Head of WIPO misrepresents age
Via IP-Watch, WIPO Director Kamil Idris has misrepresented his age by 9 years. One possibility that can be drawn fromt the article is that he might have done it to appear older in order to get a position at WIPO. What is clear from the article is that he misrepresented his age, but what isn’t clear is why.
I’m not sure what to think about this. One the one hand, you definitely wouldn’t want someone who would be dishonest about their work history and age in such a high position. On the other hand, no one is complaining about the quality of his work, and the fact that he was 28 when he started at WIPO was no real impediment. What is getting to me is quotes like:
being considerably younger, [Idris] would have appeared as having considerably less experience, particularly at the international level, than the other short listed candidate.
So age in relation to perceived level of experience (older = wiser) played a factor in hiring, which just strikes me funny. Clearly a 28 year old could have done the job, but they wouldn’t have hired one.
