Alan S. Abrahams is an Associate Professor in the Department of Business Information Technology, Pamplin College of Business, at Virginia Tech, and an Associate Director of the Executive PhD Program.  He is also a member of the Affiliated Faculty at the Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Center for Injury Research and Policy.

Dr. Abrahams's primary research interest is in developing text analytic techniques for detecting product safety concerns. His research has analyzed consumer postings for multiple Fortune 50 and NYSE-listed retailers and manufacturers, and has addressed diverse industries including, amongst others, consumer products, home appliances, food, over-the-counter medicines, medical devices, and automotive.

Dr Abrahams is a Senior Editor of Decision Support Systems, and has published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in diverse journals, including Decision Support Systems, Production & Operations Management, Risk Analysis, Safety Science, and others.

Dr Abrahams began his teaching career in the Department of Informatics at the University of Pretoria.  He subsequently taught undergraduate and MBA classes for in the Operations and Information Management Department at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.  He has taught on the Business Information Technology program at Virginia Tech since 2007, again at both the undergraduate and Executive MBA levels.  Dr Abrahams has also held a Bualuang ASEAN Fellowship from Thammasat University, Thailand. 

Dr Abrahams holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, and has a Bachelor of Business Science degree with honors in Information Systems from the University of Cape Town.

Ms. Acoca joined the OECD in 2005, where she is Head of the Consumer Policy Unit. She is responsible for the activities of the OECD Committee on Consumer Policy and its Working Party on Consumer Product Safety related to empowering and protecting consumers in the global and digital transformation, and the green transition. Key work streams focus on addressing dark commercial patterns online, assessing the impact of artificial intelligence and the internet of things on consumer policy and product safety, strengthening online product safety and product recalls frameworks, nudging consumers toward greener choices, and improving the evidence base for consumer policy making, drawing on behavioural insights.

Prior to joining the OECD, Ms. Acoca practiced competition law for five years as attorney in international law firms in Brussels and Paris. She holds a Master of European Institutional and Competition Law from the College of Europe (LLM, Bruges, Belgium) and a postgraduate degree (DEA) in European and Private International law from University Paris II Panthéon-Assas (France).

Olivier Andrault has more than 20 years of experience in defending the consumers’ right for informed choices, safe food products, cosmetics and detergents.  Trained as an engineer in food technology, he worked for 11 years in the dairy industry as quality manager and was later in charge of regulation and public affairs. He has been working for 17 years at UFC – Que. He conducted many studies on food labelling, GMOs, antibiotics, school canteens, price of food products, quality of tap water, food marketing and its impact on children ...  He represents consumers’ interests with the administrations and the Parliament at French and European levels.