Sir Philip Lowe is a partner in Oxera Consulting, based in Brussels and London. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at St John’s College, Oxford and has an M.Sc. from London Business School.
Following a period in manufacturing industry, he joined the European Commission in 1973. He initially worked on the restructuring and regeneration of former coal and steel areas, but subsequently held a range of senior posts in the Commission as a member or Head of Office successively to President Gaston Thorn and then three other European Commissioners. He also served the Commission as Director in the fields of regional and rural development, competition, transport and administration.
In 1997 he was appointed Director-General for Development. In that position he took part in major reforms of the management of EU aid programmes and in 2000 was also chief negotiator of the EU-South Africa Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the Cotonou Agreement with ACP countries. Following this assignment, he was recalled at the ned of 2000 to be Head of Office to Vice-President Neil Kinnock who was responsible for a major administrative reform of the European Commission. From the beginning of 2002 he was also acting Deputy Secretary General, and represented the Commission in the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU member states.
From September 2002 until February 2010, he was Director-General for Competition, in charge of control of global mergers, cartels, anticompetitive practices, and of state subsidies to ensure free and fair competition across EU markets and to protect consumer interests.
In February 2010 he became Director-General for Energy, concentrating on the efforts to integrate and interconnect European energy markets, until he retired from the European Commission on 1st January 2014.
From October 2013 until January 2016, he served as a non-executive director of the UK Competition and Markets Authority. Between 2016 and 2018, he was a senior advisor with FTI Consulting.
In addition to his work with Oxera, he is Chair of the Florence University Institute Competition Law Workshop, and Chair of the World Energy Council’s Trilemma Project.