Axel Desmedt

Axel Desmedt is president of the Belgian Competition Authority and a law and criminology fellow at Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

His work focuses on competition law, telecommunications and postal regulation, European Union law, and international trade law. Before joining the Belgian Competition Authority, Desmedt spent 14 years as an executive board member of the Belgian Institute for Postal Services and Telecommunications, where he oversaw telecommunications and media markets, spectrum policy, postal markets, consumer affairs, and legal and human-resources matters. He led several spectrum auctions, helped develop major telecommunications and postal legislative reforms, and oversaw significant regulatory disputes.

Earlier, Desmedt was deputy director of France Telecom’s permanent representation to the European Union and senior legal counsel to the company, advising on European telecommunications regulation and representing the group before European Union institutions. He previously practiced European Union competition, international trade, and communications law at WilmerHale and Stibbe.

Desmedt has taught telecommunications and regulatory law at KU Leuven and UCLouvain. He also co-founded and edited the Journal of Network Industries Law.

Desmedt earned an LL.M. in international business, trade, and tax law from the University of Michigan Law School and a master’s in law, magna cum laude, from Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He also received a first prize in piano from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels.