Director-General of the World Trade Organization

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization is responsible for supervising the administrative functions of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Because World Trade Organizations' decisions are made by member states (through either a Ministerial Conference or through the General Council), the Director-General has little power over matters of policy - the role is primarily advisory and managerial. The Director-General supervises the WTO secretariat of about 700 staff and is appointed by WTO members for a term of four years.^[1]

The current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo of Brazil, since 1 September 2013.^[2]

Before the creation of the WTO, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade had a series of Directors-General. Peter Sutherland was the last DG of GATT and the first of the WTO.

Past Directors-General

This is a list of former holders of the office of director-general. The post was created in 1995, although the earlier office of Executive Secretary is often seen as a direct equivalent.

	Name	Portrait	Took office	Left office	Country
1	Peter Sutherland		1 July 1993	1 May 1995	Ireland
2	Renato Ruggiero		1 May 1995	1 September 1999	Italy
3	Mike Moore		1 September 1999	1 September 2002	New Zealand
4	Supachai Panitchpakdi		1 September 2002	1 September 2005	Thailand
5	Pascal Lamy		1 September 2005	1 September 2013	France
6	Roberto Azevedo		1 September 2013	incumbent	Brazil