Speaker Profiles
WIPO International Conference on Intellectual Property and Development Speaker Profiles Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General, H.E. Mr. Rob Davies, Minister of World Intellectual Property Trade and Industry, Ministry of Trade Organization, Geneva, Switzerland and Industry, Pretoria, South Africa Francis Gurry is an Australian lawyer who Rob Davies is serving his second term as has served as Director General of the Minister of Trade and Industry, having been World Intellectual Property Organization reappointed to this portfolio in May 2014. (WIPO) since October 1, 2008. During his first term, from 2009 to Mr. Gurry joined WIPO in 1985 2014, Mr. Davies oversaw the develop- and has held various positions in its ment and implementation of annual three- Secretariat, including Legal Counsel, year rolling Industrial Policy Action Plans Assistant Director General and Deputy as well as steering South Africa’s partici- Director General. He holds Law degrees pation in important trade relations, includ- from the University of Melbourne, a PhD ing the COMESA-EAC-SADC Tripartite from the University of Cambridge and Free Trade Area, the BRICS group, an is an honorary professor of, and holds Economic Partnership Agreement with honorary doctorates from, universities in the European Union, the United States’ many countries. He is also the author of African Growth and Opportunity Act and a number of publications, one of which the World Trade Organization Bali Package. has become a standard legal text in the Before entering Parliament, Mr. UK and is published by Oxford University Davies was Professor and co-Direc- Press as Gurry on Breach of Confidence. tor of the Centre of Southern African Studies at the University of the Western Cape and before that, Professor Auxiliar at the Centro de Estudos Africanos at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo, Mozambique.
[Show full text]