Niels is Senior Director in the Global Competition Law team at Gilead Sciences, Inc. He supports various teams with Antitrust and Competition Law issues, including merger control, review of pricing and commercial strategies, life cycle strategies and supply and distribution agreements.

Prior to joining Gilead, Niels worked at a leading Dutch law firm (based in Brussels, Belgium) and counseled clients on European, Dutch and Belgian Competition Law (Cartel, Abuse, State Aid), European and Dutch Public Procurement Law and European Internal Market Law. He also has experience in commercial and administrative litigation and investigations. Niels graduated in 2005 as Master of Laws from Universiteit Leiden (Netherlands – Dutch Civil and Company Law) and he graduated with honors in 2014 as Master of Laws from Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium – Belgian Law).

Hiram Andrews is the head of antitrust at Novartis and is based in Basel, Switzerland. Hiram joined Novartis in June 2019 and he and his team are responsible for providing antitrust advice on all transactions, investigations, and litigation matters at Novartis. He also is responsible for antitrust compliance and training activities.

Hiram previously was Counsel at Freshfields and had been based in Washington, Brussels, and New York. Prior to joining Freshfields, he worked at the US Antitrust Modernization Commission and the US Federal Trade Commission. Hiram earned a JD from Georgetown University Law Center and a BA from Bowdoin College.

Katharine Missenden specialises in EU competition law across a wide range of industry sectors, including heavy industries, technology, aviation, finance, pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods and retail. Katharine has particular expertise in EU and multi-jurisdictional merger control, EU antitrust investigations, and the implementation of antitrust best practices.

Katharine is also Vice Chair of the Antitrust Corporate Counseling Committee, American Bar Association.

Guides clients in securing U.S. and worldwide competition clearances for complex transactions, including in pharmaceuticals, healthcare and technology.

Jesse is recognized as a prominent antitrust practitioner by Chambers USA, Legal 500 U.S. and Global Competition Review and was named a “D.C. Rising Star” by the National Law Journal.

He routinely represents clients in antitrust investigations of complex, high-profile transactions and in non-merger conduct investigations before the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice. In his M&A advisory practice, Jesse develops global strategies for obtaining competition clearance of transactions across international jurisdictions, with particular experience in transactions in the pharmaceuticals, healthcare, technology, chemicals and consumer products industries. He has been the lead partner for clients in some of the largest and most challenging antitrust investigations in recent history.