The Paris Arbitration Week (PAW) association has elected three new board members as part of a broader leadership reshuffle. 

The newly-elected trio includes Anastasia Davis Bondarenko of litigation funder Fortress Investment Group, Niels Aujouannet-Kelner of White & Case and Alexandre Vagenheim of legal tech firm Jus Mundi. 

Alongside their elections to the board they have been named vice presidents, succeeding Diamana Diawara, Alexandra van der Meulen and Sabrina Aïnouz. 

The board also appointed its new ‘bureau’, which together with the board forms PAW’s organising committee. Diawara, a Paris-based director of arbitration and ADR for Africa at the International Chamber of Commerce, has been appointed as co-president alongside incumbent Benjamin Siino, one of the founding partners of Gaillard Banifatemi Shelbaya Disputes.    

Meantime van der Meulen, a Freshfields partner, has been named treasurer. She succeeds Vanessa Thieffry of Reed Smith, who has been made co-secretary general alongside incumbent Claire Pauly of Jones Day. 

Three existing vice presidents – Elsa Paparemborde of Tesla, Catherine Schroeder of Derains & Gharavi and Astrid Westphalen of Gide – were reconfirmed in the role alongside the new appointments. 

PAW’s organising committee thanked outgoing co-president Marily Paralika, a partner at Fieldfisher, outgoing co-secretary general Ioana Knoll-Tudor, of Addleshaw Goddard, and Aïnouz, who is a partner at Squire Patton Boggs, for their service. 

Diawara and Siino commented in a joint statement: “Thanks to the drive and dedication of the former board members, Paris Arbitration Week has established itself in just eight editions as a must-attend global event for arbitration specialists.”

They added: “We are committed to continuing the work already started and to go even further concerning unity, diversity sustainability and innovation in the arbitration community, with Paris as the centre of the debate.”

The appointments follow the eighth edition of PAW in March, which included 187 events over the week, 25,000 event registrations and 4,700 individual visitor accounts created on its website in an Olympic year with associated preparations for the Games in Paris. Next year’s PAW will be held between 7 and 11 April. 

Meantime this year’s London International Disputes Week (LIDW), of which Global Legal Post was a media partner, recorded 22,000 registrations and close to 8,000 delegates attending sessions throughout the week, with an estimated 1,360 delegates attending in person and online from abroad.

More than 339 organisations participated at LIDW’s Main Conference, with LIDW25 set to be held between 2 and 6 June. The event will be co-chaired by Loukas Mistelis of Clyde & Co, Jonathan Cary of RPC and independent mediator Henrietta Jackson-Stops.