Speakers

Andrew Staines is Assistant Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland, and former Ambassador for Economic Affairs of the United Kingdom to the World Trade Organization and the United Nations in Geneva. Andrew oversees the strategic and operational functions critical to WIPO's success and is responsible for WIPO's governing and key decision-making bodies. He leads WIPO’s work on strategic foresight and futures, developing capacity to think systematically about long term trends and scenarios in innovation and creativity, including in the context of emerging global challenges. Andrew has held senior roles in the UK's Foreign Office, working on global economic issues including the UK's G20 Presidency, in the private sector as a Senior Executive in one of the UK's largest natural resource companies and as an expert adviser in the UK's Parliament. He holds an Economics degree from Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge University and is a Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charterholder. He speaks English, French and Spanish.