Speaking to Managing IP, Roland Grossenbacher said: “What is really important is the profile of the new director-general. We are working hard to define such a profile. It needs to be a turnaround manager.”
WIPO member states will appoint a new director general in May, after Kamil Idris announced last year that he will step down in September this year.
Each member state can nominate one candidate and they have until 5pm on February 13 to do so. So far, only Jose Graça-Aranha of Brazil is a confirmed candidate for the post.
Grossenbacher, who has been director of the Swiss IP office since 1996, said: “WIPO is in a very, very difficult situation right now and needs someone willing and capable over the next years to handle the operational business – not by rhetoric but by action. That includes effective technical cooperation with developing countries.”
He added: “Sound operational management has been lost under the leadership of Kamil Idris but it has to be restored.”
Benoît Battistelli, head of the French IP office, echoed these views, telling Managing IP: “It's a very complicated and difficult situation at WIPO right now. I think the Organization needs somebody who can help the different parties work together, especially the developing and developed countries.”
Grossenbacher has been identified as a potential candidate for the director-general position, but he told Managing IP: “I’m not a candidate. The deadline is in February and Switzerland hasn’t yet decided who to support.”
Battistelli also declined to confirm he would be a candidate: “I know that my name is one of those talked about but I haven’t yet made up my mind ... Let’s see what happens in the next few weeks.”
But he questioned whether the appointment of the new WIPO director-general could – or should – be done without taking the geographical and political concerns of member states into account.
Last week, a group of WIPO employees calling themselves Cincinattus wrote to national delegations urging them to choose a new director-general based on the candidates’ experience and vision for the Organization, rather than on grounds that are “solely geographical or political”.
But Battistelli said that people should remember that WIPO is not a private company: “It’s a political organization. It’s part of the UN and its stakeholders are member states”.
“That doesn’t mean that it has to be run badly but it is not as simple as choosing a CEO,” he added.
Extended interviews with both Grossenbacher and Battistelli will be published in forthcoming issues of Managing IP.
