Gerald Aksen

Independent Arbitrator, New York City, United States; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Gerald Aksen has been a full time independent arbitrator since 2003. He was previously the partner in charge of international arbitration at the firm of Thelen Reid & Priest (now dissolved) in New York. He is a former Vice Chairman of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and General Counsel of the American Arbitration Association. He is a co-founder and former president of the College of Commercial Arbitrators (USA).

He holds a JD degree from New York University School of Law where he taught the course on international arbitration as an adjunct professor of law for thirty years. His wide background in the arbitral field includes four different perspectives, having served as an academic (NYU), administrator (AAA), attorney and arbitrator in numerous international arbitrations. He is a member of the New York Bar and was Chairman of the Section of International Law of the American Bar Association. He is the 2005 recipient of the ABA Dispute Resolution Section's D'Alemberte/Raven Award and is consistently ranked as one of New York's notable international arbitrators, up to an including in Chambers Global Arbitration Review 2009.

Christian Albanesi

Deputy Counsel, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris

Christian Albanesi is Deputy Counsel in the Ibero- American team of the Secretariat of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. He was previously an associate at Marval, O'Farrell & Marial in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was admitted to the Buenos Aires Bar in 2002. He is a former scholar of the Ministry of Education of the Russian Federation. He holds a degree in Law from the University of Buenos Aires, where he also taught law, and a LLM in French and European Law from the University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

Sébastien Besson

Partner, Python & Peter, Switzerland

Sébastien Besson is a partner at Python & Peter, Geneva. He represents companies before arbitral tribunals and state courts in commercial disputes, and serves as arbitrator.

He has acted as chairman, party-appointed arbitrator, sole arbitrator, counsel or legal expert in numerous international arbitrations under a variety of arbitration rules, and in different jurisdictions. Mr Besson has published extensively on arbitration. Notably he has co-authored with Professor Jean-François Poudret the well-known treatise Comparative Law of International Arbitration (Sweet & Maxwell, London, 2007).

He also teaches several courses on arbitration and settlement of commercial disputes at the University of Geneva and as part of the Geneva Master in International Dispute Settlement Program. He was educated at Lausanne University, where he received his Doctorate in Law, and at Columbia University (New York), from which he holds an LL.M.

Stephen R. Bond

Senior of Counsel, Covington & Burling LLP, United Kingdom; Former Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris; Associate Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Stephen R. Bond is Senior of Counsel in the law firm Covington & Burling LLP in London. He was the US Member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for the period 1994-1999 and Vice Chairman of the ICC Working Group that produced the 1998 ICC Rules. Prior to joining Covington & Burling, he was co-head of the White & Case LLP International Arbitration Practice Group and a resident partner in the Paris office of White & Case from 1991 to 2008.

He was Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration from 1985- 1991. He has served as counsel or arbitrator in numerous international arbitrations under the arbitration rules of the ICC and various other arbitration institutions and ad hoc rules. These arbitrations relate principally to disputes in the natural resources, construction, defense and international joint venture, sales and distribution fields and involve the application of various civil and common law legal systems and international public law. He is on the panel of arbitrators of numerous arbitral institutions and is a frequent writer and speaker on arbitration issues.

Kristof Cox

Senior Legal Consultant, Deloitte; Affiliated Senior Researcher, KULeuven Faculty of Law, Institute for International Trade Law, Belgium

Kristof Cox is a Senior Legal Consultant at Deloitte Belgium since November 2009. His practice focuses on commercial law in general and international contracts of sale in particular. He is an affiliated senior researcher at the Institute for International Trade Law of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Before joining Deloitte, he was the assistant of Professor Hans Van Houtte at this Institute.

He has written a doctoral dissertation on the effects of an arbitration award vis-à-vis third parties, which he will defend on 21 December 2009. Mr Cox is a member of the Steering Committee of CEPANI-40 and has appeared as arbitrator. He is the founder of the Leuven Pre-Moot for the Willem C Vis Arbitration Moot and was head of organization of the first four editions.

Yves Derains

Founding Partner, Derains Gharavi, France; Former Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration; Vice-Chairman, ICC Institute of World Business Law, Chairman, French Committee of Arbitration

Yves Derains, former Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Director of the Legal Department of the ICC, is member of the Paris Bar and a founding partner of the law firm Derains Gharavi. He is specialized in international arbitration and is acting both as arbitrator and counsel of parties in arbitration proceedings.

Mr Derains is the Chairman of the Comité Français de l'Arbitrage and Vice Chairman of the ICC Institute of World Business Law. He has been the Chairman of the Working Party on the Revision of the ICC Rules of Arbitration in 1998 and Co-Chairman of the ICC Task Force on the Reduction of Costs and Time in international arbitration. He is a member of the French Committee on Private International Law since 1978. He is member of the French Section of the International Council for Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) and member of various other organizations specialized in international arbitration and in international business law. Mr Derains is also author of many publications on International Commercial Arbitration and on International Business Law, in particular: "Evaluation of damages in international arbitration", ICC Institute of World Business Law, 2006 - "A Guide to the ICC Rules of Arbitration" (Second edition, with E. Schwartz), Kluwer Law International, 2005.

José Ricardo Feris

Counsel, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris

José Ricardo Feris is Counsel of the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris, France. He also acts as Secretary of the ICC Latin American Arbitration Group. He received his law degree "magna cum laude" from the Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in the Dominican Republic and his LL.M. in International Legal Studies from New York University. He is admitted to practice in the Dominican Republic. His experience in international dispute

resolution includes being a law clerk at the International Court of Justice in The Hague and representing the Dominican Republic before the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas' negotiation rounds.

Simon Greenberg

Deputy Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration, Paris

Simon Greenberg is Deputy Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration where he manages teams administering more that 1,300 international arbitrations taking place across the globe. He was formerly a Senior Associate with the international arbitration department of Dechert LLP, Paris, and has previously practised with other firms in Paris and Australia. He has published various articles on international arbitration, lectures international commercial contracts

at the Institute of Political Science of Paris (Sciences Po) and lectures international arbitration at the University of Aix-Marseille and Erasmus University of Rotterdam.

Bernard Hanotiau

Professor; Partner, Hanotiau & Van den Berg, Belgium; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law; Council Member, ICCA

Bernard Hanotiau is a member of the Brussels and Paris bars. In 2001, he established in Brussels a boutique law firm concentrating on international arbitration and litigation. He is also a professor at the Law School of Louvain University where he teaches international arbitration. Mr Hanotiau has a PhD from Louvain University and an LLM from Columbia University (1973). Since 1978, Bernard Hanotiau has been actively involved in international commercial arbitration as

party-appointed arbitrator, chairman, sole arbitrator, counsel and expert in various parts of the world. He is a member of ICCA, the ICC International Arbitration Commission and a Council Member of the ICC Institute. He is also Vice-President of CEPANI and of the Institute of Transnational Arbitration (Dallas). He has written a major treatise on complex arbitrations (Complex Arbitrations: Multiparty, Multicontract, Multi-issues and Class Actions, Kluwer, 2006).

Serge Lazareff

Founding Partner, Lazareff Le Bars, France; Chairman, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Serge Lazareff is a founding partner of Lazareff Le Bars. He is Doctor of Law of the University of Paris and holds an LL.M. from Harvard. He is Chairman of the ICC Institute of World Business Law and Chairman of the French Arbitration Commission of ICC France. He was formerly General Counsel for International Operations and Vice-President Asia-Pacific of Pechiney, then the leading French industrial groups.

Fernando Mantilla Serrano

Partner, Shearman & Sterling, France; Member, ICC International Court of Arbitration

Fernando Mantilla Serrano is a partner at Shearman & Sterling LLP in Paris, where he practises in transnational litigation and international arbitration, mainly focused on Spain and Latin America. A graduate from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota where he received his Law degree (JD) and Economics degree (MSc), Mr Mantilla-Serrano has also received a MCJ (LLM) from New York University (Fulbright Scholar), a DEA in International Private

Law and International Trade and a DSU in EU Law from the Université de Paris II. He conducts arbitrations and appears as Counsel before arbitral tribunals in numerous venues, mainly in Europe, the United States and Latin America. Mr Mantilla-Serrano is the Colombian member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. His articles on arbitration have been published in Arbitration International, the French Revue de l'Arbitrage, the Journal of International Arbitration and the Spanish Revista de la Corte Española de Arbitraje. He was one of a four-member commission created by the Spanish Minister of Justice to draft Spain's new arbitration act (Law 60 of December 23, 2003). He is admitted to the bars of Colombia, New York (USA), Paris (France) and Madrid (Spain).

Pierre Mayer

Professor and Partner, Dechert LLP, France; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law Pierre Mayer is a partner at the Paris office of Dechert LLP and a professor at the University of Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, where he teaches private international law, arbitration law and the law of contracts since 1984. He practises arbitration, both as counsel and arbitrator, mainly in the fields of international trade, joint ventures and industrial cooperation, oil and gas,

technology transfer and distribution, under the rules of ICSID, ICC and UNCITRAL. President of the French Committee on International Private Law, he is also associate member of the Institut de droit international, a Council member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law and member of the Comité Français de l'Arbitrage. He is a former President of the Committee on International Commercial Arbitration of the International Law Association and former President of the Committee on Private International Law of the International Law of the International Union of Lawyers (UIA). Mr Mayer is the author of numerous articles and several books, including a treatise on Private International Law, "Droit international privé", Montchrestien (first edition 1977, in its ninth edition in collaboration with Professor Vincent Heuzé), and the 2003 General course at the Hague Academy of International Law.

Georgios Petrochilos

Partner, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, France; Avocat à la Cour and Advocate of the Greek Supreme Court

Georgios Petrochilos is a partner in the international arbitration and public international law groups of Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP and is based in the Paris office. He specializes in public international law and international arbitration, with a particular emphasis on energy-related matters. His extensive arbitration experience includes acting as counsel or advisor for numerous clients, under the arbitration rules of the main arbitral institutions.

He has represented governments, international organizations, and private parties on a broad range of cases involving long-term energy contracts, investment protection, boundary disputes, entitlement to natural resources, and immunities from jurisdiction. Mr Petrochilos is a member of the International Arbitration Committee of the International Law Association and a Member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. Together with Jan Paulsson, he has served as advisor to the UNCITRAL Secretariat. He now represents Greece as a delegate to UNCITRAL. He is also a rapporteur for the Institute for Transnational Arbitration.He has published extensively on subjects related to international law and international arbitration. Notably, he is the author of Procedural Law in International Arbitration and co-author of the forthcoming edition of International Chamber of Commerce Arbitration (both at Oxford University Press). He holds degrees from the Universities of Athens, Strasbourg, and Oxford, including a doctorate in international arbitration law. He is fluent in English, French and Greek, and also speaks Dutch and German.

Eric A. Schwartz

Partner, King & Spalding, France; Former Secretary General, ICC International Court of Arbitration; Council Member, ICC Institute of World Business Law

Eric Schwartz is a partner in King & Spalding's Paris office and a member of the International Arbitration Practice Group. He is a former Secretary General of the ICC International Court of Arbitration. Over the last 30 years, he has acted on behalf of some of the world's largest companies, public authorities and sovereign states in international arbitration proceedings in all of the principal European arbitration venues, as well as in Asia and the U.S.

He is the co-author (with Yves Derains) of A Guide to the ICC Rules of Arbitration and is presently a member of the ICC Court as well as being a Council Member of the ICC Institute of World Business Law.

S.I. Strong

Associate Professor of Law, University of Missouri School of Law, Columbia, Missouri, United States; Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution

S.I. Strong is currently Associate Professor of Law at the University of Missouri and Senior Fellow at the awardwinning Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution, having previously taught law at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Prior to joining the faculty at Missouri, Dr Strong was Counsel specializing in international dispute resolution at Baker & McKenzie LLP and a dual-qualified practitioner

(U.S.-England) in the New York and London offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. Dr Strong has acted in arbitral proceedings under a wide range of institutional rules and is listed as a neutral on various national and international rosters. Dr Strong is the author of numerous works on international arbitration, including the award-winning article, The Sounds of Silence: Are U.S. Arbitrators Creating Internationally Enforceable Awards When Ordering Class Arbitration in Cases of Contractual Silence or Ambiguity? 30 Michigan Journal of International Law 1017 (2009), as well as the books Research and Practice in International Commercial Arbitration: Sources and Strategies (2009) and Class Arbitration and Collective Arbitration: Mass Claims in the National and International Sphere (forthcoming), both from Oxford University Press. Dr Strong, who is qualified as a lawyer at the New York and Illinois bars and as a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales, holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Cambridge, a D.Phil. from the University of Oxford, a J.D. from Duke University, an M.P.W. from the University of Southern California and a B.A. from the University of California.

John M. Townsend

Partner, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP, Washington DC, United States

John M. Townsend is a partner in the Washington office of Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP and is chair of that firm's Arbitration and ADR Group. He specializes in international disputes, including complex litigation and arbitration. In February 2008, President Bush appointed Mr Townsend as one of the four American arbitrators on the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes.

He is Chairman of the Board of Directors of the American Arbitration Association. He is a Trustee and a member of the Arbitration and Competition Law Committees of the United States Council for International Business, and chairs the USCIB's Task Force on European Privilege Issues. He is a member of the CPR Panel of Distinguished Neutrals and of CPR's Challenge Review Board. Mr Townsend served as the first chair of the Mediation Committee of the International Bar Association (2005-2006). He is a member of the American Law Institute and of the College of Commercial Arbitrators. He obtained both his B.A. (1968) and his J.D. (1971) from Yale University. He has been with Hughes Hubbard & Reed, in New York, Paris, and Washington, since 1971. He speaks fluent French.

Karim Youssef

Associate Professor of Law, Cairo University, Egypt; Associate, Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, France

Karim Youssef is an associate at the international arbitration group of the law firm of Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. He also lectures private and international law at Cairo University, School of Law, and is non-resident Counsel at the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration. He is also member of the National Law Commission of Egypt (NLC), and the Commission Working Group on the Reform of the Egyptian Arbitration Law.

Dr Youssef holds degrees from Yale Law School, Paris University (Sorbonne) and Cairo University School of Law. His previous positions include acting as Counsel for the Ministry of Justice of Egypt, the Egyptian Capital Market Authority, and the International Human Rights Law Institute of Depaul University in Chicago. He is a member of the ICC Commission on International Arbitration and the Commission Working Group on the Reform of the 1998 ICC Rules. He has served as arbitrator in a number of domestic and international proceedings, ad hoc (UNCITRAL) and institutional. Among his recent publications: "Consent in Context or Fulfilling the Promise of International Arbitration, Multiparty, Multi-contract and Noncontract Arbitration", West, 2009 (Preface by Jan Paulsson); The Death of Inarbitrability, in Loukas Mistelis and Stavros Brekoulakis (eds), Arbitrability: International and Comparative Perspectives, Kluwer Law International 2009; and The Independence of International Arbitrators: An Arbitrators Perspective, ICC Intl. Court of Arb. Bull., 2007 Special Supplement, 2008 (with Professor Ahmed S. El-Kosheri, Former Vice-President of the ICC International Court of Arbitration).