More Changes In UN Agencies; Movements In Global Health

Movement has been happening in international organisations in recent weeks, particularly in United Nations agencies, as new executive directors were nominated, and department directorships changed hands. The private sector and non-governmental organisations also saw a number of position switches and nominations, in particular in the health sector. Law offices kept pace with the usual chair revolving.

International Organisations

Former Swiss delegate at the World Intellectual Property Organization, Alexandra Grazioli is now Director of the Lisbon Registry under the Lisbon Agreement for the Protection of Appellations of Origin and their International Registration. Grazioli joined WIPO a couple of years ago in the Director’s General office.

Zafar Mirza, current head of the World Health Organization Public Health, Innovation, Intellectual Property and Trade Department, will leave the position in mid-July to become Director of Health Systems of the WHO Eastern Mediterranean region office in Cairo. His replacement is not yet known.

Suzanne Hill became Director, Essential Medicines and Health Products in the WHO Health Systems and Innovation Cluster, as of 15 May. Hill, an Australian national, was previously Chair of the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee. She follows Kees De Joncheere, who retired after a long career.

Candidates in the election to succeed Margaret Chan next year as head of the World Health Organization are beginning to be known. The new Director General will be elected at the next World Health Assembly in May 2017, and the elected Director General is to take office on 1 July 2017. Three candidates were on the campaign trail at the recent WHA in late May, from Ethiopia, France and Pakistan:

• Ethiopia has endorsed the candidacy of Tedros Adhanom to the post of WHO Director General to take after Margaret Chan. Adhanom is an Ethiopian national, Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Minister of Health, and also researcher on malaria. Adhanom has been endorsed by the African Union.
• France endorsed Philippe Douste-Blazy to be the successor of Chan. Douste-Blazy is current Chair of UNITAID’s Executive Board, United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development. He held several ministerial positions in France, including Minister of Health.
• Pakistan has nominated Sania Nishtar to follow after Chan. Nishtar is former Pakistan Minister of Health, among other national responsibilities, and founder of Heartfile, a non-governmental organisation, focusing on health information and evolved into a think tank on health policy issues.

Alessandra Vellucci was named Director of the United Nations Information Service in Geneva. Vellucci, an Italian national, has been serving as Chief of the Intergovernmental Support Service for the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) since November 2014.

The new head of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) will be Erik Solheim of Norway. The new UNEP Executive Director is currently Chair of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). From 2007 to 2012, he was Norway’s Minister for the Environment and International Development. He follows Achim Steiner, German/Brazilian national.

Patricia Espinosa Cantellano, of Mexico is to become the next Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). She has been serving as Ambassador of Mexico to Germany since 2012, and served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico from 2006 to 2012. She follows Christiana Figueres of Costa Rica.

The UN Internet Governance Forum Multistakeholder Advisory Group has been renewed to prepare the eleventh meeting of the forum, tentatively scheduled to take place from 6-9 December in Guadalajara, Mexico. The Advisory Group has 55 members.

Private Sector/NGOs

Eduardo Pisani, Director General of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) joined the Washington DC-based PAHO Foundation Board of Trustees. Prior to IFPMA, Pisani was with Bristol-Myers Squibb for eight years.

Life sciences and biomedicine publisher eLife announced that Nouria Hernandez has joined its Board of Directors. Hernandez is the incoming president of the University of Lausanne.

Chinese film director Jia Zhang-ke became a Vice President of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). Zhang-ke was also appointed Patron of “the Audiovisual Campaign,” an international effort aiming at harmonising global law to give screenwriters and directors in all regions the same unwaivable right to remuneration from the success of their works.

At CISAC, Jean-Michel Jarre, electronic music composer and producer, was re-elected as President, while Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter Angélique Kidjo, Argentinean director Marcelo Piñeyro, and Senegalese sculptor Ousmane Sow were re-elected as Vice-Presidents.

Former Secretary General of the International Publishers Association (IPA) Jens Bammel is now Independent Consultant, European Representative for Wendy Pye/Sunshine Publishing.

Matt Bennett was named Vice President for Corporate Communications of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Bennett previously served as Senior Vice President and Washington DC Practice Lead for Racepoint Global, an international public relations firm. Before that he was Senior Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs at PhRMA. Bennett follows Laura Nichols, who left in February to become Senior Vice President and Chief Communications Officer at National Geographic Partners.

Caroline Luscombe, former Head of Human Resources for Syngenta, joined LafargeHolcim as Head of Organization and Human Resources.

Ethan Guillen joined Médecins Sans Frontières as Project Manager, Ebola Initiative. He comes from the Medicines Patent Pool, for which he was the Advocacy Consultant, and previously was the Executive Director of the Universities Allied for Essential Medicines from 2007-2011.

Manica Balasegaram left his position as Executive Director of Médecins Sans Frontières Access Campaign, after four years. He joined the Global Antibiotic Research and Development (GARD) Partnership, an initiative spearheaded by the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative and the WHO.

Sophie Delaunay was appointed as interim Executive Director of the MSF Access Campaign. She was the former Executive Director of MSF US and then headed MSF’s effort to advance knowledge sharing on Ebola and emerging pathogens. She is expected to serve in this interim role until November.

La Quadrature du Net announced a change of direction in its action. Since the state of emergency was declared in France two years ago, the non-governmental organisation said civil society has been heavily consulted and heavily ignored on digital issues. The organisation decided to “take a step back from legislative monitoring in France, at least until after the 2017 general elections,” leaving another organisation, Les Exégètes Amateurs to fight worrisome laws voted by the French Parliament. La Quadrature du Net said it will now focus on propagating free software ideas, and participating in the creation of new Commons.

German Velasquez, Special Advisor for Health and Development at the South Centre, and former Director on Public Health, Innovation and IP at the World Health Organization was awarded a “Honoris Causa Doctorate in Medicine” in recognition of this career in public health and work on access to medicines by the Complutense University of Madrid last October. His inaugural address is available here.

The Information Society Project (ISP) at Yale Law School announced that Rebecca Crootof had been appointed as its new executive director, effective 1 August 2016. Crootof takes after Valerie Belair-Gagnon who had served since 2014. Crootof is currently PhD in Law at Yale University and Resident Fellow with the ISP.

Law Offices

Michael Strapp joined the Boston office of DLA Piper as partner in the Intellectual Property and Technology practice. Strapp joins from Procter, where he was a partner in the firm’s IP Litigation group.

Hogan Lovells announced that Joseph Eng joined its New York office as counsel in its Intellectual Property Media & Technology Practice Group. Eng previously worked as a post-doctoral fellow at Exxon’s Corporate Research Center.

Honigman Miller Schwartz and Cohn LLP announced that Vikram Mathrani and Ron Sklar joined the firm’s IP department as partners. Mathrani comes from Ropes & Gray LLP and Sklar from Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Both new partners focus their practices on patent litigation, particularly in the life science and information technology industries.

Appleyard Lees announced the appointment of Richard Bray and Robert Cumming as partners.

Nicolas Barzoukas and Joshua Davis became partners at Reed Smith’s Intellectual Property, Information & Innovation Practice Group. Barzoukas and Davis come from Baker Botts.

Hogan Lovells announced that John Yates joined the firm’s Houston office as partner in the Intellectual Property, Media and Technology Practice Group.

Mark Whitaker became partner at Morrison Foerster in its Washington DC office. Whitaker is a trial lawyer and focuses on patent and trademark litigation and counseling. He is coming from Baker Botts where he led the firm’s International Trade Practice.