Fellows
Denny Center Affiliated Fellows are available to collaborate with students, faculty, and staff on research projects, event organization and participation, and student mentoring.
Natalia Nicolaidis, Affiliated Fellow
Natalia Nicolaidis, Georgetown Law alumna and current chair of Georgetown Law’s European Law Advisory Board, joined the Denny Center as our first Affiliated Fellow in August 2021. She is currently Chair of Georgetown University’s European Law Advisory Board, and has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown Law since 2020.
Nicolaidis is an experienced international corporate governance and non-financial performance and ESG risk leader. She delivers insight on the full breadth of strategic issues facing boards, the C-Suite and their advisors. She is passionate about meeting the demands of her clients, regulators, investors and other stakeholders. Nicolaidis founded and is CEO of Dynamic Counsel, a governance, risk management and transaction advisory consultancy that drives change and increases value. She is a leading mentor for and advocate of women’s leadership and diversity & inclusion. Nicolaidis was also Global General Counsel and Global Head of Risks & Controls of the Investment Banking Division of a global investment bank and is currently the Sustainability Liaison of the Securities Law Committee of the International Bar Association, and is on the IBA’s Women’s Interest Group.
Nicolaidis is an independent, non-executive board member of two listed companies. Serving as a member of the Sustainability Committee and Chair of the Remuneration and Nominations Committee respectively. She is also Advisor to Just Capital, a charity that, through research and data-driven tools, empowers market participants to build a more just economy.
Nicolaidis earned a BA in Economics from Yale, a JD from Georgetown University Law Center, an MS from Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service, and a Masters in EU Law from the Collège d’Europe (Bruges).
Matthew Leatherman, Affiliated Fellow
Matt Leatherman joined the Denny Center as an Affiliated Fellow in July 2025.
He served as policy director to North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell and subsequently has helped to establish a financial research organization called Focusing Capital on the Long Term (FCLTGlobal). He is chair emeritus of the John Rex Endowment and a currently-serving director of the Foundation for Health Leadership and Innovation and the Raleigh Area Land Trust. Leatherman also advises the Catawba Center for the Environment, one of the largest-endowed university programs focused on the environment, and Reward Value, a Netherlands-based research center experimenting with ways that pay affects CEO behavior. Leatherman is active in public policy having campaigned to be North Carolina’s Treasurer in 2020.
Leatherman’s writing has been published in outlets ranging from the Washington Post and Politico to Institutional Investor and Top1000 Funds. Convenors like the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pacific Pensions & Investments, and NASDAQ commonly turn to Leatherman for his expertise and insight in their program.
Leatherman earned a Bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina and a Master’s degree from Columbia.
Aurelien Portuese, Affiliated Fellow
Professor Aurelien Portuese joined the Denny Center as an Affiliated Fellow in May 2026.
Professor Portuese is the Founding Director of the Georgetown Competition & Innovation Lab at Georgetown University. The Lab is a leading research project that publishes scholarly articles, organizes high-impact events, and coordinates policy engagement on the law and economics of competition and innovation.
Professor Portuese is an internationally recognized expert on the economics of antitrust and artificial intelligence, as well as on the regulation of innovation. Professor Portuese has testified before the U.S. Congress and European parliaments. He is also Visiting Researcher at the College de France at the Farhi Innovation Lab of Nobel Prize Laureate Philippe Aghion, and an Associate Editor for the American Bar Association’s Antitrust Law Journal.
Portuese is the author The Battle for the Future of Antitrust: Brandeis, Bork and Schumpeter (2025), which examines the ideological frameworks dictating the future of antitrust law. He previously authored Algorithmic Antitrust (2022) and The Principle of Economic Efficiency in the European Case Law (2014). His work is regularly featured in top-tier academic journals, including the Antitrust Law Journal, Stanford Journal of Law, Business & Finance, Columbia Journal of European Law, Journal of Economic Affairs, and the George Mason Law Review.“
He has consulted for the World Bank, advised government agencies worldwide, and served on the jury for the Concurrences Antitrust Writing Awards. He serves on the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Group of Experts on Competition Law and Policy (UNCTAD).