Session C1. International Regulatory Co-operation

- Felipe Duarte
Vice-Minister for Competitiveness, Mexico

Felipe Duarte Olvera was named Vice-Minister of Competitiveness and Standards of the Ministry of Economy, by the President of Mexico on 17 September 2008. Previously, he held the post of Technical Secretary of the Economic Cabinet and Competitiveness in the Office of the President. In 2006, he collaborated in the transition team of President Calderon, in the process of reception of the Federal Public Administration. Previously, he worked for McKinsey and Co., and in the Office of Public Policies of the President’s Office. Felipe Duarte holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Businesses School of Harvard University, and he has a Bachelor Degree in Administration and Public Accountancy from ITAM in Mexico. He is the author of “Strategic Administration of costs as basis for obtaining competitive advantages”, published by the Mexican Institute of Public Accountants.

- Michael Fitzpatrick

Associate Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, United States

Michael Fitzpatrick currently serves as the Associate Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), where he helps to lead the Obama Administration's development of regulatory policy and White House review of significant Executive Branch regulatory actions. President Obama has also appointed him to the governing council of the Administrative conference of the United States (ACUS).  During the Presidential Transition, he served as deputy lead of the Executive Office of the President and Government Operations Agency Review Teams. Previously, he was a partner in the the Washington, D.C. office of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP, and an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C. During the Clinton Administration, he served as a Senior Advisor to the OIRA Administrator.  Mr. Fitzpatrick clerked for Judge William Norris on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after graduating with distinction from Stanford Law School. He holds a M.A. in American History from the University of Virginia and a B.A. from Brown University.

- Simon Holland

Policy officer, Directorate General Enterprise & Industry, International Affairs Unit, European Commission

Simon Holland joined the European Commission in 1989 after spending eleven years in the private sector working in the information and communication technology industry. He currently works in the Enterprise and Industry DG where he is responsible for regulatory cooperation with the United States via the High-Level Regulatory Cooperation Forum and for relations with Canada, where he leads negotiations for a regulatory cooperation chapter in the proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Prior to this, he was head of the strategic planning department. Before joining his current DG, he worked in the Information Society DG, initially in the research area and later in the trans-european telecommunications networks programme.

- Benoit Turcotte

Director, Regulatory Affairs Division, Treasury Board of Canada

Benoit D. Turcotte was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1998 after completing his studies at the University of Ottawa.  He practiced insurance law before joining the federal government at the Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy.  A brief stint at the Corporate Law Policy Directorate of the Department of Industry was followed by work at the Privy Council Office, Regulatory Affairs Division, where he managed the Cabinet Committee Operations group that advises the Treasury Board Cabinet Committee on various regulatory matters.  During his time at the Privy Council Office, he was involved in the development of various initiatives under the Federal Government’s Smart Regulation Initiative.  More recently, he was Manager of the Regulatory Policy Group  at Health Canada. In 2007 he established and led the Centre of Regulatory Expertise within the Regulatory Affairs Sector of the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.  Since November 2009 he has been the Director of the Policy Division.

- Josef Konvitz

Head of division, regulatory policy, public governance and territorial development, OECD

Josef Konvitz has directed country reviews of regulatory reform in many OECD and non-OECD countries. He was responsible for updating the OECD recommendations on regulatory reform, now the 2005 Guiding Principles for Regulatory Quality and Performance, and for the preparation of the APEC-OECD Integrated Checklist for Regulatory Reform. He has been directing a programme of co-operation on regulatory policy to enhance competitiveness in Mexico. Joining the OECD Urban Affairs Division in 1992 after nearly twenty years at Michigan State University, his work on urban policy included reviews of Metropolitan Melbourne and Metropolitan Athens, as well as the Urban Renaissance Reviews. He directed a study on urban indicators, the Ecological City project, and a major report on Distressed Urban Areas; organised the OECD-Australia Conference on Cities and the New Global Economy; and supervised country reviews of Japan, Mexico and Germany. Dr. Konvitz holds degrees from Cornell University and Princeton University and is Honorary Professor, Education, at the University of Glasgow.