Dr Willard Mwemba is the Director and Chief Executive Officer of the COMESA Competition Commission, a position he has held since November 2021, following his appointment after holding the position in an acting capacity from February to November the same year. The COMESA Competition Commission is responsible for both Competition regulation and consumer protection in the Common Market.  Prior to that he was Head of the Mergers and Acquisitions Division at the same institution for 7 years. Dr Mwemba previously worked for the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Zambia for 7 years where he rose through the ranks to become Director of Mergers and Monopolies until he left in 2013. During his employee at the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in Zambia, he also worked in the Consumer Division where he handled several cases that had direct impact on consumers especially the poor.  With more than 16 years’ experience in competition and consumer law enforcement, Dr Mwemba has been key in the enforcement of the COMESA Competition Regulations in the Common Market as well as in development of competition and consumer protection laws in some Member States. He drove the process of drafting, inter alia, the COMESA Competition Mergers Operations Manual, Merger Investigation Procedures, COMESA Merger Assessment Guidelines and amendments to the COMESA Merger Notification Form 12. Further, Dr Mwemba was instrumental and led the team that amended the Rules on the COMESA Merger Notification Thresholds and Merger Filing Fees. Dr Mwemba continues to play a key role in the development of competition and consumer protection laws, guidelines and operational manuals in the Member States and providing support to other Regional Economic Communities in the development of such enforcement tools.   He has written extensively about competition law and has spoken at several high profile for a and he is usually invited as a guest lecturer on the subject at Universities and Colleges in Zambia and beyond.   Dr Mwemba holds several qualifications among them two Bachelor’s degrees with specialisation in Law and Economics from the University of Zambia, a Masters degree in European Union Competition Law from Kings College; London and a PhD in Competition Law from the University of Cape Town. 

Stefan Naumann is Director Legal Business Partner Team at Zalando. Since joining Zalando in 2015, he oversees legal topics related to national and international business law, consumer law and IP law relevant to the 25 European markets where Zalando operates. Prior to this, he was Vice President Legal for Air Berlin, the airline company where he started his private sector career in 2006.   Stefan Naumann holds a Doctorate in Law from the University of Cologne. He is a member of the Legal Committee of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK).  

Bogomil Nikolov is a PhD in Economics from the Business Faculty of the University of National and World Economy in Sofia. He also holds MsC degrees of Political Sciences and Business Administration from Sofia University and University “Erasmus” Rotterdam.

As of 1999 he is working as an Executive Director of the Bulgarian National Association Active Consumers (BNAAC).

Dr. Nikolov is a Member of the Bulgaria Economic and Social Council, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Bulgarian National Council for Consumer Protection and was a member of the European Consumer Consultative Group. He also represent BNAAC at many international organizations such as Consumers International, BEUC (European Consumer Organization), ICRT (International Consumer Research and Testing) and TACD (Transatlantic Consumer Dialog).

During his over twenty years professional experience at BNAAC, he has had the opportunity to coordinate many national and international projects in the field of consumer protection. Bogomil has also been involved in education and training programmes organized by the Institute Public Administration in Sofia and TAIEX services of the EC in Brussels.