e-Conomics is a network company
The e-Conomics network involves over 20 befriended academics and consultants across Europe and the United States.
The network gravitates around founder/owner Nicolai van Gorp and a core of closely associated friends who gained experience while working for consultancy firms, telecom operators, Internet Companies, and the European Commission.
Nicolai van Gorp
Nicolai studied economics in Maastricht during the 1990’s, after which he lectured at various universities and consulted policy makers and companies on competition policy and regulatory issues. Since 2015, he manages e-Conomics and its network. In addition, he is associate digital strategist at Ngrane.
Nicolai’s work has gradually focussed on competition issues in telecom and digital markets. He wrote a reference document on vertical restraints in e-commerce for the Dutch Competition authority. He laid the foundation for the 2014 EU Recommendation on Relevant Markets. He wrote a landmark study on the challenges for competition policy in the digital economy for the European Parliament. In collaboration with Ecorys and Radicand Economics, Nicolai provided support to VodafoneZiggo based on which it won its appeal against ACM’s joint dominance decision. Finally, together with Paul de Bijl, Nicolai wrote a reference document for the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs on exclusionary conduct by (dominant) digital gatekeepers.
Next to advisory services in relation to competition cases, Nicolai provides executive education on digital platforms at Nyenrode Business University and the National Academy of Finance and Economics. In addition, he provides strategic advice to companies intending to launch their own digital platform. By means of in-house workshops, he educates companies in the principles of platform economics and helps them translate these principles in a business model. These workshops are based on a practical framework for business modelling and strategy of digital platforms which he developed together with Paul de Bijl on the basis of their competition insights.
Paul de Bijl
Dr. Paul de Bijl is founder / owner of Radicand Economics, associate digital strategist at Ngrane, and lecturer (part-time) at the Utrecht University School of Law.
During 2014-2020, Paul was a non-governmental advisor to ACM (unpaid additional position), during 2013-2015 (part-time) visiting professor at the chair of Regulatory Economics at the WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management (Germany), and during 2013-2016 associate partner of economic consultancy Lexonomics. Previously, he worked as head of the Market Regulation sector at the Central Planning Board, research coordinator of TILEC (Tilburg Law and Economics Center, Tilburg University) and policy advisor at the AFEP Directorate of the Ministry of Finance.
Paul obtained his PhD in Economics from Tilburg University under the supervision of Helmut Bester and Eric van Damme. He conducted part of his research in Toulouse under the supervision of Nobel laureate Jean Tirole.
With Professor Martin Peitz (University of Mannheim), Paul wrote the book Regulation and Entry into Telecommunications Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2002; Chinese translation 2006), which received worldwide acclaim from consultancies, regulators and scientists.
Paul has published in various academic journals such as Telecommunications Policy, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Journal of Regulatory Economics and Information, Communication & Society, and is a member of the Editorial Board of Journal of Information Policy.
Gabor Molnar
Dr. Molnar is an engineer and an economist focusing on technological innovations, Data Science, and (big) data-driven policy making. He has over twenty years of experience in business development within the high-tech industry. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Silicon Flatirons at the University of Colorado Boulder (USA), Senior Lecturer at Wittenborg University of Applied Sciences (The Netherlands), and technology evangelist at Divitel (The Netherlands).
Prior to joining the University of Colorado, he was Regional Director for Sales & Business Development at GoBackTV, a cable headend and edge solutions start-up (acquired by Aurora Networks, now part of CommScope). He has a B.Sc. in economics from the Corvinus University of Budapest, an M.Sc. in electrical engineering from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in telecommunications from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Gabor has published in several magazines, including The Journal of Industrial Economics, Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law, Applied Economics, and Digiworld Economic Journal. He is a reviewer for the Journal of Information Economics and Policy and the Review of Industrial Organization.
Harm Aben
Harm is a Director of Incyte Consulting. He is an economist and an experienced telecommunications executive and management consultant with a strong background in telecommunications policy, regulation, strategy, business development, mergers and acquisitions and pricing.
Harm has been active in telecommunications for over 23 years through positions with KPN Telecom, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Continuum and Ovum Consulting. At Ovum, Harm was the Practice Leader of Ovum’s Global Telecoms Regulatory Practice, based in the UK. Harm has a deep understanding of regulatory strategy and policy, interconnection frameworks, NGN and NGA access, service costing, retail pricing, universal service and competition law issues. Harm is also active outside the regulatory area, specifically in pricing, product development, carrier services and support on corporate finance projects.
Recent projects include:
- For the government of Brunei: strategic planning, partner selection, roadshows, due diligence and negotiations on a strategic partnership to affect major changes in the fixed and mobile industry structure of Brunei. EuropeAid funded training and development of supporting guidelines and laws on the weighted average cost of capital and accounting separation to ICTA in Turkey.
- Support on a submission to the regulator on a draft decision to mandate regulated access to cable networks in The Netherlands on behalf of VodafoneZiggo.
- Support to the Belgian cable operators’ association (Cable Belgium) on its response to the sector regulator on the review of the broadband and broadcasting markets.
Development of business cases to assess the impact on the business of various cable network access scenarios for Telenet in Belgium. - Ongoing support (2010 to today) in The Bahamas on topics relevant to the deregulation of the fixed and mobile sectors in The Bahamas, including interconnection, universal service, pricing, accounting separation, disputes etc.
Harm has an MSc in Business Economics and an MSc in Transport Economics, both from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam.
Olga Batura
Dr Olga Batura is a freelance legal expert and policy consultant, consulting in the fields electronic communications law, digital economy law, space law and competition law.
Previously, she was a Senior consultant at Ecorys, a Senior Fellow at the University of Münster, Associate Professor at the Universities of Vilnius (Lithuania), and a post-doc researcher at the Leuphana University of Lüneburg (Germany). She received a PhD degree in law from the University of Bremen and master degrees in European law and public international law from the universities of Hamburg and Bremen.
Olga focuses on the questions of international trade in telecommunications and social regulation of digital and electronic communications markets at the EU and international levels. She has also worked on various topics of public international law and space law, EU competition law, EU law of the internal market and trade-related aspects of the European Neighbourhood Policy as well as researched EU’s privacy and data protection regulation.
