WTO | Deputy Directors-General

Alejandro Jara was born in 1949 in Santiago, Chile. He studied high school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile. In 1973 he obtained his law degree from the Universidad de Chile. With the support of a Fulbright scholarship he pursued graduate studies at the Law School, University of California at Berkeley (1975-1976).

In 1976 he joined the Foreign Service of Chile where he has specialized in international economic relations. He served in the Delegation of Chile to the GATT in Geneva (1979-1984) and was seconded to the Economic System for Latin America (SELA) in Caracas as Coordinator for Trade Policy Affairs. He was appointed Director for Bilateral Economic Affairs (1993-1994), Director for Multilateral Economic Affairs (1994-1999). During 1996 — 1997 he also served as Chile’s Senior Official to APEC. At the same period he was deputy Chief negotiator for the Chile — Canada Free Trade Agreement and in 1997-1998 he was Chief negotiator for the Chile — Mexico Free Trade Agreement. In July 1999 he was designated Director General for International Economic Relations.

In June 2000 he was appointed as Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Chile to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. During 2001 he served as Chairperson of the Committee on Trade and Environment of the WTO. In February 2002 he was elected as Chairman of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services, which is in charge of the negotiations mandated by Ministers in Doha. He is author of numerous articles and papers on international trade.

Mr. Jara is married to Daniela Benavente and has three children, Rafael Alejandro (1986), Octavia Verónica (2003) and Matilde (2007).

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Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza back to top

Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza has extensive work experience in senior Government and private sector positions. Over the last three years she has served simultaneously as Rwanda’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Head of Delegation to the WTO and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to Switzerland. She was also Deputy Head of Delegation for her country’s first Trade Policy Review in 2004.

Prior to her current assignment she was adviser at the Council of Economic and Social Affairs in the Office of the Rwandan President in Kigali. In this capacity, she has represented the Government of Rwanda in numerous international conferences.

Before joining government service in 2000, Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza managed her own company which she had established on her return to Rwanda in 1997. Previously she had worked for eight years as a senior manager with a major Swiss multinational company, first as head of its commercial development and marketing operations for Central Africa, based in Yaoundé, Cameroon, and then as its regional manager for Central and West Africa, based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza is a founding member of the Rwandese Private Sector Federation, the Rwanda Women Entrepreneurs’ Organization and the Rwandese Women Leaders’ Caucus.

She has been Coordinator of the African Group in the WTO. She is one of the two Ambassadors representing the LDCs in the Integrated Framework Working Group. She initiated the Integrated Framework in Rwanda.

Ambassador Sendanyoye Rugwabiza obtained both her degree and masters degree in sciences from the National University of Zaire (now RDC) respectively in 1985 and 1988.

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Harsha Vardhana Singh back to top

Harsha Vardhana Singh completed his Masters in Economics from Delhi in 1979 and went to the University of Oxford (U.K.) as a Rhodes Scholar from India to obtain his M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Economics.

He worked as consultant with the Bureau of Industrial Costs and Prices (Government of India) in New Delhi, and ILO and UNCTAD in Geneva before joining the GATT Secretariat. Mr. Singh worked for 12 years in the GATT/WTO Secretariat, in various parts of the organization, including the Office of the WTO Director General (1996-97), the Trade and Environment and Technical Barriers to Trade Division (1995-96), Rules Division (1991-95), Trade Policy Review Division (1989-1991), and the Economic Research and Analysis Unit (1985-1989). The work covered diverse areas such as servicing Committees in the area of GATT Rules, secretary of dispute settlement panels, Uruguay Round negotiations, interacting with other agencies, and a range of other activities in the Director General’s office including co-ordination of in-house activities and those involving other multilateral organizations.

In June 1997, Mr. Singh joined the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as Economic Advisor, in the year when the Telecom Regulatory Body was established by the Government of India to strengthen the regulatory process and telecom policy reform in the country. Since May 2001, Mr. Singh has been the Secretary cum Principal Advisor of the TRAI. In this capacity, he was Head of the TRAI Secretariat, and was involved in all policy initiatives of TRAI, and all interactions of TRAI with national and international agencies/bodies, including multilateral agencies, regulatory bodies, the relevant bodies in the Government and the Indian Parliament. During this period, Mr. Singh was also a member of several High Level Committees to address various policy issues, and has served as Chair of dispute settlement panels of the WTO. He has also been a member of various trade advisory committees of the Indian government and has worked on the Foreign Trade Policy of India.

He has interacted with a number of research Bodies. Recently, he became an Honorary Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and a member of the visiting faculty at the TERI School of Advanced Studies for their Masters programme in Regulatory Studies. He has authored a number of papers on trade policy and regulatory issues.

Mr. Singh is married to Veena Jha and has two children.

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Rufus H. Yerxa back to top

Rufus H. Yerxa has served as Deputy Director General since 2002.

Mr. Yerxa has an extensive record as a international trade negotiator, diplomat and lawyer. He served as a Presidential appointee in the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) during both Democratic and Republican administrations, first as the Geneva-based Ambassador to the GATT (the predecessor organization to the WTO) and subsequently as the Deputy USTR in Washington, the Administration's highest ranking sub-cabinet post for trade negotiations. In these two positions, he played a major role in negotiating and securing Congressional approval of both the Uruguay Round/WTO agreement and the NAFTA accord. Prior to these appointments he was with the Committee on Ways and Means of the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served as Staff Director of the Subcommittee on Trade. He guided the drafting and enactment of several major pieces of trade legislation.

His private sector experience includes both law practice and a senior corporate role. He was a resident partner in the Brussels office of Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, where his practice focused on international trade matters and European regulatory affairs. He subsequently joined Monsanto Company, a leading producer of agricultural input products, where he was in charge of the law, government affairs and public affairs departments for Europe and Africa. He later served as Monsanto's international counsel in Washington.

Mr. Yerxa holds a B.A. in political science from the University of Washington, a J.D. degree from the University of Puget Sound School of Law (now the Seattle University School of Law) and an LLB in international law from Cambridge University. He is a member of the District of Columbia Bar. He is married to Barbara J. McSweeney. The couple have two children, Gavin (21) and Haley (18).

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