Biography job are now known.
There are eight candidates in the race; three from Africa, two from Europe, one from the Middle-East, one from North America, and one from Asia.
In the race are three women — Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Amina Mohammed and Yoo Myung-hee — and four men.
If any of the women win, she would become the first female WTO DG since the organization was set up 25 years ago.
Here is a biography of three female candidates as reviewed by TheCable and here is how they stand:
1. YOO MYUNG-HEE
| COUNTRY | KOREA |
|---|---|
| Age | 53 |
| Occupation | Lawyer, politician |
| Current job | Minister of trade |
| Education | Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt University Law School, and masters in public policy from Seoul National University |
| Previous international jobs | None |
| Previous local jobs | Presidential spokesperson; deputy minister for FTA negotiation; First Secretary (2007-2008) and then Counsellor (2009-2010), Korean Embassy in China; Director-General for Bureau of Trade Policy |
| Current international jobs | None |
| Awards | N/A |
| Selling point | Experience negotiating trade at the highest level of governance in and out of the WTO |
| WTO experience | None |
| Quotable quote | “South Korea can become a bridge, connecting developing countries and advanced countries” |
| Quick fact | She is regarded as the “devil’s advocate” in Korea, due to her aggressive trade negotiations, and she is the first woman to become minister of trade in Korea — after 70 years of male domination. |
2. AMINA MOHAMED JIBRIL
| COUNTRY | KENYA |
|---|---|
| Age | 58 |
| Occupation | Lawyer, diplomat, and politician |
| Current Job | Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage, and Culture in Kenya |
| Education | LLM in International law from the University of Kiev, Ukraine and Postgraduate diploma in International Relations from the University of Oxford, UK. |
| Previous International Jobs | Chair of the International Organization for Migration, chair of the World Trade Organization’s General Council, assistant secretary-General of the UN and deputy executive director at UNEP. |
| Previous local Jobs | Cabinet Secretary for Foreign Affairs; Cabinet Secretary for Education |
| Awards | Knight of the Order of the Star of Italian Solidarity (Cav.O.S.S.I.); Life Member of the Red Cross Society; Honorary Doctorate from KCA University; Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun (2017) |
| Selling point | Experience at the highest level of the WTO |
| WTO Experience | She ran for the office of the DG in 2013 but lost to Roberto Azevedo, the current DG |
| Controversy | Ran against the AU candidate for the WTO top job in 2013 — both lost |
| Quotable quote | “The best years of this organisation (WTO) are not in the past, they are in its future; there is always a golden past, but the best is never in the past” |
| Fun fact | She speaks Somali, English, Russian, Swahili and has a working knowledge of French |
3. NGOZI OKONJO-IWEALA
| COUNTRY | NIGERIA |
|---|---|
| Age | 65 |
| Occupation | Development economist, diplomat |
| Current job | Chair, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance |
| Education | Bachelor’s in economics from Harvard University and PhD in regional economics and development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Honourary degrees from over a dozen universities worldwide. |
| Previous international jobs | MD of the World Bank; co-chair of the Global Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation; UN Secretary General’s high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda |
| Previous local Jobs | Two-time minister of finance in Nigeria; minister of foreign affairs. The first female to take up both jobs. |
| Current International Jobs | Board member at Twitter, Standard Chartered Bank, and African Risk Capacity; co-Chair of the Global Commission for the Economy and Climate; member Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) international advisory board; IMF external advisory board; AU special envoy. |
| Awards | Global Finance Minister of the Year 2005 by Euromoney; Top 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2014 by TIME Magazine, 2014; Top 100 Global Thinkers 2011, 2012 by Foreign Policy; the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in the World by Forbes Magazine 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014; National honours from Nigeria, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire. |
| Selling point | Experience at the highest level of the World Bank, and easily one of Africa’s most trusted technocrats |
| WTO Experience | None |
| Quotable quote | “The best way to help Africans today is to help them to stand on their own feet. And the best way to do that is by helping create jobs.” |
| Quick fact | Kidnapper who held her mother captive requested her resignation as minister of finance for her role in seeking transparency with fuel subsidy payment in Nigeria. She refused. |
