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Fourth Suspension and Debarment Colloquium
September 14, 2017Washington, D.C.
The Fourth Colloquium on Suspension and Debarment showcases recent developments in suspension and debarment systems worldwide, examining the various uses of suspension and debarment in the procurement and anti-corruption contexts.

To view Recordings of the 2017 Colloquium, see Materials tab.

This event is free of charge and is suitable for both general participants and experts.

Panelists will discuss recent trends and developments in the suspension and debarment arena, both at the national and international level, and will compare and contrast a range of national suspension and debarment systems and their impact on small versus large businesses. Panelists will examine the following questions, among others: How has suspension and debarment changed over the years? How are national procurement systems making use of suspension and debarment? How often is suspension and debarment being applied to individuals and small and medium enterprises, and how do their experiences differ from larger corporations? Building on themes discussed in the previous Colloquia, this year’s Colloquium will also examine suspension and debarment as it relates to the development missions of several of the multilateral development banks.

Join representatives from multilateral organizations, government, private sector, non-governmental organizations and academia for a day of roundtable panel discussions and networking.

4th SUSPENSION AND DEBARMENT COLLOQUIUM    
Thursday, September 14, 2017

Morning Session

8:00am - 9:00am

Registration and Light Breakfast – World Bank MC Front Lobby

9:00am - 9:10am

Welcome Message:

Jamieson A. Smith, Acting Chief Suspension and Debarment Officer, World Bank

9:10am - 9:15am

 

Introductory Remarks:

Sandie Okoro, Senior Vice-President and Group General Counsel, World Bank Group

9:15am - 10:35am

 

Roundtable 1: The Times They Are a Changing: Recent Trends and Developments in Suspension & Debarment

Panelists will discuss recent trends and developments in the suspension and debarment arena, including any recent conversations and/or changes within the European Union, the United States, Multilateral Development Banks, and other systems.  How exactly has the use of suspension and debarment changed over the years? Is greater attention being given to suspension and debarment by both procurement practitioners and anti-corruption experts?  Are we seeing an increased focus on suspension and debarment?  If so, why?

Moderator: Steven L. Schooner, Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)

  • Roland Stein, Partner, Blomstein (Germany)
  • Rodney Grandon, Managing Director, Government Services, Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (USA)
  • Caroline Nicholas, Senior Legal Officer, UNCITRAL Secretariat, UN Office of Legal Affairs
  • Olivier Waelbroeck, Director, Central Financial Service, DG Budget, European Commission 

10:35am - 10:50am

Coffee Break

10:50am - 12:05pm

 

Roundtable 2: Looking to the Future: Examining the Growth of National Suspension & Debarment Systems

Panelists will discuss the use of suspension and debarment across a number of different national procurement systems, including any implementation experiences from these jurisdictions. What do these systems look like, and how do they compare to each other?  Is suspension and debarment a new phenomenon in these jurisdictions, or is it a well-established mechanism?  By comparing these different systems, what lessons can be learned as to the purposes and impacts of suspension and debarment? 

Moderator: Sope Williams-Elegbe, Professor of Law, Stellenbosch University (South Africa)

  • Alison Micheli, Lead Counsel, Procurement, Legal Vice Presidency, World Bank 
  • Maria Swaby, Suspension and Debarment Official, United States General Services Administration
  • Michael Bowsher QC, Barrister (England, Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland); Visiting Professor, Dickson Poon School of Law (UK) 
  • Stéphane Bonifassi, Partner, Bonifassi Avocats (France)

Afternoon Session

12:05pm - 1:15pm

Lunch – World Bank MC Preston Lounge

1:15pm - 2:30pm

 

Roundtable 3: Keeping an Eye on the Little Guy: Suspension & Debarment Perspectives of Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises and Individuals

Panelists will discuss suspension and debarment as applied to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and individuals.  How often is suspension and debarment being applied to SMEs and individuals?  How does the SME experience with suspension and debarment differ from larger corporations and entities, particularly in the context of compliance, mitigation, and remedial measures? Are SMEs and individuals being afforded adequate due process?

Moderator: Peter Trepte, Senior Research Fellow, Public Procurement Research Group, University of Nottingham (UK), Littleton Chambers (UK), Grayston & Company (Belgium)

  • Lisa Miller, Integrity Compliance Officer, Integrity Vice Presidency, World Bank Group
  • David Robbins, Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP (USA)
  • Jessica Tillipman, Assistant Dean for Field Placement; Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)
  • John T. Boese, Of Counsel, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (USA)

2:30pm - 2:45pm

Coffee Break

2:45pm - 4:00pm

 

Roundtable 4: Moving Forward: Suspension & Debarment in the Development Context

Panelists will discuss the development missions of the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) and how suspension and debarment fits into those missions.  Given that many MDBs do not suspend or debar for performance-based issues, how exactly is suspension and debarment used by the MDBs?  Is suspension and debarment simply an anti-corruption tool, or can it also encourage capacity development (through, for example, conditional release and a strong focus on compliance and other preventive measures)?  

Moderator: Jamieson A. Smith, Acting Chief Suspension and Debarment Officer, World Bank

  • Christopher R. Yukins, Lynn David Research Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)
  • Juan Gabriel Ronderos, Sanctions Officer, Inter-American Development Bank Group
  • Paul Kearney, Chief Counsel & Enforcement Commissioner, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
  • Akere Muna, Sanctions Commissioner, African Development Bank
  • Giuliana Dunham Irving, Executive Secretary to the World Bank Group Sanctions Board

4:00pm - 6:00pm

Reception – World Bank MC East Dining Room

 

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
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    JOHN T. BOESE

    Of Counsel, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP (USA)
    John T. Boese is a nationally recognized expert on the civil False Claims Act, its unique qui tam enforcement mechanism, and resolving various criminal, civil and debarment/exclusion actions that arise from such cases and investigations. He is the author of Civil False Claims and Qui Tam Actions (Wolters Kluwer Law & Business 4th ed.), a two-volume treatise on the civil False Claims Act and qui tam enforcement at both the federal and state levels. Mr. Boese is of counsel in Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson’s Washington, D.C. office, where he has represented, and continues to represent, a broad range of defendants in False Claims Act cases brought by qui tam relators or by the Department of Justice, and in debarment or exclusion proceedings arising from such investigations. He was vice chair of the ABA Debarment and Suspension Committee, and recently was named as an Advisor to the American Law Institute (ALI) project on Principles of Law, Compliance, Enforcement and Risk Management for Corporations, Non-Profits and Other Organizations. Mr. Boese served as a trial attorney at the Department of Justice from 1972 to 1977. He lectures frequently to private and public groups on civil and criminal fraud issues.
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    STÉPHANE BONIFASSI

    Partner, Bonifassi Avocats (France)
    With more than 25 years of court experience, Stéphane Bonifassi is described by Who’s Who Legal as a “dean of the Parisian Bar” for his intrinsic ability to work in various courts (civil and criminal) in France, with corresponding proceedings abroad, and to successfully manage litigation involving complex financial crimes, including major international corruption cases. He has also been called “an exemplary practitioner who knows his trade inside-out.” He has been recognized as “most highly regarded” by Who’s Who Legal: Asset Recovery 2015 and 2016 and was named a Thought Leader in 2017. He is also considered “most highly regarded” by Who’s Who Legal: Business Crime Defence 2015, 2016 and 2017. He was ranked by Chambers in 2017 in the Dispute Resolution – White Collar Crime category. He has served as president of the Criminal Law Commission of the International Association of Lawyers (UIA), as well as co-chair of the Business Crime Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA).
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    MICHAEL BOWSHER QC

    Barrister (England, Northern Ireland & Republic of Ireland); Visiting Professor, King’s College London (UK)
    Michael Bowsher has a busy practice in public procurement, competition and commercial law, particularly in disputes concerning major public and public-private projects. He is particularly known for his unique practice in regulated procurement in the United Kingdom, Ireland, elsewhere in the EU and beyond. Mr. Bowsher has appeared as counsel in many of the major procurement cases over more than a decade. He is also heavily involved in providing advice on procurement law and practice in non-contentious situations. He is also increasingly involved in matters involving application and interpretation of investment treaties and trade agreements. Mr. Bowsher is on the Editorial board of the European Procurement and Private Partnership Law Review. He is a Visiting Professor at King’s College London, where he teaches EU Public Procurement on the LLM degree course and is director for the new distance learning diploma in Public Procurement Law which has had a very successful first year. It now develops as students move into the masters year and new students join the second running of the diploma year.
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    GIULIANA DUNHAM IRVING

    Executive Secretary to the World Bank Group Sanctions Board
    Giuliana Dunham Irving is the current Executive Secretary to the World Bank Group Sanctions Board. She has been with the Sanctions Board Secretariat since October 2016. Ms. Dunham Irving joined the World Bank Group in 2006 as an Institutional Integrity Officer in the Institutional Integrity Department (now the Integrity Vice Presidency). From 2008 to 2012, she held the position of Senior Counsel in the Legal Department’s Institutional Administration Unit. From 2012 to 2014, she served as Senior Counsel and Special Assistant to the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group. From 2014 to September 2016, she held the position of Senior Counsel for Sanctions Policy in the Legal Operations Policy Unit. Ms. Dunham Irving received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 1992, and completed her undergraduate studies in economics at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York and Universita’ Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Ms. Dunham Irving began her legal career as a litigation associate with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she served as a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section of the United States Department of Justice and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.
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    RODNEY GRANDON

    Managing Director, Government Services, Affiliated Monitors, Inc. (USA)
    Rodney Grandon is the Managing Director, Monitoring Services (Washington, D.C.) for Affiliated Monitors, Inc. Mr. Grandon retired from the United States Government in 2017 after serving as a member of the Senior Executive Service with the Department of the Air Force and the US Coast Guard. Immediately prior to his retirement, Mr. Grandon was the Air Force Deputy General Counsel for Contractor Responsibility. In that capacity, he served as the Air Force’s Suspending and Debarring Official (SDO), exercising authority to exclude contractors from the federal marketplace and, when appropriate, working with contractors to help them understand their operational risks, enhance their internal controls, and promote robust ethics and compliance programs. Mr. Grandon’s government career started with over ten years active military duty in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Following his military service, Mr. Grandon spent eight years in private practice with Patton Boggs LLP (now Squire Patton Boggs) and King & Spalding, focusing on government contracts and litigation. In this capacity, he worked with companies to achieve success in the federal marketplace and, when necessary, to advance their positions through litigation.
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    PAUL KEARNEY

    Chief Counsel & Enforcement Commissioner, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
    Paul Kearney was appointed Enforcement Commissioner at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2015, having joined the Bank in 1998. Prior to that, he worked for Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, in London, and for McCann Fitzgerald, in Dublin and in London. At EBRD, Mr. Kearney has worked on a wide range of matters, including the financing and restructuring of EBRD projects, the development of EBRD’s carbon credit product line, a range of contentious, enforcement and criminal cases, as well as on institutional and HR matters. Mr. Kearney also worked as Assistant Company Secretary, while on secondment with the GPA Group. Mr. Kearney holds a B.A. (Mod. Leg. Sci.) and an M.A. from Trinity College, Dublin. He was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1988 and has been admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales since 1996.
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    ALISON MICHELI

    Lead Counsel, Procurement, Legal Vice Presidency, World Bank
    Alison Micheli is a Lead Counsel for Procurement in the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency and in that capacity provides legal advice on operational procurement matters and public procurement reform. Ms. Micheli represents the Legal Vice Presidency on the Global Support Team for UN Agencies Engagements and until recently served as an internal member of the World Bank Group Sanctions Board. Previously, from 2008 to 2010, she served as Secretary to the Group Sanctions Board. Prior to joining the World Bank in 1999, Ms. Micheli was in private practice in Washington, D.C., working in the area of government contracts.
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    LISA K. MILLER

    Integrity Compliance Officer, Integrity Vice Presidency, World Bank Group
    Lisa K. Miller is the Integrity Compliance Officer in the Integrity Compliance Office of the World Bank Group’s Integrity Vice Presidency. She previously was a Senior Counsel in the World Bank’s Legal Vice Presidency. Prior to joining the World Bank, she was in private legal practice in the United States, where her practice focused on public procurement, sanctions and integrity compliance matters. She is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (B.S.), The George Washington University Law School (J.D.) and Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M.).
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    AKERE T. MUNA

    Sanctions Commissioner, African Development Bank
    Akere T. Muna is the founder and former President of Transparency International (TI) Cameroon. Called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1978, he is a lawyer by training. In 2007-2008, he was appointed a member of the independent High-Level Audit Panel of the African Union (AU). From 2008 to 2014, he was President of the African Union’s Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC). He is a former President of the Pan African Lawyers Union (2005-2014) and former President of the Cameroon Bar Association. He is a former member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Advisory Group for Sub-Saharan Africa (2010). In January 2010, he was elected for a 4-year term to the Panel of Eminent Persons, which oversees the African Peer Review process; he later became the Chairperson until the end of his term in 2014. Akere Muna is a member of the Governing Board of the Africa Governance Institute and serves since 2013 as a member of the High Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows from Africa chaired by former South African President, Thabo Mbeki. He is currently the first ever Sanctions Commissioner of the African Development Bank. He was actively involved in the TI working group that helped draft the AU Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption. He authored a guide to the Convention. He was elected Vice-Chair of TI’s Board in 2005 and again in 2008 and 2011. His term ended in 2014. Since then, he serves as Chair of the Council of the International Anti-Corruption Conference (IACC). The IACC is the world’s premier anti-corruption global forum for bringing together heads of state, civil society, the private sector and more. He was appointed Chairperson of the Board of Directors of ECOBANK Cameroon as of February 2017. In February 2017, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF) appointed Akere Muna to Chair its very first Vetting Panel.
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    CAROLINE NICHOLAS

    Senior Legal Officer, UNCITRAL Secretariat, UN Office of Legal Affairs
    Caroline Nicholas is a Senior Legal Officer with the International Trade Law Division of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs (the UNCITRAL Secretariat). She serves as Secretary to the UNCITRAL Working Group, including that on Procurement and Infrastructure Development, which drafted the UNCITRAL Model Law on Public Procurement (issued in 2011). She has provided legal and policy advice and works in partnership with other international bodies, such as the World Bank, other MDBs, the WTO, OSCE and OECD. She provides regular technical assistance to national governments in all regions. Ms. Nicholas previously advised on international war damage claims at the UN Compensation Commission, was an UN internal investigator, and has practised law in the City of London and Hong Kong. She is a Solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong, an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and the Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Vienna International School. She is a member of the Editorial Board of the Public Procurement Law Review and regular contributor to it and other journals.
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    SANDIE OKORO

    Senior Vice-President and Group General Counsel, World Bank Group
    Sandie Okoro, a British national, was appointed Senior Vice-President and Group General Counsel for the World Bank Group in February 2017. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she had been a General Counsel of HSBC Global Asset Management and Deputy General Counsel of HSBC Retail Banking and Wealth Management since 2014, prior to which she was Global General Counsel at Barings. Ms. Okoro qualified first as a barrister and then re-qualified and trained as a solicitor. In July 2014, Ms. Okoro was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Law by City University London in recognition of her career in business and law, and her voluntary work. Ms. Okoro has received several accolades in the United Kingdom and Europe for her work and volunteer efforts. Ms. Okoro is named in the Powerlist 2015 as the fourth most influential black person in Britain. Ms. Okoro received the 2014 Chambers Europe Award for Excellence in the category for Outstanding Contribution to the Legal Profession. In March 2014, Ms. Okoro was named by the Guardian Newspaper as one of 10 women who are changing the face of the City. She was named in the Autumn 2015 edition of Brummell Magazine, as one of the top Inspirational Women in the City who are Champions of Diversity. In May 2016 Ms. Okoro was named by City AM as one of the Power 100 Women, and in June 2016 she was named in position number 30, as one of the Financial Times’s Upstanding 100 Leading Ethnic Minority Executives. Most recently, in July 2016, Ms. Okoro was named as one of the 100 Women to Watch by the Female FTSE Board 2016, and in November 2016, she received a lifetime achievement award from the UK’s Black Solicitors’ Network. A leader in her field, Ms. Okoro was appointed in July 2011 to the Management Board and the Panel of Experts of The Hague-based Panel of Recognized International Market Experts in Finance (P.R.I.M.E.), which assists with the settlement of international disputes on complex financial transactions. She played a leadership role during the financial crisis particularly in respect to the mitigation of counterparty risk exposure. In late 2013, Ms. Okoro became a council member of the Human Rights organization, JUSTICE. From 2010 to 2016, Ms. Okoro was ambassador for the Law Society of England and Wales Diversity Access Scheme. From January to June 2014, Ms. Okoro was President of International Lawyers of Africa (ILFA), having previously been an ILFA director for many years. In November 2014, Ms. Okoro was appointed to the Board and elected as a Governor of the Royal Shakespeare Company. During 2016, Ms. Okoro was also on the Equality Standards Panel of the Premier League. On July 18, 2017, Ms. Okoro was made an Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple.
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    DAVID ROBBINS

    Partner, Crowell & Moring LLP (USA)
    David Robbins is a partner in the government contracts group of Crowell & Moring, LLP where he focuses his practice on procurement fraud investigation, suspension and debarment defense, and mandatory disclosures. He also regularly advises private equity funds on the unique requirements of government contracting. Mr. Robbins ran the U.S. Air Force’s global procurement fraud remedies office and served as an acting suspending and debarring official and Deputy General Counsel. David has worked on and supervised thousands of suspension and debarment cases in his career, as both a government lawyer and private practice attorney.
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    JUAN GABRIEL RONDEROS

    Sanctions Officer, Inter-American Development Bank Group
    Juan Gabriel Ronderos is a Canadian-Colombian citizen with a law degree from Universidad de los Andes, a Specialization in Taxation from the same university, and an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada. Since October 2010, he has served as the Sanctions Officer for the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group) in Washington, D.C. In this position, he acts as the first instance reviewer of the IDB Group’s two-tier Sanctions System. As Sanctions Officer, he is in charge of adjudicating cases of Prohibited Practices brought forward by the Office of Institutional Integrity (OII), related to allegations that corporations and/or individuals have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, collusive and/or obstructive practices, all according to the IDB Group’s Sanctions Procedures. If warranted, the Sanctions Officer imposes appropriate sanctions. His determinations can be appealed before the IDB Group’s Sanctions Committee. Prior to joining the IDB Group, Mr. Ronderos was the Regional Team Leader for the Latin America and the Caribbean investigative team at the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT). After joining the World Bank in 2003, Mr. Ronderos participated in different units of INT, including the South Asia investigative team where he conducted investigations in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, among other countries. Prior to his work for the two Multilateral Development Banks, Mr. Ronderos worked for KPMG Forensics in Canada and in the United States, where he held the level of director. Mr. Ronderos’ career started in the early nineties in Colombia where he held different posts, ranging from being a front line investigator at the Attorney General’s office to commanding a special task force in charge of investigating money laundering and financial crimes related to the drug cartels. Later, Mr. Ronderos worked in academia in Canada as Assistant Director for the Nathanson Center for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption at Osgoode Hall Law School. Mr. Ronderos speaks frequently at national and international events about the IDB’s Sanctions System and international anti-corruption issues. He has been an adjunct professor on taxation at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, guest lecturer on organized crime at Osgoode Hall Law School, and guest lecturer on corruption and international development at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, American University and Georgetown in Washington D.C., and Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy. Mr. Ronderos has published on issues related to law enforcement, transnational organized crime and corruption in international development.
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    STEVEN L. SCHOONER

    Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)
    Steven L. Schooner is the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law and Co-Director of the Government Procurement Law Program at The George Washington University Law School, where he previously served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Before joining the faculty, Professor Schooner was the Associate Administrator for Procurement Law and Legislation (a Senior Executive Service position) at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He previously tried cases and handled appeals in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice. He also practiced with private law firms and, as an Active Duty Army Judge Advocate, served as a Commissioner at the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals. As an Army Reserve officer, he served for more than fifteen years as an Adjunct Professor in the Contract and Fiscal Law Department of the Judge Advocate General's School of the Army, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Outside of the United States, he has advised hundreds of government officials on public procurement issues, either directly or through multi-government programs. His dispute resolution experience includes service as an arbitrator, mediator, neutral, and ombudsman. Professor Schooner received his Bachelors degree from Rice University, Juris Doctor from the College of William and Mary, and Master of Laws (with highest honors) from the George Washington University. He is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), a recipient of NCMA’s Charles A. Dana Distinguished Service Award, a Certified Professional Contracts Manager (CPCM), and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Procurement Round Table. He is a Faculty Advisor to the American Bar Association’s PUBLIC CONTRACT LAW JOURNAL and a member of the GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR Advisory Board. He is author or co-author of numerous publications including THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS REFERENCE BOOK: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE LANGUAGE OF PROCUREMENT (now in its fourth edition). Professor Schooner’s recent scholarship is available through the Social Science Research Network at http://ssrn.com/author=283370. On Twitter, @ProfSchooner.
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    JAMIESON A. SMITH

    Acting Chief Suspension and Debarment Officer, World Bank
    Jamieson Smith is the Acting Chief Suspension and Debarment Officer for the World Bank and Senior Counsel (Sanctions), managing the Bank’s Office of Suspension and Debarment (OSD). In this role, he reviews sanctions cases and determines whether to suspend the contracting eligibility of respondent firms and individuals. Mr. Smith has spoken on multilateral institutions’ approach to anti-corruption at various domestic and international conferences, including ones in Brazil, Italy, South Africa, Singapore and the United Kingdom. Before coming to OSD in March 2010, Mr. Smith was an attorney at Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he represented corporations and individuals in a wide variety of white collar criminal and regulatory matters, including alleged violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He has conducted internal investigations in China, Egypt, Indonesia, Brazil, Croatia, Italy and Czechia, and also advised clients with respect to compliance and corporate governance issues. Prior to joining Cadwalader, Mr. Smith was an attorney at Lewis Baach PLLC and at Venable LLP. A native of Massachusetts, Mr. Smith received his A.B., cum laude, from Duke University, and his J.D., magna cum laude, from Duke University's School of Law, where he was a member of Law & Contemporary Problems. He also earned his M.A. in American Legal History from the University of Virginia.
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    ROLAND STEIN

    Partner, Blomstein (Germany)
    Dr. Roland M. Stein specialises in public procurement law and international trade law. In the area of public procurement, he advises both contracting authorities and bidders. Most of his clients that are contracting authorities are federal ministries or contractors in the fields of finance and energy. He has considerable experience with regard to public procurement compliance and self-cleaning. This includes advising on sanctions imposed by the World Bank and other multilateral development banks as well as contentious and advisory matters on comparable sanctions at EU as well as national level. Roland Stein also advises companies in all areas of international trade law, including export controls and sanctions law as well as general EU law. Before founding Blomstein, Roland Stein worked nearly ten years at Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Berlin, in his last position as Counsel. Roland Stein studied law at the Universities of Heidelberg and Leeds and earned his LL.M. Eur. at the University of Frankfurt, where he also wrote his doctoral thesis on an EU law topic. In his studies, he focused on EU law and public international law. Roland Stein is half German and half Brazilian and grew up in São Paulo, Brazil.
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    MARIA SWABY

    Suspension and Debarment Official, United States General Services Administration
    Maria Swaby is the Suspension and Debarment Official (SDO) for the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA). As SDO, Ms. Swaby takes appropriate suspension, debarment or other administrative actions with government-wide effect to protect the Federal Government’s interests. In addition, Ms. Swaby supports GSA’s Senior Procurement Executive on a variety of acquisition policy and government contracts issues. Ms. Swaby is also GSA’s Agency Protester Official (APO) and she hears and decides protests filed at the agency level. Prior to the SDO and APO positions, Ms. Swaby was the Director, Suspension & Debarment and Contract Remedies Division for GSA. In that role, Ms. Swaby was responsible for the management and oversight of GSA’s suspension and debarment program, and the agency protest, eligibility determination, task order, and metrication ombudsman functions. Ms. Swaby received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and French from the University of Connecticut and a Juris Doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law. Ms. Swaby studied for one year in Rouen, France, during college, and for one semester in Aix-en-Provence, France, during law school. She also has an LL.M. degree from The George Washington University Law School. Ms. Swaby is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association, the American Bar Association - Public Contracts Law Section, and the National Contract Management Association. She is a former co-chair of the ABA Suspension & Debarment Subcommittee, speaks regularly on the topic of suspension and debarment to the legal, government, contractor and public procurement communities, and serves as a consultant to foreign governments on their suspension and debarment systems.
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    JESSICA TILLIPMAN

    Assistant Dean for Field Placement; Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)
    Jessica Tillipman is the Assistant Dean for Field Placement and Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she teaches an anti-corruption and compliance course. Dean Tillipman is also a Senior Editor of “The FCPA Blog”—a leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resource on the internet. She also regularly advises foreign governments and companies on anti-corruption and compliance issues. Prior to joining GW Law, Dean Tillipman was an associate in Jenner & Block’s Washington, D.C. office, where she was member of the firm’s Government Contracts and White Collar Criminal Defense and Counseling practice groups. She joined Jenner & Block after serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Dean Tillipman graduated cum laude from Miami University in Oxford, OH and obtained her J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School.
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    PETER TREPTE

    Senior Research Fellow, Public Procurement Research Group, University of Nottingham (UK); Littleton Chambers (UK); Grayston & Company (Belgium)
    Peter Trepte is a practicing barrister with Littleton Chambers in London and of Counsel to Grayston & Company in Brussels. He is a Senior Fellow in Public Procurement Law at the University of Nottingham and Head of the Unit on Corruption and Public Procurement. In the case of regulated procurement, he advises and represents public and private sector clients on issues of EU procurement rules as well as on the application of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and the effect on the procurement rules of the European Commission’s preferential trade arrangements. At the international level, he has extensive and wide geographical experience in public procurement reform. He has lectured and published widely on public procurement issues and is the author of Public Procurement in the EU, 2nd edition (OUP, 2007) and Regulating Procurement (OUP, 2004).
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    OLIVIER WAELBROECK

    Director, Central Financial Service, DG Budget, European Commission
    Olivier Waelbroeck holds a Master's in International Business Law (LL.M.) from the London School of Economics (Foreign and Commonwealth Scholarship) and is a law graduate from the Université Libre de Bruxelles. After spending several years at the Court of Justice of the EU (Cabinet of a judge and later of the President), he joined the European Commission in 2005 first as part of the Secretariat General and later of the Directorate-General for Budget, where he was appointed assistant to Director General (2009), Head of Unit "Financial Regulations" (2011) and Director of the Central Financial Service (2015). Mr. Waelbroeck is one of the two permanent Members of the EU Exclusion Panel representing the European Commission as the owner of the EU Early Detection and Exclusion System (EDES).
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    SOPE WILLIAMS-ELEGBE

    Professor of Law, Stellenbosch University (South Africa)
    Sope Williams-Elegbe is a Professor of Law and the deputy director of the African Procurement Law Unit, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. She specializes in public procurement law, anti-corruption law, international economic law, development law and commercial law. She is the author of several publications in the areas of international trade, anti-corruption and public procurement, including the books: Fighting Corruption in Public Procurement: A Comparative Analysis of Disqualification or Debarment Measures (Hart, 2012) and Public Procurement and Multilateral Development Banks: Law, Practice and Problems (Bloomsbury/Hart 2017). Professor Williams-Elegbe was a member of the World Bank’s International Advisory Group on Procurement (IAGP) from 2008-2011. She is currently a member of Transparency International’s Working Group on Debarment and Exclusion, and has been involved in advising international institutions and government bodies on procurement and anti-corruption matters. She has at various times served as a consultant/trainer to the OECD, UNECA, UNDP, UNODC, Nigerian and South African governments, amongst others. Prior to joining Stellenbosch University, she worked at the universities of Stirling, Nottingham and Lagos.
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    CHRISTOPHER R.YUKINS

    Lynn David Research Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)
    Christopher R. Yukins serves as Co-Director of the Government Procurement Law Program at The George Washington University Law School, and has taught there on contract formations and performance issues in public procurement, bid protests and claims litigation, state and local procurement, anti-corruption issues, foreign contracting, procurement reform, and comparative and international law. He has spoken as a guest lecturer at institutions around the world, and he was a contributing editor to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime manual, Guidebook on Anti-Corruption in Public Procurement. He is an active member of the Public Contract Law Section of the American Bar Association, and is a member of the Procurement Roundtable, an organization of senior members of the U.S. procurement community. He is a faculty advisor to the Public Contract Law Journal, is a member of the editorial board of the European Procurement & Public-Private Partnership Law Review, and is on the advisory board of The Government Contractor. He has worked on a wide array of international projects on capacity-building in procurement, and he was an advisor to the U.S. delegation to the working group on reform of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Procurement Law. Together with Professors Steven Schooner and Karen Thornton, he runs a colloquium series on procurement reform at The George Washington University Law School. In private practice, Professor Yukins has been an associate, partner and counsel at leading national firms; he is currently counsel to the firm of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.
EVENT DETAILS
  • Date: September 14, 2017
  • Time: 9:00am to 6:00pm
  • Location: The World Bank, 1818 H St. NW, Washington DC 20433
  • Room: Preston Auditorium
  • CONTACT: Haiyue Xue
  • hxue1@worldbank.org
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