David Leys is the Managing Director of the Brussels Privacy Hub at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He is also a lawyer at the Brussels Bar and a PhD Researcher and Teaching Assistant in Economic Law at UCLouvain. His research examines the legal governance of data and emerging technologies from a comparative perspective on the European Union and the United States. It explores how digital regulation shapes innovation, cross-border data governance and international trade, with particular attention to the GDPR, the AI Act, the Data Act and additive manufacturing (3D printing). He lectures in EU Institutional Law at the Institut Catholique de Paris.

Alongside his academic work, David counsels public and private organisations on privacy, data governance and digital regulation. He previously served as Interim Data Protection Correspondent at Edenred Belgium and has litigated GDPR cases before the Belgian Court of Appeal.

David holds a law degree from UCLouvain, an LL.M. in European Law from the College of Europe (Bruges), and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from Columbia Law School (New York). He was a Visiting Scholar at Duke Law School (Durham, North Carolina). He is a CIPP/E-certified privacy professional, a member of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP), and the author of several books and scholarly publications in the fields of European law, international trade law and digital regulation.