Francis Gurry was appointed Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Secretary-General of the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) on October 30, 2008.

Gurry began his WIPO career in 1985, initially in the Development Cooperation and External Relations Bureau for Asia and the Pacific. He was instrumental in establishing the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Center in 1994 and subsequently in developing the highly successful Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy. He served on the WIPO top management team from 1997, initially as Assistant Director General, then from 2003 as Deputy Director General with responsibility for patents and the PCT system, the Arbitration and Mediation Center, traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and genetic resources. Before joining WIPO, Gurry practiced as an attorney in Australia, and taught law at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Gurry holds law degrees from the University of Melbourne and a Ph.D from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of numerous publications and articles on intellectual property issues in international journals.