David Leys

David Leys is Managing Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He is also a lawyer at the Brussels Bar and a PhD Researcher and Teaching Assistant in Economic Law at UCLouvain. His research focuses on the legal governance of data and emerging technologies from a comparative European Union–United States perspective. In particular, it examines how digital regulation affects innovation, cross-border data governance and international trade, with particular attention to the GDPR, the AI Act, the Data Act and additive manufacturing (3D printing). He also lectures in EU Institutional Law at the Institut Catholique de Paris.

Alongside his academic work, David advises public and private organisations on privacy, data governance and digital regulation. He previously served as Interim Data Protection Correspondent at Edenred Belgium and has represented clients in GDPR litigation before the Belgian Court of Appeal.

David holds a law degree from UCLouvain, an LL.M. in European Law from the College of Europe in Bruges, and an LL.M. from Columbia Law School in New York. He was also a Visiting Scholar at Duke Law School in Durham, North Carolina. He is a CIPP/E-certified privacy professional, a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and the author of several books and scholarly publications on European law, international trade law and digital regulation.