Dr Manzoor Ahmad is an expert in international trade and customs with many years of experience at national and international level. Previously he served as Pakistan’s Ambassador to the WTO before which he was head of Pakistan Customs among others. While at the WTO, he played a key role in negotiations on trade facilitation.

Ambassador Roberto Azevêdo is the Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO. He has previously served in the Brazilian Foreign Ministry as Undersecretary for Economic Affairs and Director of the Department for Economic Affairs.

Professor Arsene M. Balihuta is currently a Senior Presidential Adviser on Public Private Partnership in Uganda. Previously he was the Executive Chairman, Uganda Development Corporation; before which he served as Uganda’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, UN and Switzerland during which time he chaired the WTO Africa Group. He has also served as an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Economics and Management, Makerere University Uganda.

Braz Baracuhy is the WTO agriculture negotiator and G-20 coordinator in the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the WTO.

Ujal Singh Bhatia was India’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO between 2004 and 2010. He joined the Indian Administrative Service in 1974 and served in a number of senior positions in the Central and State governments. He was involved in a number of regional and multilateral negotiations on trade issues. He has retired from the government now and writes and speaks frequently on trade and economic issues.

Ambassador Dian Triansyah Djani is Indonesia’s Ambassador / Permanent Representative to the United Nations, WTO and other International Organisations in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a career diplomat having served at the Indonesian Missions in New York and Geneva, as Director for Multilateral Trade and Industry in charge of WTO issues in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and as Director General of ASEAN Cooperation. He serves as Vice President of the UN Human Rights Council, and held several other posts at UN Bodies, including President of the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board (2009).

Ambassador Erwidodo is the Ambassador/Deputy Permanent Representative in charge of WTO at the Indonesian Mission in Geneva before which he was Director General of the Agency for Trade Research and Development, Ministry of Trade, Indonesia. At the WTO, he coordinates the G-33 at Ambassadors’ level. He was Chair of WTO Committee on Trade and Development (2010) and chairs the Council for Trade in Services (2011). He received his Ph.D in agricultural economics from Michigan State University, USA.

Guillermo Valles Galmés is a former Ambassador of Uruguay to the WTO where he chaired for five years the Negotiating Group on Rules. Prior to this, he was for four years Deputy Foreign Minister of Uruguay and has served in several bilateral and multilateral diplomatic missions in Latin American, European, Asian and UN posts.

Ambassador Faizel Ismail is currently the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of South Africa to the WTO. He chaired the WTO Committee on Trade and Development Special Session for two years 2004-2006. He has published two books: Mainstreaming Development in the WTO and Reforming the World Trade Organisation (CUTS International, 2007 and 2009).

Deny Wachyudi Kurnia is a career diplomat who served at the Indonesian posts in Canberra, Australia and Brussels, Belgium. He joined the Indonesian Mission in Geneva in 2007 and coordinates the G-33 work at the Experts level. He chairs the WTO Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (2011). He holds a Master’s degree in International Relations from Monash University, Australia.

Ambassador Matern Y.C. Lumbanga, is currently Tanzania’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the WTO as well as to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva. He has served as Coordinator of the LDC Group to the WTO prior to which he served the Tanzanian Government in many senior positions, including as a Permanent Secretary in various Ministries and later became the Chief Secretary to “the Head of Public Service and Secretary to the Cabinet” of the United Republic of Tanzania.

Nelson Ndirangu is currently the Programme Director, Programme Management Unit (PMU) of the ACP MTS Programme. Previously he was Kenya’s lead negotiator in the WTO and coordinated the African Group in the DDA where he particularly spearheaded negotiations on NAMA, Development and TRIPs and Public Health.

Guilherme Patriota is a career diplomat with the Brazilian Foreign Service since 1983. He currently works as Special Adviser to the President on international affairs. He has taken part in several multilateral negotiations on science and technology, trade, intellectual property and on economic and social affairs. He served his country in diplomatic missions in New York, Geneva, Montevideo, Washington and Wellington.

Vinod Rege is a former Director of GATT (now WTO). In a career spanning nearly fifty years, at national and international level, he has specialised in the study of trade and development issues of developing countries and in international trade law; areas in which he has written extensively. Currently he provides expert assistance on WTO Doha Round negotiations to the Geneva group of Commonwealth developing countries.

Sir Ronald Sanders is a former Ambassador to the WTO for Antigua and Barbuda. More recently, he has been a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group tasked with recommending strengthening the 54-nation Commonwealth. He has negotiated trade and investment agreements with the UK, China, the US and the EU. A member of the Executive Board of UNESCO, he has also served on the Board of Directors of private sector companies in the US and several Caribbean countries.

Ambassador Shree Baboo Chekitan Servansing is the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mauritius to the UN and other International Organisations in Geneva, including the WTO. He has served as Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) and Chair of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD). In this capacity, he also chaired the Dedicated Session of the CTD on Aid for Trade and the Work Programme on Small Economies. He is also the Coordinator of the ACP Group in Geneva and in this capacity represents ACP interests in the DDA negotiations including in most of the restricted meetings.

Guillermo Malpica Soto is Director General of Services and Investment Negotiations at the Mexican Ministry of the Economy since 2008. Earlier, he was Economic Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the WTO in Geneva, and has been working for more than ten years in services negotiations issues.

Manuel Antonio J. Teehankee is the former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of the Philippines to the WTO and Chair of the WTO Committee on Trade and Environment sitting in Special Session. Previously he also chaired the regular Committee on Trade and Environment and the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology. He is a lawyer by training and was formerly Undersecretary of the Department of Justice and Government Corporate Counsel from 2001 to early 2004. As head of the Philippine Mission, he was active in various disputes involving the Philippines before the WTO.