Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo (; born 3 October 1957) is a Brazilian career diplomat who served as

Director-General of the World Trade Organization The director-general of the World Trade Organization is the officer of the World Trade Organization (WTO) responsible for supervising and directing the organization's administrative operations. Since the World Trade Organization's decisions are ...

(WTO) from 2013 until 2020. Since 2020, he has been Executive Vice President and Director of Corporate Affairs at

PepsiCo PepsiCo, Inc. is an American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation headquartered in Harrison, New York, in the hamlet of Purchase. PepsiCo's business encompasses all aspects of the food and beverage market. It oversees the manuf ...

. Azevêdo was elected to succeed

Pascal Lamy Pascal Lamy (born 8 April 1947) is a French political consultant and businessman. He was the Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from 1 September 2005 to 1 September 2013 for 8 years. In April 2009, WTO members reappointed Lamy ...

as Director-General of the

World Trade Organization The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. With effective cooperation in the United Nations System, governments use the organization to establish, revise, and e ...

in May 2013. On 14 May 2020, he announced publicly via a teleconference that he would resign on 31 August the same year, just a year before his second four-year term as Director-General expired.

Early life and education

Azevêdo graduated in

Electrical Engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from the

University of Brasília The University of Brasília ( pt, Universidade de Brasília, UnB) is a federal public university in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. It was founded in 1960 and has since consistently been named among the top five Brazilian universities and the ...

and in

International Relations International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities between states—such as ...

at the

Rio Branco Institute The Rio Branco Institute (; Abbreviation: IRBr) is a graduate school of International Relations and diplomatic academy located in Brasília, Brazil. The institute was created on April 18, 1945, as part of the centennial celebration of the birth o ...

. Besides his native Portuguese, he is fluent in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

, French and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Career

His first diplomatic posting was to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, United States, in 1988. He subsequently served in the Brazilian embassy in

Montevideo Montevideo () is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2011 census, the city proper has a population of 1,319,108 (about one-third of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Uruguay, before being assigned to the Permanent Mission of Brazil in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, Switzerland, in 1997. In 2001 Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo was named head of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry's Dispute Settlement Unit where he remained until 2005. During his tenure he acted as chief litigator in many disputes at the WTO and served on WTO dispute settlement panels. From 2006 to 2008, he was Vice-Minister for Economic and Technical Affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Brasilia. In that capacity, he was Brazil's chief trade negotiator for the

Doha Round The Doha Development Round or Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is the trade-negotiation round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) which commenced in November 2001 under then director-general Mike Moore. Its objective was to lower trade barriers ...

and represented Brazil in

MERCOSUR The Southern Common Market, commonly known by Spanish abbreviation Mercosur, and Portuguese Mercosul, is a South American trade bloc established by the Treaty of Asunción in 1991 and Protocol of Ouro Preto in 1994. Its full members are Argentina ...

negotiations. In 2008, he was appointed Brazil's Ambassador in Geneva to the United Nations’ international organizations and Permanent Representative to the WTO. Ambassador Azevêdo has been a frequent lecturer on topics related to international economics and has published numerous articles on these issues.

Director General of the World Trade Organization

In May 2013 Azevêdo was appointed to succeed Pascal Lamy as the WTO's Director General, with a term beginning 1 September 2013. There were nine nominated candidates for the role, Azevêdo being considered the "insider's candidate" preferred by developing economies. His opponent, Mexican

Herminio Blanco Herminio Alonso Blanco Mendoza (born July 25, 1950 in Chihuahua) is a Mexican economist.''Diccionario biográfico del gobierno mexicano'', Ed. Fondo de Cultura Económica, Mexico, 1992. Herminio Blanco has 27 years of experience in internat ...

, was considered to have been the preferred candidate of richer nations. The Brazilian government pre-empted the official announcement of the WTO and stated that Azevêdo had won by a wide margin. The official announcement from the WTO's three-person committee for selecting the Director-General was published on 8 May 2013, declaring Azevêdo as the emergent consensus candidate from several rounds of consultation. The formal election occurred at the General Council meeting on 14 May. Unlike his predecessors in the position, Azevêdo had been a WTO ambassador rather than a minister before taking office.Alan Beattie and Aime Williams (May 14, 2020)
WTO chief Roberto Azevêdo to step down early
''

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

''. Under his leadership, the WTO agreed to the

Bali Package The Bali Package is a trade agreement resulting from the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Bali, Indonesia on 3–7 December 2013. It is aimed at lowering global trade barriers and is the first agreement reached thr ...

in December 2013. He was reelected on 28 February 2017 and started his second term on 1 September 2017. Also under Azevêdo, the organization deliberately kept a low profile during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, staying largely silent over the export restrictions on medical equipment. At a virtual meeting of all WTO members on 14 May 2020, Azevêdo announced that he would step down on 31 August, cutting his second term short by exactly one year.

Other activities

International Gender Champions International Gender Champions (IGC) is a network of female and male leaders of member states, international organizations, and civil society working for gender equality. It is an initiative of Women@TheTable, and was founded in 2015 by Caitlin Kr ...

(IGC), MemberMembers

(IGC).

Personal life

Azevêdo is married to Ambassador

Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo Maria Nazareth Farani Azevêdo (born 15 August 1957) is a career diplomat. She has been the Brazilian Consul General in New York City since 2021. Life Azevêdo was born in Alegre, Espírito Santo, in 1957. She trained to be a diplomat at the ...

, a Brazilian career diplomat like himself. She is currently (2020) head of the Brazilian permanent mission to the

United Nations Office at Geneva The United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG, french: Office des Nations Unies à Genève) in Geneva, Switzerland, is one of the four major offices of the United Nations where numerous different UN agencies have a joint presence. The main UNOG ...

, and they have two daughters.

References

External links

World Trade
biography {{DEFAULTSORT:Azevedo, Roberto 1957 births Living people People from Salvador, Bahia Brazilian diplomats Electrical engineers Brazilian expatriates in Switzerland Brazilian expatriates in the United States Brazilian expatriates in Uruguay Permanent Representatives of Brazil to the World Trade Organization Directors-General of the World Trade Organization University of Brasília alumni