Francesca Mazza is the secretary general of the German Arbitration Institute (DIS). The DIS is a leading institution for the resolution of commercial disputes, administering hundreds of arbitration and ADR proceedings. Offering the complete set of conflict management, ADR, sports and commercial arbitration, tailored to the needs of the business community, the DIS is one of the most diversified dispute resolution providers in the world.
Before joining the DIS, Francesca worked at the ICC International Court of Arbitration in Paris as counsel heading one of the court’s case management teams and as secretary to the ICC commission on arbitration. During her career Francesca has supervised more than 1,000 arbitrations in several languages across the globe, concerning a wide variety of matters, and acted as an arbitrator under various institutional arbitration rules. Her experience encompasses disputes concerning construction and infrastructure projects, project financing, telecommunications, luxury goods, M&A/ joint-venture and partnership agreements/shareholder agreements, pharmaceutical disputes and disputes involving states or state entities.
Francesca is an Italian citizen and fully qualified to practice law in Germany. She read law in Milan, Italy and Heidelberg, Germany and holds a PhD from the University of Heidelberg. She works and conducts arbitrations in English, French, German and Italian. She has published various articles and books, including the Secretariat´s Guide to ICC Arbitration (co-authored with Jason Fry and Simon Greenberg). She regularly lectures on international law at universities and business schools in various European countries.
