He was nominated by consensus.
The WIPO General Assembly will meet in an extraordinary session on May 8 and 9 to confirm the nomination. Gurry’s first term as director general expires on September 30.
The coordination committee, which comprises 83 member states, held one round of voting from a list that originally included four candidates.
Gurry of Australia prevailed in that round of voting with 46 votes, with 20 votes for Geoffrey Onyeama of Nigeria, 10 votes for Alfredo Suescum Alfaro of Panama and seven votes for Jüri Seilenthal of Estonia. According to the rules, the candidate with the least number of votes after the first round is eliminated.
Before the second round of voting began, the candidacies of Suescum and Onyeama were withdrawn and Gurry was selected as the consensus nominee by delegates.
The WIPO director general serves a six-year term. Gurry is the fourth director general of WIPO, following Kamil Idris of Sudan (1997-2008), Arpad Bogsch of the US (1973-1997) and Georg Bodenhausen of the Netherlands (1970-1973).
