Leonardo Meeus studied business engineering at KU Leuven in Belgium with an Erasmus exchange at the University of Edinburgh in the UK. He completed a PhD in engineering at KU Leuven in 2006. 

During his PhD at KU Leuven, he contributed to  the electricity market coupling initiative between Belgium, France and the Netherlands. As more countries joined, this project led to the development of an international electricity market in Europe.  After his PhD, he stayed as a postdoc researcher and scientific coordinator of the KU Leuven Energy Institute and the European Energy Institute. When he moved to Florence in 2008, he remained connected to the KU Leuven as visiting professor. In 2022, he returned as a professor (part-time). 

Florence School of Regulation invited Leonardo in 2006 to teach about electricity market coupling, the project he worked on during his PhD. In 2008, he joined the school as a researcher. In 2010, he became the scientific coordinator of the research project THINK. This consortium of academics advised the European Commission as an academic think tank on energy policy issues.  In 2013, he went back to Belgium, while he also continued to contribute to the activities of the Florence School of Regulation as a professor (part-time). In Florence, he directed research and online courses on the latest policy and regulatory developments in the energy sector.  In 2022, he was appointed as full time professor at the European University Institute where he then became the Director of the Florence School of Regulation, and the Loyola de Palacio Chair in the Robert Schuman Centre. 

In the period 2012-2022, Leonardo worked for Vlerick Business School.  He started as associate professor, and was promoted to full professor in 2019. He was also elected partner in 2016 and promoted to senior partner in 2022 for his contributions to the development of the school. He founded the Vlerick Energy Centre  with research and executive education for energy companies. He created new courses on (nonmarket) strategy, public affairs and stakeholder management.  He developed management frameworks, teaching cases, and a brainstorming tool for gamified learning.  In 2021, he also became the director of the online MBA and intervened in the media on online business education.

Leonardo Meeus is an advisor to EU institutions, regulatory agencies and companies. From 2017 to 2024, he was a member of the Academic Panel  of the energy regulator in the UK (Ofgem). In 2021, he supported the Flemish Parliament in Belgium with the selection of new commissioners for the energy regulator VREG. During the fifth EU electricity market reform, he closely engaged with the legislative process (2022-2024). He provided a technical briefing to the European Parliament, contributed to meetings organized by the European Commission, spoke at many events, published policy briefs, and was quoted in the media. 

Leonardo also studied the regulatory framework for investments in interconnectors  in Europe and in the US. In 2008-2009, he worked for the merchant interconnector developer Imera Power in Dublin, Ireland, as Senior VP for European and Regulatory Affairs. He successfully applied for an exemption for the East-West interconnector, a submarine HVDC  cable between Ireland and Wales.

In 2025, Leonardo started working on space in collaboration with the European Space Policy Institute. They co-organized a summer school on space policy, and also started a workshop on space economics...

Leonardo published in the academic journals of several disciplines, such as energy economics, regulatory economics, electrical engineering, energy law, operations research and management.  He uses mathematical models, case studies, and analytical frameworks to evaluate policies and regulations. He is an experienced academic journal reviewer and editor.

He bundled his research on electricity markets in an open access book “The Evolution of Electricity Markets in Europe”.