Brian Fabrègue is a legal scholar and FinTech executive with over a decade of experience at the intersection of financial regulation, digital innovation and cross-border compliance. He holds a Doctorate in Financial Law from the University of Zurich, where his research focused on the regulation of FinTech, complemented by several Master’s Degrees in Law, Technology, International Commerce, Economics, and Art History from European universities. Professionally, he has served as legal counsel and CLO for blockchain and digital finance companies, advising on licensing, regulatory strategy, GDPR compliance, tokenisation and corporate governance across multiple jurisdictions. As Chairman of the think-tank Blue Europe, he manages the organisation’s activities and research projects, as well as engaging in policy research on law, economics and public governance.
Board
Brian F. G. Fabrègue
Gwendal Combot
Gwendal Combot is a graduate of Applied Mathematics at the University of Montréal and the University of Paris Saclay. He specialises in economics and financial big data, working for a major French bank on complementary mathematical analyses and having held the position of researcher at UNSW Business School. Gwendal is an expert of the Baltic region, speaking Russian and Lithuanian fluently. He has also participated in activities facilitating French-Lithuanian cooperation.
Pawel Morisson de la Bassetière
Pawel M. de la Bassetière is specialized in corporate finance and entrepreneurial economics: he holds degrees of Economics, Finance and International Business from the Poznan University of Economics and Business.
Pawel is currently working as a technology consultant specialized in digital & agile transformation in a global consulting company. He is also a consultant within the import-export industry.
Pawel heads the Blue Europe expert committee on Poland and Central Europe, and is in charge of Strategic Development and HR.
Grzegorz Wiśniewski
Grzegorz Wiśniewski has a doctorate in Economics from the Uniwersytet Jagielloński. He specializes in the effects of public policies in the primary and secondary sector both at national and European level. Grzegorz Wiśniewski is above all a successful entrepreneur in international events, logistics and transportation organization.
He is in charge of the Observatory of Public Policies of the European Union and manages institutional relations for Blue Europe.
Experts
prof. Christiaan Vermorken
Prof. Dr. Vermorken has previously held positions as an investment fund lawyer at Clifford Chance, as a freelance legal consultant for various industrial enterprises. He is currently the CEO of the Carrières du Hainaut, as well as a professor at the University of Brussels (ULB). He was previously an assistant at the Office of the Deputy Secretary General of the European Parliament. Christiaan Vermorken holds a PhD in social and political sciences from the European University Institute (EUI) in Florence and an LLD from the University of Rome (RomaTre). He has completed graduate studies in law (Brussels), history (Bologna), political science (Brussels/Bucharest), and polemology (London)
Piotr Wójcik
Piotr Wójcik is a specialist in international relations and the most knowledgeable emerging European experts on the Three Seas Initiative. He holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Warsaw, where his Master’s thesis focused on the Three Seas Initiative, a field that has since become central to his academic, analytical, and professional work.
His expertise covers the Three Seas Initiative, regional connectivity, the Western Balkans, and the Eastern Partnership, with particular attention to infrastructure, strategic cooperation, and geopolitical links across Central and Eastern Europe. He also holds a postgraduate degree from the European Academy of Diplomacy.
He has also delivered presentations and participated in scientific conferences, including at the official Three Seas Summit in 2024, 2025 and 2026, further establishing his profile as a recognized voice on the Initiative. Piotr is involved with the Three Seas Initiative Research Centre Project at the Polish Academy of Sciences.
prof. Ivo Ganchev
Ivo Ganchev is a Beijing-based academic, executive and consultant. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of International Relations and Director of Corporate Education at Beijing Foreign Studies University.He previously served as Vice-Chairman of the Bulgaria-China Chamber of Commerce and as a Global Partner at TopBrand Union. Ivo is the editor of several books, including The Branding Boardroom (2025) and Lessons from Regional Responses to Security, Health and Environmental Challenges in Latin America (2024). He is an Editorial Board Member of World Affairs and SAGE Open. He holds a PhD from Peking University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, a BA from Newcastle University, and an MBA in Leadership from the University of London, where he has also been awarded Worldwide University Tutor Status.
Andrea Bogoni
Andrea Bogoni is a Research Fellow at Blue Europe and an MSc alumnus in International Logistics and Supply Chain Management from the University of Essex, having specialised in business economics, finance and international trade. He collaborates with several Italian-based research centres and think tanks, specialising on V4 countries, the Western Balkans and the Black Sea region. For Blue Europe he edited “The Dragon at the Gates of Europe: Chinese Presence in the Balkans and Central-Eastern Europe” and contributes to the think-tank with publications and reviews. He has previously won the 2021-2022 Blue Europe “Konrad Adenauer & Alcide de Gasperi” contest, with an article predicting the subsequent war in Ukraine. Professionally, he works as a consultant in the business services industry.
Marceli Hazla
Marceli Hazla is a doctoral student and an assistant lecturer at Poznań University of Economics and Business, as well as the chairman of Poznań branch of Polish Geopolitical Society. He is an author of over 150 publications and speeches at conferences in the field of global economy and geopolitics, including two books. Holder of a Polish stockbroker’s licence and a European banking certificate, he gained his professional experience working as a financial analyst in the venture capital sector. His current research interests include globalisation, international economic relations, Asian economies and geo-economics.
Sonja Stojadinovic
Sonja Stojadinovic holds, besides her extended education in Political Science (University of st.Cyril and Methodius, Skopje (BA and MA) and Uni Graz (MA)), a wealth of experience working as civil servant in the Secretariat for European Affairs in the government of N. Macedonia, as well as 7+ years as freelance researcher in creating public policies and research papers for both Macedonian and EU NGOs. She is also a journalist for the Croatian web portal Lupiga and longtime author for Macedonian academic blog Respublika. Her interests cover Chinese foreign policy through the BRI, specially on the Balkan peninsula, EU integration of the Balkan region, worker rights and violation of human rights and environmental standards from FDIs.
LinkedIn
Academia.edu
ResearchGate
Emma Savouroux
Henrique Horta
Henrique Horta graduated from Lisbon’s ISCTE-IUL University and holds a master in International Relations, with a thesis focusing on Ukraine’s accession to the EU.
Having gathered knowledge of demography, political science and history through his academic studies, he is an expert of population sciences. Particularly, he has researched on migration within Central Eastern Europe and its relations with Southwestern Europe.
Henrique speaks fluently Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.
Samuel Dempsey
Samuel’s experience spans across the U.S. government (Department of State, Congress, and International Trade Administration) and think tanks in Europe. He was a U.S. 2023 Presidential Management Fellow Finalist and holds an M.A. in Geopolitics and Strategic Studies and a B.A. in Journalism and Communications, which he obtained respectively in Spain and the Czech Republic. He is the Director of Policy at European Horizons and focuses his research on the transatlantic relationship, the challenges it must confront in the context of rising multipolarity, and the outlook for modern reforms to interregional cooperation.
Slobodan Trivic
Samuel’s experience spans across the U.S. government (Department of State, Congress, and International Trade Administration) and think tanks in Europe. He was a U.S. 2023 Presidential Management Fellow Finalist and holds an M.A. in Geopolitics and Strategic Studies and a B.A. in Journalism and Communications, which he obtained respectively in Spain and the Czech Republic. He is the Director of Policy at European Horizons and focuses his research on the transatlantic relationship, the challenges it must confront in the context of rising multipolarity, and the outlook for modern reforms to interregional cooperation.
Christopher Cockshaw
Christopher Cockshaw is a graduate of King’s College (London) and Sciences Po (Paris) with experience in policy-making, digital innovation strategies and think tank research. He is a specialist in public affairs advocacy and intra-EU relations, his work on the economic and diplomatic ties binding Central European countries with East and West is informed by a background in German regional power as well as further studies in corporate communication.
