Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry (PhD Law ’84) has been appointed to head the World Maritime University in Sweden.

The appointment was announced by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), the UN agency for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of marine pollution by ships, and the World Maritime University (WMU), a center of excellence for maritime post-graduate education and research.

Dr. Doumbia-Henry, with dual Dominican and Swiss nationality, is currently Director of the International Labour Standards Department of the International Labour Organization (ILO). She is expected to assume office as WMU President, in Malmö, Sweden, in July.

Dr. Doumbia-Henry has served the UN system with distinction for many years. As Director of the International Labour Standards Department of the ILO, she was instrumental in developing and working with governments and the shipowners’ and seafarers’ organisations to help ensure effective national legal implementation of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.

She has a long standing commitment to the maritime sector and to education, beginning with her doctoral research on IMO Conventions. In addition, she has an excellent knowledge of developing countries needs in implementing and enforcing the provisions of maritime transport related multilateral treaties.

Dr. Doumbia-Henry will be the seventh WMU president and will be the first female in the role as well as the first President from a developing country.

Dr. Doumbia-Henry began her career at the University of the West Indies, Barbados, as a lecturer in law. She worked with the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, The Netherlands and then joined the ILO in 1986. She served as a senior lawyer of ILO as well as in other management positions before being appointed Director of the International Labour Standards Department in 2004. She was heavily involved in the development of the Maritime Labour Convention, 2006.