10 May 2011

Trevor C. Clarke - Plenary speaker at IFLA WLIC 2011 Puerto Rico

IFLA is proud to announce that Mr Trevor C. Clarke, Assistant Director General, Culture and Creative Industries Sector, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has accepted our invitation to be a plenary speaker at the IFLA World Library and Information Congress in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Mr. Clarke (Barbados) came to WIPO after six years as Ambassador at the Permanent Mission of Barbados to the United Nations Office and Other International Organizations in Geneva. This followed a successful career of over 40 years in telecommunications engineering and management in the British multinational corporation Cable & Wireless. He played a key role in the telecommunications liberalization negotiations with governments, both in Barbados and the Organisation for Eastern Caribbean States.

Mr. Clarke leads WIPO’s diverse activities in the complex field of copyright and related rights, which range from supporting the normative work of Member States in the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) to capacity-building, awareness-raising and infrastructure-related activities.

Mr. Clarke describes his key priority as assisting the Director General in “building an Organization which is better positioned to address the multiple challenges to the functioning of the international intellectual property system in the rapidly evolving global environment.” In this regard, he considers the contribution of WIPO’s work on copyright and related rights to be critical. He highlights the management challenge of meeting the expectations of Member States at a time of increasing demands on WIPO’s resources and reduced income. Those expectations include building on the normative foundation to ensure that the Organization maintains its leading role as the world authority on copyright; adopting creative approaches to meet the current demands of Member States; and charting WIPO's role in the shifting sands of copyright in the digital future.

The Plenary Session with Mr. Clarke will be held on Monday 15 August from 08.30-09.15 in the Grand Salon A of the Puerto Rico Convention Centre in San Juan, Puerto Rico.