Culture is future »

Who is Francis Gurry ?

Mr. Francis Gurry was appointed Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) on October 1, 2008, and Secretary-General of its sister organization, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), on October 30, 2008. 

Francis Gurry began his WIPO career in 1985. He was instrumental in establishing the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in 1994 and subsequently in developing the highly successful Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. He served on the WIPO senior management team from 1997, initially as Assistant Director General, then from 2003 as Deputy Director General. 

Before joining WIPO, Francis Gurry practiced as an attorney in Australia, and taught law at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is an Honorary Professorial Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Honorary Professor of Peking University.