Director

Dr Verena Weber

Dr Verena Weber is the Director of the Agency for Support for BEREC (the BEREC Office). As the head of the agency, she is in charge of managing the BEREC Office and is responsible for providing professional and administrative support to the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC).

Dr Weber is a highly accomplished professional with over 15 years of experience in communication policy and regulation. Prior to joining the BEREC Office, Dr Weber served as Head of the Connectivity Services and Infrastructures Unit at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In this role, Dr Weber led the OECD’s workstreams on communications infrastructures and services, as well as on semiconductors, steering the OECD's policy and regulatory work in these areas. As the head of the Secretariat team for the OECD’s Working Party on Connectivity Services and Infrastructures (WPCSI), she was responsible for negotiating digital policy instruments, overseeing the production of the OECD’s broadband statistics, developing communication price baskets and preparing OECD reports and country reviews to improve connectivity and foster sound semiconductor national ecosystems. Furthermore, she co-created a new OECD delegates network, the Semiconductor Informal Exchange Network and a workstream on semiconductor country studies.

Between 2014 and 2015, Dr Weber worked as Senior Advisor to the Head of the Colombian Communications Regulator, the CRC, and the ICT Minister in Colombia. In this position, she led the development of the country's internet governance strategy and contributed to the development of Colombia’s digital agenda. She also served as a country representative on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) Government Advisory Committee (GAC) and is a past representative of the OECD to the Internet Governance Forum.

Verena Weber holds a PhD from WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, where she undertook quantitative research on the effects of competing firm strategies on firm performance. Dr Weber also holds a Master's degree in Management and Economics from the University of Mannheim and an MBA from the ESSEC Business School in France.

She speaks multiple languages, including German, English, French and Spanish.

Appointment

The Management Board (MB) of the BEREC Office appoints the Director through an open and transparent selection procedure, on the basis of merit, management, administrative and budgetary skills and the skills and experience relevant to electronic communications networks and services. For this, the MB must adopt a vacancy notice setting out the eligibility and selection criteria, as well as the overall procedure for the appointment of the Director.

For the selection process, the MB must set up a selection panel consisting of five members, four being EU National Regulatory Authority senior representatives and one representative from the EC. A second representative from the EC, an expert in human resources, must participate in the work to ensure the respect for due process. Overall, the selection panel acts upon unanimity and its purpose is to propose a short list of suitable candidates for the post of Director to the MB.

Following interviews of the short listed candidates with the MB, the members of the MB must vote for one candidate. A candidate is selected after receiving a two-thirds majority. Moreover, and before the appointment of the selected candidate, this candidate may be subject to a non-binding opinion of the EP. Thus, the candidate must be invited to make a statement before the competent committee of the EP and answer questions forwarded by their members.

The Director’s term of office is five years. It can be extended once, for no more than five years.

Responsibilities

The Director is responsible for heading the BEREC Office and is accountable to the BEREC Office MB. The Director’s main tasks are the following: