Mr. Sherif Saadallah, Executive Director, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy, is a national of Egypt and joined the International Bureau of WIPO in April 1991, as Special Assistant, Office of the Director General. In January 1993, he was transferred to the Development Cooperation and External Relations Bureau for Arab Countries. Promoted as Head of that Bureau in November 1995 and became Director of that Bureau in 1997. In December 2003, he was appointed as Executive Director of the Office of Strategic Use of Intellectual Property for Development (OSUIPD) and supervised the work of five Divisions in WIPO, namely, the Intellectual Property and Economic Development Division, the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises Division, the Intellectual Property and New Technologies Division, the Creative Industries Division, and the Division for Public Policy and Development. Mr. Saadallah was responsible for the process that led to the successful adoption of the WIPO Development Agenda in 2007. In 2008 Mr. Saadallah was appointed Executive Director of the Department of External Relations where he supervised the work of the Intergovernmental Organizations and Partnerships Section and the Non-Governmental Organizations and Industry Relations Section, as well as the WIPO Coordination Office in New York. In January 2015, Mr. Saadallah became the Executive Director of the WIPO Academy.
Before joining the International Bureau, Mr. Saadallah served as a diplomat with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Egypt. He worked in the Permanent Mission of Egypt in Geneva from 1986 to 1991. Mr. Saadallah is seconded from the Egyptian Foreign Service to WIPO and has the rank of Ambassador in his national service. He graduated from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and has studied at the Diplomatic Institute for International Studies in Cairo and at the Institut Universitaire des Hautes Études Internationales in Geneva. He speaks Arabic, English, French and Spanish.