Niels Frank
Partner
Vita
Niels
studied economics with a focus on industrial organisation at the University of
Hamburg and the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel.
Niels
has 20 years of experience working on numerous antitrust matters involving the
assessment of cartel damages (inter alia, cement, car glass, TV advertising,
sugar, trucks, ethylene), the effects of horizontal and non-horizontal mergers
(third party in Telefónica/E-Plus) as well as abuse of dominance cases
concerning conditional rebates, bundling and access to essential facilities.
His industry experience includes fast moving consumer goods, TV-advertising,
retailing, construction materials, business insurance, paper wholesale, airport
infrastructure, telecommunication and services related to the postal sector.
Niels
frequently acts as a party expert in court proceedings providing written and
oral expert statements. In the UK “second wave truck proceedings” Niels
currently (2024) acts as the claimants’ expert on the issues of umbrella
damages, resale pass-on, truck-dependent services pass-on and supply pass-on by
local authorities before the Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT).
Niels
has published papers in the Journal of Competition Law and Economics,
the Journal of European Competition Law and Practice, Zeitschrift für
Wettbewerbsrecht (Journal of Competition Law) and Wirtschaft und
Wettbewerb (Competition Law and Economics). Between 2007 and 2021 Niels has
lectured on competition economics and competition policy at the University of
Bayreuth (Germany). He is a board member of the Competition Litigation Forum
e.V.
Niels is consistently recognized as a thought leader
in the field of competition economics by Lexology/Who’s Who Legal.
In 2023, leading German legal news outlet Juve ranked him 3rd among the
20 most renowned competition economists in Germany.
Dr. Steffen Sirries
Partner
Vita
Steffen is
a highly experienced academic and economic consultant. He regularly supports the
antitrust community by providing expert insights on cartel detection methods,
market dominance, and abuse cases, often working on the intersection of regulation
and economic policy.
His consulting
expertise spans across international cartel litigation, antitrust cases, and regulatory
compliance proceedings, with notable involvement in high-profile cases across
multiple jurisdictions. He has worked extensively on cases such as the European
Trucks Cartel, the Ethylene Purchasing Cartel, the Metal Forging Cartel, and
the German Sugar Cartel. His international consulting engagements include cases
in Germany, the UK, Poland, the Netherlands, Austria, and Hungary providing
economic expertise in diverse regulatory environments.
Steffen regularly
advises on abuse of dominance cases, including the well-known Google Shopping
abuse of dominance case in the digital-platform industry, as well as complex
antitrust discount agreements in sectors such as TV-commercial advertising or
the FMCG sector. His consulting work also extends to regulatory matters,
working closely with national and European competition authorities.
In addition
to his casework, Steffen and his Partners at Lademann & Associates GmbH lead
a team of 10 specialized economists, where they deliver advanced economic
analysis for competition litigation, regulatory proceedings, and market
investigations. His team is regularly involved in providing expert economic
testimony, quantifying damages in cartel cases, and offering strategic advice
to clients in a variety of industries.
He holds a Professorship
in Economics at Kutaisi International University (since 2020), where he
lectures on competition economics, auction theory, empirical methods, as well
as economic principles, bridging the gap between theoretical research and
applied work.
Steffen has
developed significant academic expertise, particularly in the field of international
trade, industrial organization, migration and labor markets, auctions and
incentive mechanisms. His academic work complements his professional advisory
work on national and EU-wide competition issues.
Steffen earned
his PhD in Economics from the University of Bayreuth in 2016, with a
dissertation focused on international trade and migration, using structural and
quantitative methodologies. His educational background includes a degree in
business administration from RWTH Aachen University, with specializations in
business taxation, corporate strategies in competition, and energy and process
engineering.
He is
actively involved in several prestigious associations, including the German
Association of Economists (Verein für Socialpolitik), the European Economic
Association (EEA), the Competition Litigation Forum (c-l-f), the
Studienvereinigung Kartellrecht, the Association of Competition Economists
(ACE), the European Association for Research in Industrial Economics (EARIE) as
well as the Georgian Economic Association (GEA). He is a frequent speaker at
both scientific and business conferences, discussing the latest trends in
competition economics and litigation.
By
combining in-depth academic expertise with practical experience in
international consulting and regulatory work, Steffen has become a trusted
advisor to both private clients and public authorities, providing robust and
rigorous economic analysis and strategic guidance in the rapidly evolving field
of competition law.
Dr. Mitja Kleczka
Principal
Vita
In 2015, Mitja Kleczka
obtained a Master’s degree in international economic consulting from the Aarhus
School of Business and Social Sciences and a Master’s degree in economics from
the Leibniz University Hannover. During his studies he specialized inter alia
in microeconomics (particularly in industrial organization) and econometrics.
In addition, he studied for some time at the Université Grenoble Alpes. After
completing his education, he gained several years of consulting experience in
antitrust and competition cases, notably in the quantification of cartel
damages. In 2019 Mr. Kleczka earned a PhD in economics from the Free University
of Brussels (VUB) with a focus on industrial organization and competition
economics. His dissertation revolved around market power and merger control in
strategic industries. After further research at the VUB’s Department of Applied
Economics, he joined Lademann & Associates in 2021.
Dr. Hyacinthe Deliancourt
Senior Consultant
Vita
Hyacinthe
studied economics at the University of Mannheim and the University of
Constance. At the same time, he studied music at the Trossingen State
University of Music. His academic journey also includes study sojourns at the
University of Manchester and the Aix-Marseille Université. Funded by the Swiss
National Bank SNB, he completed the Swiss Doctoral Program in Economics at the
Study Center Gerzensee and obtained his doctorate degree in the field of
applied microeconomics at the University of St. Gallen. At the invitation of
Benjamin Handel, Hyacinthe conducted research in the fields of health economics
and industrial organization at the University of California Berkeley before
joining Lademann & Associates. In addition to his work as an economic consultant,
Hyacinthe Deliancourt is a lecturer in economics at the University of St.
Gallen.
Katarina Grummel
Senior Consultant
Vita
Katarina Grummel studied economics & law at the
University of Münster and economics at the University of Düsseldorf. She
completed her Master’s degree with a focus on competition economics in 2019.
She also spent some time abroad in the US (California State University Fresno)
as well as in France (Université de Cergy-Pontoise). Ms
Grummel began her career at Lademann & Associates in 2019.
Johannes Hürten
Senior Consultant
Vita
after completing his apprenticeship as an industrial management assistant and his part time education as print media manager, he worked as coordinator in an production agency. He started his studies in 2012 at the University of Hohenheim and graduated with a Master of Economics in 2017. Since 2018 is member of the Lademann & Associates team.
Dr. Mark Le Quement
Senior Consultant
Vita
Mark studied Politics and Economics at the University of Copenhagen,
Institut d’études Politiques in Paris and Université Catholique de Louvain in
Belgium. Finally, he obtained a PhD in economics from the European University
Institute in Florence in 2009. Subsequently, he was a Post Doc in Bonn
and after that an associate Professor in Economics at the University of East
Anglia in the UK. His field of research is in applied microeconomic theory,
with a special focus on the transmission and acquisition of information in the
economy and its consequences. He has published in outlets such as the Journal
of Economic Theory, American Economic Journal: Micro, Journal of Public
Economics, Games and Economic Behaviour. After a brief stint as an Economic
Adviser at the UK Competition and Markets Authority, he recently joined
Lademann and Associates.
Sina Rummelhagen
Senior Consultant
Vita
Sina Rummelhagen studied economics at both the University of Hamburg and Aarhus University in Denmark. After successfully completing her master’s degree with a focus on microeconomics and econometrics, Sina began her consulting career in the field of competition economics at Lademann & Associates in 2013. Since then, she has gained extensive experience in the application of theoretical economic models as well as econometric methods for cartel damage estimation, mergers as well as the analysis of abuse of market power and the design of rebate systems in line with competition law. Sina has advised companies in various industries and sectors such as logistics, construction, automotive, consumer goods, agricultural products and postal services in various projects. After working several years at a well-known German competition consultancy, Sina rejoined Lademann & Associates in the summer of 2023.
Erion Shtjefanaku
Senior Consultant
Vita
Erion Shtjefanaku studied Economics at the University of Tirana, Albania and at the
University of Bonn where he focused on theoretical microeconomics and
competition economics. He joined the Lademann & Associates team in the
beginning of 2021.
Prof. Dr. Rainer P. Lademann
Of Counsel
Vita
Rainer P Lademann is honorary professor at the University of Göttingen where he also studied business administration. There he received a PhD for his studies and his research activities on buying power and market concentration in the food retailing industry. In 1986 he founded Germany’s first company specialised in competition economics. Since then he has been involved in various merger, cartel and abuse of dominance cases in several sectors as well as in regulation cases. He has published more than 60 articles and six books on competition and strategy issues.
His concept for measuring the vertical distribution of market power and market definition in food retailing contributed to impede sector specific regulations against the concentration process in the retail industry. He gave advice in the political decision process as an expert to different committees of the German Parliament as well as for die German Competition Commission (Monopolkommission). While in the 1980s and 1990s Mr Lademann had been focused on most of the bigger merger cases in the food retailing sector of Germany, the last 10 years had been affected by projects in various industries, particularly automotive, food industry, cement, insurance, network industries, paper wholesaling, chemicals, aviation and advertising markets in Germany and Europe. He has also served as an expert in litigations. Due to his university and analytical background Mr Lademann is experienced in understanding competition in different markets and in giving strategy advice in pre or post merger projects as well as in questions of distribution politics (such as in the automotive industry) or for the realignment of the market or pricing strategies of companies.
Prof. Dr. Martin A. Leroch
Scientific Advisory Board
Vita
Martin Leroch is a Professor for Economics and Ethics & Economics at the University of Pforzheim. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of
Hamburg and a Diploma in Economics from the University of Munich. Before
joining Lademann & Associates as a consultant in 2016, Martin was employed
as lecturer at the Universities of Hamburg and Mainz, and as deputy professor
at the University of Halle. His academic expertise covers a wide range of
topics, from Global Economy over Microeconomics to Game Theory and Law &
Economics. As practical competition economist he gained insights into various
industries, such as automotive, mining, payment systems, system catering and
track superstructures.
Kai Petersen
Database & IT Manager
Vita
After his vocational training as retail salesman, Kai Petersen studied business administration at the University of Applied Sciences in Kiel. He started working for the Gesellschaft für Wettbewerbsforschung und Handelsentwicklung in 1998 and is part of the team of Lademann & Associates since its spin-off.
Elvira Bartsch
Accounting - Human Resources
Liane Kulis
Management Assistant