Director-General of the World Trade Organization


The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is the officer of the World Trade Organization responsible for supervising and directing the organization's administrative operations. Because World Trade Organizations' decisions are made by member states, the Director-General has little power over matters of policy - the role is primarily advisory and managerial. The Director-General supervises the WTO secretariat of about 700 staff and is appointed by WTO members for a term of four years.
The current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo of Brazil, since 1 September 2013.
Before the creation of the WTO, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade had a series of Directors-General. Peter Sutherland was the last DG of GATT and the first of the WTO.

Past Directors-General

This is a list of former holders of the office of director-general. The post was created in 1995, although the earlier office of Executive Secretary is often seen as a direct equivalent.
NamePortraitTook officeLeft officeCountry
1Peter Sutherland1 July 19931 May 1995 Ireland
2Renato Ruggiero1 May 19951 September 1999 Italy
3Mike Moore1 September 19991 September 2002 New Zealand
4Supachai Panitchpakdi1 September 20021 September 2005 Thailand
5Pascal Lamy1 September 20051 September 2013 France
6Roberto Azevedo1 September 2013incumbent
 Brazil