Four candidates, including Gurry, to run for WIPO leadership

Managing IP is part of Legal Benchmarking Limited, 1-2 Paris Gardens, London, SE1 8ND

Copyright © Legal Benchmarking Limited and its affiliated companies 2025

Accessibility | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Modern Slavery Statement

Four candidates, including Gurry, to run for WIPO leadership

Four candidates will run for the Director General post at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), including the current Director General, Australian Francis Gurry.

The other three candidates whose names were received by the deadline at 5pm Geneva time today were Geoffrey Onyeama from Nigeria, Jüri Seilenthal from Estonia, and Alfredo Suescum from Panama.

Despite speculation from some IP professionals that WIPO deputy director general Jim Pooley of the US might be in the running, he was not on the list.

One of the candidates will be nominated in March 2014 by the WIPO Coordination Committee, made up of representatives from 83 member states. The winning candidate will then be appointed by the WIPO General assembly in May.

The selection of the director general is governed by WIPO’s procedures.

more from across site and SHARED ros bottom lb

More from across our site

National groups for the UK and the Netherlands have flagged concerns with the choice of venue, following a formal complaint from Australia’s national group
Rasenberger is the CEO at the Authors Guild in the US
Vold-Burgess is the client director at Acapo Onsagers and the former CEO at Acapo in Norway
Williams is the CEO of the UKIPO in the UK
Orliuk is director of the Ukrainian IP office
Julie is chief IP counsel at Teva in the US
Ludlam is chief IP and litigation officer at Lenovo, while Maharaj is chief licensing officer for Ericsson in the US
Campinos is the president of the EPO in Munich
AlSwailem is the CEO of Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property in Saudi Arabia
Ridings, Orozco and Diego-Fernández Andrade are appeal arbitrators at the WTO in Switzerland
Gift this article