, she did a traineeship at a banking association. Helena holds a Master's degree in Development and International Cooperation from the Lisbon School of Economics and Management and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Coimbra.
Luca Bertuzzi
Senior Correspondent
Before joining MLex in Brussels, Luca worked as the Technology Editor at EURACTIV, where he oversaw an international team of four reporters based in Brussels, Paris, and Berlin. Luca’s work has been published in la Repubblica, Tagesspiegel, and Tech.eu. For his reporting, he received the 2024 AI Policy Leader Award.
Jean Comte
Senior Correspondent
Jean is a senior reporter for MLex in Brussels, where he oversees the coverage of Financial Services in Europe. Prior to joining MLex, he worked for five years for the French newspaper Contexte as an EU political reporter. He also freelanced for a number of English-speaking publications, such as GlobalCapital and Market News International, and for the French daily Le Figaro.
In 2023, Jean published a book on lobbying in the EU. He studied Philosophy and Journalism in Sorbonne University, in Paris.
Martin Coyle
Senior Correspondent
Martin is based in MLex's London office, reporting daily on bribery and corruption issues in the UK and Europe. Previously he was a senior editor at Thomson Reuters where he covered anti-money laundering, financial crime and regulatory enforcement issues. Prior to that he was editor of The Accountant, the world's oldest accounting publication, and International Accounting Bulletin, a bi-monthly business journal owned by Lafferty.
Jakub Krupa
Senior Correspondent
Jakub leads MLex's coverage of UK legislative processes across multiple beats, with primary focus on data, privacy and security, future mobility and post-Brexit divergence. He also contributes to the broader European and trans-Atlantic coverage on digital regulations.
He joined MLex in 2020 to report on data, focusing on EU & UK risks and Brexit, before launching a new future mobility service looking at connected, automated, electric and shared vehicles in 2021.
Based in the UK since 2012, he previously worked as the UK Correspondent for the Polish Press Agency, leading the coverage on Brexit, UK politics and relations with the EU as well as a number of European titles. His stories have been featured in other leading outlets, including the Guardian and the Evening Standard.
In 2021, he was selected as one of journalist fellows at the University of Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, working on a project looking at restoring trust in public media in countries that suffered a decline in their press freedom standards.
He holds MSc in European Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science and BA from the University of Warsaw.
Natalie McNelis
Senior Correspondent
Natalie covers mergers for MLex in Brussels. Before joining MLex in 2017, she spent 20 years as an international trade and competition lawyer in law firms including Stibbe and WilmerHale. Natalie has a BA in English from Mount Holyoke College, a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM in EU law from KU Leuven. She is admitted to the bar in New York.
Jon Menon
Senior Correspondent
Jon reports on mergers and antitrust issues in London. He worked at Bloomberg News for 20 years as a reporter and editor on the European financial services and markets teams. Before that, he reported on the automotive and insurance industries for the Sunday Business newspaper and trade titles. He has an MA in Sociology from the University of York.
Inbar Preiss
Senior Correspondent
Inbar is a senior intellectual property correspondent for MLex in Brussels, reporting on developments in Europe.
Previously, she reported on digital asset regulation with a focus on the European Union for specialised publications, DL News and The Block, where she covered the development and rollout of new legislation, explosive markets, sector-defining lawsuits and criminal trials. She also helped produce European print and digital magazines in Brussels, and holds a master’s degree in international politics from KU Leuven.
Simon Zekaria
Senior Correspondent
Simon is a senior correspondent in London, covering UK regulation. Prior to joining MLex, Simon reported on business news for The Wall Street Journal, including on telecommunications, media, technology and consumer affairs. Simon was also a writer for the WSJ on diverse subjects such as Brexit, UK politics and global sport. Simon was previously a correspondent on competition issues and European politics for Thomson Reuters and Agence France-Presse in Brussels. Simon is a graduate of Edinburgh University, with Masters degrees in literature and law. A French speaker, he has studied at the Sorbonne University, Paris.
Andrew Boyce
Correspondent
Andrew is a reporter covering merger reviews and competition policy for MLex in Brussels. He joined MLex in 2015 and holds a degree and a master’s degree in history from the University of Liverpool.
Sara Brandstätter
Correspondent
Sara is a correspondent in the Data Privacy & Security team in Brussels. Before joining MLex, she worked for the ORF correspondent's office in Brussels and as a freelance journalist for various Austrian news outlets, where she reported on politics and social issues. She was awarded the Lower Austrian Journalism Prize for her article on family mental health.
Sara holds a degree in Communication Science from the University of Vienna and an International Master's degree in Journalism, Media and Globalisation.
Patrícia Figueiredo
Correspondent
Before joining MLex in London, Patrícia worked for G1/Globo and Agência Pública as a reporter with a focus on data-driven stories, fact-checking and investigations. She contributed as a freelancer to media outlets such as Folha de S. Paulo, Euronews, Climate Home News and UOL, writing in English and in Portuguese. Her reporting was awarded the Claudio Weber Abramo Data Journalism prize in the Investigations category in 2022, and was also recognized by fellowships from organizations such as the Earth Journalism Network (EJN) and the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN).
She received her bachelor's from Universidade de São Paulo (USP) in Brazil and her master's from the Erasmus Mundus Journalism Master’s programme at City, University of London and Aarhus University.
Sofia Gerace
Correspondent
Sofia is a financial services correspondent for MLex in London. Prior to joining MLex, she worked as a trainee at Bloomberg News, the European Central Bank, and the Organisation for Economic Development and Cooperation. Sofia holds a master's degree in Political Economy of Europe from The London School of Economics.
Frank Hersey
Correspondent
Frank joined MLex’s London team in April 2023 to cover data privacy and security, primarily in the UK and EU. Prior to joining, he reported on digital identity, biometrics and surveillance, including the social impact of such technologies, particularly in Africa and India. He produced and hosted a podcast on legal identity. Frank covered tech and general news in China for multiple outlets and worked as a multimedia news correspondent for the BBC and, across West Africa, for France 24 and RFI. Frank has a degree in Chinese Studies from Cambridge.
Abhishek Kumar
Correspondent
Abhishek is a London-based UK Intellectual Property correspondent for MLex. He previously covered UK financial services for MLex for a brief period. Before joining MLex, he worked as a radio journalist and a central banker in India and freelanced for news outlets in Europe and Asia. Abhishek studied journalism at the University of Mumbai and received an Erasmus Mundus scholarship for a joint master’s in business journalism at Aarhus University, Denmark and City University of London.
Phoebe Seers
Correspondent
Phoebe has covered Financial Crime and compliance issues for MLex since 2015, initially in the Hong Kong bureau and currently in London. While in Hong Kong she won two SOPA awards for her reporting on corruption in the energy sector in Indonesia. Prior to journalism she worked as a solicitor with a focus on white-collar crime litigation in London and Hong Kong. She has a BA in English and Philosophy from Newcastle University.
Júlia Tar
Correspondent
Before joining MLex, Júlia worked as a technology reporter at Euractiv, where she covered EU digital policy, data protection, content moderation, and law enforcement issues. Júlia was the first Lénaïc Fellow at Euractiv, a program aimed at supporting aspiring young female journalists in EU affairs. She also participated in the Bakala Foundation’s Journey: Journalism Bootcamp, an intensive program led by global media professionals in Prague. She studied Journalism at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and American Studies from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest.
Oscar Pandiello
Correspondent
Óscar covers trade for MLex in Brussels. Prior to his role at MLex, he gained experience as an economics journalist at El Comercio and as a technology reporter for the Spanish fact-checking organization Maldita. His journalistic career also includes a stint as an EU affairs correspondent for Agencia EFE in Brussels.
In addition to his reporting experience, Óscar served as a communications officer at the European Parliament for almost two years. He holds a degree in Journalism from Complutense University of Madrid.
Stefano Porciello
Correspondent
Stefano is a MLex Correspondent based in Brussels covering energy and climate. Before joining MLex, he worked in communication for the Foundation for European Progressive Studies. He had previously worked as a freelancer in Italy and completed a traineeship at the European Parliament. Stefano holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and European Studies from the University of Florence.
Asia
Marissa Lague
Senior Editor
Marissa has been a journalist for more than three decades and joined MLex in 2020 as a senior copy editor in Perth. She has specialized in financial journalism for most of her career and worked as a business reporter and editor in Australia and Hong Kong.
James Panichi
Senior Editor
James, an Australian journalist with over 25 years’ experience in print and electronic media, helps to oversee MLex’s coverage of regulatory risk in Asia, with special attention to Australia and New Zealand. In 2016, James was appointed as MLex’s managing editor for continental Europe, overseeing the Brussels bureau’s coverage of EU regulatory affairs and managing a team of 16 journalists in Brussels and Geneva. Previously James worked for the European Voice newspaper, before joining the European operation of US political website Politico as an investigative reporter specializing in governance, transparency and lobbying.
In Australia, James spent the bulk of his career at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. From 2001 he covered the Pacific for Radio Australia, first as presenter then executive producer of a daily current affairs program. He has appeared on both radio and television and has reported for Background Briefing, an investigative journalism program. James has degrees in English and Italian literature from the University of Melbourne; a degree in journalism from RMIT University; and an MA in international relations from the Australian National University.
Yang Yue
Regulatory Consultant
Yang Yue joined MLex in Shanghai as an analyst focusing on merger control and antitrust regulation, with a particular emphasis on the semiconductor, pharmaceutical, healthcare and automotive sectors. Yang Yue previously worked at MergerMarket in China.
Xiaoqiong Gao
Analyst
Xiaoqiong is based in Beijing and has worked as a researcher and analyst at MLex for 10 years, covering regulatory developments in antitrust, data privacy and security, trade and finance. She currently specializes in intellectual property rights, with a special emphasis on litigation and policy making involving patents, trademarks, copyright and trade secrets. She received an MA in law from China University of Political Science and Law, specializing in international law. She also received a BA in law from the University of Science and Technology Beijing.
Olivia Wang
Analyst
Based in Shanghai, Olivia specializes in regulatory issues involving data privacy and security, artificial intelligence, future mobility and other emerging technologies. Prior to joining MLex, she worked at the Economist Intelligence Unit, the Washington Post and the US Consulate General in Chengdu. She received a BA in political science at Nanjing Normal University and an MA in international relations at Beijing Normal University.
Emily Liu
Researcher/Writer
Emily covers regulatory developments in China, with an emphasis on antitrust, digital privacy and security, trade and financial services. She received a master’s degree in journalism from The University of Hong Kong and a bachelor’s degree in communications and international studies at a joint program of the University of Colorado, Denver, and the China Agricultural University. Prior to her graduate studies, she did a series of journalism internships at Southeast Television in Fujian Province China, the Global Times Online in Beijing, as well as Reuters and NBC News in Beijing.
Jenny Lee
Senior Correspondent
Jenny joined MLex’s Seoul bureau in 2021 as a correspondent focusing on competition law and data privacy and security. Jenny received a Master’s degree from Northwestern University’s renowned Medill School of Journalism and worked for a number of news organizations in the US, including the Associated Press Television News, McClatchy and Voice of America, where she worked for almost three years in Washington DC. She returned to her native South Korea in 2019 as a reporter for Wired Korea.
Wooyoung Lee
Senior Correspondent
Wooyoung is a correspondent based in MLex’s Seoul office, South Korea, covering antitrust, privacy and data security, mergers and acquisitions and financial services. Wooyoung has more than a decade of experience in journalism, public policy and research. She has worked and written for news outlets including The Korea Herald, Al Jazeera International, Bloomberg BNA, Monocle, among others.
She worked as a foreign service officers for policy and research at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea. She holds a BA in Linguistics from Kyunghee University and an MSc from the Sociology department of the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Sachiko Sakamaki
Senior Correspondent
Sachiko covers antitrust, mergers and acquisitions, privacy and data security, as well as patent disputes related to connected cars. She has an undergraduate degree from Waseda University in Tokyo and a master's degree in communications from United States International (now Alliant International) University in California. She previously worked as a journalist for Time magazine, the Far Eastern Economic Review, Bloomberg News, and the Washington Post in Japan.
Toko Sekiguchi
Senior Correspondent
Toko is a senior correspondent in Tokyo specializing in intellectual property rights. In addition to covering IP policy issues, she writes about litigation in Japanese courts involving patents, trademarks, trade secrets and copyright. Previously, she covered antitrust, data privacy and security, anti-bribery & corruption and financial services in Japan. Before joining MLex, she worked as a journalist for The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones News, Bloomberg News and Time Magazine. She studied at Northwestern University and the University of Washington, where she received a BA in political science. She also studied at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.
Saloni Sinha
Senior Correspondent
Saloni is a correspondent covering competition, antitrust and data privacy in Australia and New Zealand. Based in Sydney, Saloni reports on legal proceedings and regulatory issues with a focus on competition law and data privacy and security. Prior to joining MLex, Saloni worked as a journalist for over seven years in India reporting and editing for media organizations like The Times of india and Hindustan Times.
Choonsik Yoo
Senior Correspondent
Choonsik mainly covers developments surrounding artificial intelligence in South Korea, working in close coordination with other AI reporters in Asia.
Before joining MLex, Choonsik worked for nearly 30 years at Reuters, mostly in Seoul, taking on numerous key roles such as South Korea technology correspondent, deputy bureau chief for Korea and chief Korea economics correspondent. He also served as president of the Seoul Foreign Correspondents’ Club. In the late 1980s, he was part of a team in charge of launching the Asian country's first PC-to-PC communication service, a precursor to full Internet service. He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul.
Ryan Cropp
Correspondent
Ryan is a reporter covering competition, antitrust and data privacy in Australia and New Zealand. Ryan reports from Parliament House in Canberra, where he focuses on policy developments in digital platforms regulation, data privacy and security and competition law. Prior to joining MLex, Ryan was a contributing writer at Inside Story Magazine, and worked in the Department of History at the University of Sydney.
Jet Damazo-Santos
Correspondent
Jet has been covering antitrust, data protection and other compliance issues in key jurisdictions in Southeast Asia for MLex full time since 2018. She has almost two decades of journalism experience in the Philippines and Indonesia, where she was the associate editor for the Jakarta Globe and the Jakarta bureau chief for Rappler Indonesia prior to joining MLex. She holds a master's degree in Applied Business Economics from the University of Asia and the Pacific.
Freny Patel
Correspondent
Freny has been covering antitrust law, M&A and regulations for over a decade, serving as Asia editor at Policy and Regulatory Report. Prior to joining as an editor at Mergermarket, she headed the banking bureau of a leading Indian financial daily, Business Standard. When India privatized the insurance sector, she had her own column in The Observer.
Freny joined MLex in November 2020.
Freny completed her schooling in Hong Kong. She has a BA in English Literature and a MA in Economics & Politics from the University of Mumbai.
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