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The Deputy Directors-General The four Deputy Directors-General are: Alejandro Jara, Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza, Harsha Vardhana Singh and Rufus H. Yerxa. Their appointment took effect on 1 October 2005. In May 2009, the Director-General informed the General Council of his intention to retain the same four DDGs for his second four-year mandate, starting on 1 September 2009. |
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Alejandro Jara was born in 1949 in Santiago, Chile. He studied high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile. In 1973 he obtained his law degree from the Universidad de Chile. With the support of a Fulbright scholarship he pursued graduate studies at the Law School, University of California at Berkeley (1975-1976). In 1976 he joined the Foreign Service of Chile where he has specialized in international economic relations. He served in the Delegation of Chile to the GATT in Geneva (1979-1984) and was seconded to the Economic System for Latin America (SELA) in Caracas as Coordinator for Trade Policy Affairs. He was appointed Director for Bilateral Economic Affairs (1993-1994), Director for Multilateral Economic Affairs (1994-1999). During 1996 — 1997 he also served as Chile’s Senior Official to APEC. At the same period he was deputy Chief negotiator for the Chile — Canada Free Trade Agreement and in 1997-1998 he was Chief negotiator for the Chile — Mexico Free Trade Agreement. In July 1999 he was designated Director General for International Economic Relations. In June 2000 he was appointed as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. During 2001 he served as Chairperson of the Committee on Trade and Environment of the WTO. In February 2002 he was elected as Chairman of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services, which is in charge of the negotiations mandated by Ministers in Doha. He is author of numerous articles and papers on international trade. Mr. Jara is married to Daniela Benavente and has three children, Rafael Alejandro (1986), Octavia Verónica (2003) and Matilde (2007).
Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza back to top
Prior to her current assignment she was adviser at the Council of Economic and Social Affairs in the Office of the Rwandan President in Kigali. In this capacity, she has represented the Government of Rwanda in numerous international conferences. Before joining government service in 2000, Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza managed her own company which she had established on her return to Rwanda in 1997. Previously she had worked for eight years as a senior manager with a major Swiss multinational company, first as head of its commercial development and marketing operations for Central Africa, based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and then as its regional manager for Central and West Africa, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza is a founding member of the Rwandese Private Sector Federation, the Rwanda Women Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Rwandese Women Leaders’ Caucus. She has been Coordinator of the African Group in the WTO. She is one of the two Ambassadors representing the LDCs in the Integrated Framework Working Group. She initiated the Integrated Framework in Rwanda. Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza obtained both her degree and masters degree in sciences from the National University of Zaire (now RDC) respectively in 1985 and 1988.
Harsha Vardhana Singh back to top
He worked as consultant with the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (Government of India) in New Delhi, and ILO and UNCTAD in Geneva before joining the GATT Secretariat. Mr. Singh worked for 12 years in the GATT/WTO Secretariat, in various parts of the organization, including the Office of the WTO Director General (1996-97), the Trade and Environment and Technical Barriers to Trade Division (1995-96), Rules Division (1991-95), Trade Policy Review Division (1989-1991), and the Economic Research and Analysis Unit (1985-1989). The work covered diverse areas such as servicing Committees in the area of GATT Rules, secretary of dispute settlement panels, Uruguay Round negotiations, interacting with other agencies, and a range of other activities in the Director General’s office including co-ordination of in-house activities and those involving other multilateral organizations. In June 1997, Mr. Singh joined the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as Economic Advisor, in the year when the Telecom Regulatory Body was established by the Government of India to strengthen the regulatory process and telecom policy reform in the country. Since May 2001, Mr. Singh has been the Secretary cum Principal Advisor of the TRAI. In this capacity, he was Head of the TRAI Secretariat, and was involved in all policy initiatives of TRAI, and all interactions of TRAI with national and international agencies/bodies, including multilateral agencies, regulatory bodies, the relevant bodies in the Government and the Indian Parliament. During this period, Mr. Singh was also a member of several High Level Committees to address various policy issues, and has served as Chair of dispute settlement panels of the WTO. He has also been a member of various trade advisory committees of the Indian government and has worked on the Foreign Trade Policy of India.
He has interacted with a number of research Bodies. Recently, he became
an Honorary Professor at the Indian Council for Research on
International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and a member of the visiting
faculty at the TERI School of Advanced Studies for their Masters
programme in Regulatory Studies. He has authored a number of papers on
trade policy and regulatory issues.
Rufus H. Yerxa back to top
Rufus H. Yerxa has served as
Deputy Director General since 2002.
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