Career biography:

Ianis Girgenson is Group general gounsel of United Group BV, a telecoms and media group headquartered in the Netherlands and active in eastern Europe. In 2024, United Group achieved revenues of €3bn and EBITDA of €1bn. It is majority-owned by private equity fund BC Partners.

Ianis leads a team of 90 in-house lawyers based in seven countries and sits on the board of directors. Since he joined United Group in August 2020, he has led on multiple M&A deals, including acquisitions of telecoms and media assets in Greece, Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia, as well as divestiture of the group’s non-EU assets and mobile infrastructure. He also worked on ten completed bond offerings, with €4.3bn in principal amount. Other key projects included an investment arbitration case against the Republic of Serbia (settled) and successful engagement with the European Commission on telecommunication regulation.

Before joining United Group, Ianis practiced law in London, Brussels and Paris for over 15 years in leading law firms, including Cleary Gottlieb and Covington & Burling. He also served for four years as an associate general counsel at telecoms group VEON in Amsterdam, including 6 months spent in Tashkent, Uzbekistan as interim head of legal of VEON’s local mobile operator.

Ianis graduated from the University of Paris (Sorbonne) and obtained a Master of Laws from Harvard Law School. Ianis is a member of Paris and New York bars.