Biography
Francis GURRY served as Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) from 2008 to September 2020. During his tenure, the revenue of the Organization increased by 50%, the global IP Systems administered by the Organization expanded significantly in membership and use, three new treaties were concluded, a new administrative building and a new conference hall were constructed, a number of successful public-private partnerships were developed, including the Accessible Books Consortium, which makes available to visually impaired persons throughout the world a repertoire of more than 700,000 works in accessible formats in over 70 languages, and over 400 accessions were made by countries to the treaties administered by the Organization. Prior to becoming Director General, he held the positions of Deputy Director General, Assistant Director General and Legal Counsel at WIPO.
Francis holds law degrees (LL.B., LL.M.) from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D, from the University of Cambridge. He is the author of a leading textbook on trade secrets and confidential information, now published as Gurry on Confidential Information by Oxford University Press, and co-author of a casebook on international intellectual property published by Wolters Kluwer in New York. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from universities in 13 countries and honorary professorships from universities in seven countries. He is also the recipient of honours awarded by France, Mongolia, Morocco and the Philippines.
