News Corp creates competition role for OFT international head
News Corporation has appointed Andrea Appella in the newly-created role of director of legal, competition and regulatory affairs for Europe and Asia.
Appella was previously head of international at the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), where he led a team that contributes to multilateral competition bodies, such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the International Competition Network.
In his new role at News Corporation, the owners of Sky TV and The Sun newspaper, Appella will be responsible for competition law matters and regulatory affairs, reporting to the general counsel for Europe and Asia Jeff Palker.
Appella began his career as a solicitor at Herbert Smith, subsequently working for MTV Europe, Warner Bros and Time Warner Europe, where he spent five years as vice president and associate general counsel.
Appella is a senior fellow at the Centre for Law and Governance in Europe at University College London, where he teaches a course on competition and intellectual property rights in the media. He is a also an officer of the IBA antitrust committee.
