It was agreed that the governance structure of the Association should be changed to include an Advisory Panel and a Board. The Advisory Panel should consist of the founding members of the conference and Past Presidents. It is desirable that at least one past President should remain on the Board.

Thomas Wilhelmsson

University of Helsinki, Finland

Thomas Wilhelmsson was Rector and since 1982 Professor of Civil and Commercial Law at the University of Helsinki. Professor Wilhelmsson has published books and articles in thirteen languages in contract law, insurance law, consumer law, the law of partnerships, tort law, European Community law and legal theory. He has been chairing several law drafting committees, dealing with reforms of consumer law, contract law as well as partnership law. He is a member of the Commission on European Contract Law (the Lando-Commission) and the Acquis group.

Sothi Rachagan

Vice Chancellor, Perdana University, Malaysia

Professor Dr Rachagan holds a B.A. (Malaya), M.A (Otago), LL M (Bristol) and PhD (London). He is a Barrister-at-Law (Lincolns Inn) and Advocate and Solicitor of the High Court of Malaya. He was Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Law University of Malaya till 2000 when he became Consumers International’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific. In 2005 he returned to academia and became the Vice President (Academic Affairs), Nilai University. In 2013 he became the Vice Chancellor of Perdana University. He is a Commissioner of the Malaysia Competition Commission and Chairman of its Working Committee on Advocacy. He was elected President of the IACL in 2011.

Iain Ramsay

University of Kent, England

Iain Ramsay is Professor of Law at the University of Kent. His primary areas of research are regulation of consumer markets and consumption relations at the national and international level and consumer bankruptcy. Professor Ramsay has written several books and articles on consumer law and bankruptcy including several empirical studies of consumer bankruptcy, consumer redress and small claims courts. He has acted as a consultant on consumer law and policy to governments and NGOs in Canada, Europe and South America. He was a member of the Canadian Federal Task Force on Personal Insolvency (2000-2002) and is an elected member of the American Law Institute.

Geraint Howells

City University Hong Kong

Geraint Howells is Dean of Law at City University Hong Kong. He was previously Dean at the University of Manchester and Head of the Law School at Lancaster. His work encompasses Product Liability and Safety, and other field such as sales of goods, unfair terms, consumer credit and trade practices. He has a particular interest in European consumer law. Geraint has lectured to academics and practitioners in most regions of the world and regularly acts as a consultant for NGOs, the DTI and the European Commission. He is a member of the Acquis Group that is commissioned to advise the EC on European Contract Law Harmonisation. He has held visiting positions held at Wurzburg, Munster, Paris XI, Tennessee and Sydney Universities. He is a past President of the International Association of Consumer Law.

Thierry Bourgoine

Université du Québec

Thierry Bourgoignie is regular professor of law at UQAM (Université du Québec à Montréal), in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of Louvain in Belgium and a LL.M. degree from the Yale Law School in the United States. After 25 years of academic career in Europe as full professor in Louvain and inviting professor in several European institutions, he joined UQAM in June 2003. He teaches European Law, Consumer Law, Critical Analysis of Private Law, and International and Comparative Consumer Law. For 6 years he acted as the director of a graduate programme in international relations and international law. Between 2009 and 2011, he was appointed Director of the Department of Law within the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences. His publication list comprises more than 20 individual and collective monographs and about 90 published papers. His main research focus has always been and still is consumer protection law and policy. He was elected Chairman of the International Association of Consumer Law from 1998 to 2003. He played a major role in the development of consumer action programmes and the adoption of consumer directives by the European Commission in the 1980s and 1990s. In 2004, he founded at UQAM the research group GREDICC (Groupe de recherche en droit international et comparé de la consummation – www.gredicc.uqam.ca), of which he is the acting director. GREDICC conducts research programmes relating to consumer subject matters, mainly with a comparative and international dimension. It also organizes Summer programmes in national, comparative and international consumer law. Professor Bourgoignie is also acting as a consultant in consumer affairs, product safety and market surveillance, by several international institutions and governments in Europe, South America, the Caribbean countries, the Gulf States and North Africa.

Antonio Benjamin

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Bio

Gabriel Stiglitz

Instituto Argentino de Derecho del Consumidor, La Plata, Argentina

Gabriel Stiglitz Bio