Mihalis Kekelekis is a Greek qualified lawyer and one of the leading figures in the State aid community. He has an extensive State aid experience spreading over 20 years, with particular expertise in the energy, environmental, transport, semiconductors and infrastructure sectors. He has furthermore an in-depth understanding of the European Commission’s internal processes in policy-making and enforcement. From 2018 to 2023, Mihalis worked at the DG Competition of the European Commission, where he was a Case handler Officer at the Unit dealing with R&D&I, IPCEI and Environment and the Unit dealing with Fiscal aid and aggressive tax planning. Before (2012-2018), he was a Senior Legal Officer at the Competition & State aid Directorate of the EFTA Surveillance Authority (Brussels, Belgium), where he managed and assessed multiple State aid cases (e.g., R&D&I, public transport, port infrastructure, energy and environment, broadband and broadcasting, regional aid etc.). Mihalis started his State aid career in 2003 at the European Institute of Public Administration (Maastricht, the Netherlands), where, as Senior lecturer, he offered specialised State aid advice and training to multiple public authorities across Europe. He cooperates as Of Counsel with the Greek law firm Marinos Petroulias and Partners and with the Polish law firm Swora Legal.

Mihalis holds a Ph.D. in EU Competition law and has published three books (on State aid and EU merger control) and more than 30 book chapters and articles in journals, such as European State Aid Law Quarterly, European Law Reporter, World Competition etc. He also speaks regularly in conferences and workshops on issues of State aid and has developed and implemented more than 100 training programmes and tailor-made training courses on State aid for public authorities.