Past ACCFs

Acting Director, Creative Industries Division, WIPO Geneva

Mr. DIMITER GANTCHEV is the Acting Director of the Creative Industries Division in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, since June 2005. Before joining this division he worked as a Senior Counselor in the Copyright and Related Rights Sector and in the Economic Development Sector of WIPO, focusing on the economic aspects of copyright and related rights, their contribution to economic development, as well as public policy issues affecting economic development policies. He is a national of Bulgaria, born in 1961 in Bulgaria. Until 2002, Mr. Gantchev has occupied various senior positions as a diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Bulgaria and served as a diplomat in Sweden, Belgium and Switzerland. He has been a Deputy Permanent Representative of Bulgaria to the United Nations and the other International Organizations at Geneva.

Mr. Gantchev holds degrees from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MA in International Relations) and the Sofia University of National and World Economy (Ph.D. in Economics). He is a Founding Member of the Bulgarian National Association on Intellectual Property and Member of the Bulgarian Association for studies on the European Community. He has numerous publications on intellectual property and foreign policy issues. Mr. Gantchev speaks English, French, Russian, Swedish and Bulgarian. He is married, with two children.