WIPO

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Managing Director, Bigen Global\r\nLimited, South Africa\r\n

Dr. McLean Sibanda, Managing Director of Bigen Global Limited,\r\nand Founder / Chief Executive Officer of Megethos Legacy\r\nCatalyst (Pty) Ltd (t/a Sibanda Legacy) is respected intellectual\r\nproperty, innovation and entrepreneurship expert with excellent\r\nunderstanding of different ecosystems in Africa.

He was CEO of\r\nThe Innovation Hub (2011-2018), where he oversaw its\r\nrepositioning to focus on innovation. An engineer and admitted\r\nattorney of the High Court of South Africa, and registered South\r\nAfrican patent attorney, he co-founded boutique intellectual\r\nproperty firm Sibanda & Zantwijk Attorneys (and practiced until February 2019) and consulting\r\ncompany Intangible Consulting t/a Ideanav, for which he is a director and shareholder.\r\nPassionate about Africa’s socioeconomic development, he has consulted for Southern African\r\nDevelopment Community (SADC), African Union (AU), World Intellectual Property Organization\r\n(WIPO), Governments of Eswatini, South Africa and Tanzania, and UN Economic Commission\r\nfor Africa (UNECA).

He was the lead drafter of South Africa’s Intellectual Property Rights from\r\nPublicly Financed Research and Development Act, 2008. He has served on a number of\r\ncontinental and international boards, and currently sits on the Board of the Africa Health\r\nResearch Institutes (AHRI), the Council of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), and\r\nChairs the Board of Qualibasicseed Group (Kenya, South Africa). He is a visiting lecturer at\r\nAfrica University (Mutare, Zimbabwe), where he lectures on Innovation and Entrepreneurship to\r\nMasters in Intellectual Property Management students.

In 2020 UNISA conferred an Adjunct\r\nProfessorship on Dr Sibanda. McLean holds a Doctorate of Laws (PhD) from the University of\r\nSouth Africa (UNISA) and his thesis supervised by Professor Dr. Dres. h.c. Joseph Straus from\r\nMax Plank Institute (Munich, Germany) is entitled, Enabling Intellectual Property and Innovation\r\nSystems for South Africa’s Development and Competitiveness. He has authored a number of\r\narticles on IP matters and the recent article “The Intellectual Property System as a Catalyst for\r\nSocio-Economic Development for Middle Income Countries: Lessons from South Africa” jointly\r\nauthored with Joseph Straus to be published in European Intellectual Property Review Issue 11\r\n(2020). He has published two books: “Nuts & Bolts - Strengthening Africa’s Innovation and\r\nEntrepreneurship Ecosystems” (Jan 2021), Tracey McDonald Publishers and “Footprints:\r\nLaying the Path – Intellectual property for innovation and economic development.” (Oct 2021),\r\nTracey McDonald Publishers.

","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":"https://c.connectedviews.com/assets/b230dbe6-ad40-4040-8877-d7706965f314.jpg","name":"Dr. McLean Sibanda","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226063,"bio":"

Director, Division for\r\nTransitions and Developed Countries, Regional and National Development Sector,\r\nWIPO

He\r\npreviously was President of the Turkish Patent Institute since October 2008. He\r\nwas Vice-President of the Turkish Patent Institute from December 2007 to\r\nOctober 2008.

He\r\nwas elected Deputy-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the European Patent\r\nAcademy in November 2009 and currently serves as the Acting Chairman of the\r\nBoard.

Dr.\r\nAsan holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering from Texas Tech\r\nUniversity.

\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In\r\n1994, he was appointed assistant professor of Mechanical Engineering at\r\nKaradeniz Technical University. He became associate professor in 2000. During\r\n2003-2005, he lectured at Ajman University of Science and Technology in Dubai.\r\nIn 2005, he was appointed professor at Karadeniz Technical University.

","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":"https://c.connectedviews.com/assets/c5abf4c1-148d-4aea-bb5e-dba4410cec7d.jpg","name":"Mr. Habip Asan","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226581,"bio":"Georges Ghandour, is a Lebanese –Swiss National, who lives in Geneva since 2001. Georges\r\ncurrently works at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) as senior counselor\r\nresponsible for the WIPO Development Agenda and the Committee on Development and\r\nIntellectual Property (CDIP). He was also Desk officer for the Economic Development Bureau for\r\nArab Countries in WIPO (2004-2008). He worked also as a consultant for the WIPO AcademyDistance Learning Program (2001-2004). Before joining WIPO, he worked as a legal consultant,\r\nin Lebanon, France and Switzerland.\r\nGeorges has legal background at a PhD level in IP Law, and hold an Executive Master in\r\nInternational Negotiation and Policymaking. He authored five books in Arabic language related to\r\nthe history of institutions and international negotiations.","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":null,"name":"Mr. Georges Ghandour","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226915,"bio":"

Chief IP Officer | Ministry of Industry, Commerce and\r\nEmployment, Bhutan

https://www.wipo.int/directory/en/contact.jsp?country_id=25

","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":null,"name":"Mr. Tempa Tshering","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226917,"bio":null,"birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":null,"name":"Ms. Salome Tsimakuridze","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226918,"bio":"Intellectual Property Coordinator | Ministry of Development,\r\nIndustry and Trade, Brazil","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":null,"name":"Ms. Natalia Semeria Ruschel","jobs":"","urls":""},{"id":226919,"bio":"Capacity and Skills Development Officer | International\r\nTelecommunication Union","birthdate":"","country":null,"email":"","photourl":null,"name":"Mr. Emil-Eugen Iuga","jobs":"","urls":""}];