Rudie Vella is the Director (Market Surveillance) within the Maltese authority responsible for consumer affairs and competition – the MCCAA. He leads the Directorate on all aspects of the monitoring and enforcement of product safety and pesticides control legislation. Rudie is a mechanical engineer by profession, an accredited lead auditor and specialises in conformity assessments and advanced materials.

Having worked in global and international companies within the pharmaceutical and gas industries, he has comprehensive experience spearheading projects with colleagues around the globe to reach a common objective. Rudie believes that building trust, sound problem-solving skills and participant engagement are amongst the most important ingredients that made the projects he led a success.

Rudie later joined the public sector as a senior manager at the MCCAA, where he strengthened further the risk-based thinking and evidence-based approach adopted by the Authority. This led to the successful achievement of internationally recognised accreditations and certifications. In his current role as director, Rudie adopts the same approach vis-à-vis market surveillance with a vision to have a market where consumer welfare is enhanced and fair trading prevails. He is convinced that some product safety issues can only be addressed concretely through collective effort by Member States, such as through CASP activities. Under his direction, the MCCAA has received a special recognition by the European Commission for the number of measures taken for samples collected during these coordinated activities.

Deborah Wautier works for CEN and CENELEC, the European Committee for Standardization and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, where she is responsible for the engagement of key stakeholders in European standardization, while closely liaising with the CEN and CENELEC Members.

Since 2019, Deborah supports the inclusiveness, diversity & transparency of the system by leading projects to further enhance the participation of European Partners, Civil Society, SMEs, Industry, as well as developing and coordinating the CEN and CENELEC activities to bring a Gender-responsive perspective in the European Standardization System.

She has a background in Applied Linguistics and has worked for the Council of European Municipalities and Regions as the officer for Statutory Affairs and Service to Members.

Hugo Weber is serving as Director of Public Affairs for Mirakl, the global leader of marketplace software solutions. Mirakl provides the best-in-class technology, expertise and ecosystem to retailers and B2B players to fight back against tech giants.

As a seasoned public policy professional, Hugo is working alongside legislators at local and European level to shape an efficient regulation, which allows room for innovation and competition.

Before joining Mirakl, Hugo worked at Danone, the FCMG leader and headed McKinsey & company’s French Office external communications for 5 years.