Combining technical knowledge with managerial, policy and legal experience enables Peter to provide a broad package of guidance on seed and plant matters.   

 

Peter has more than 40 years of professional experience in the seed and plant sector.  After 15 years of technical and managerial responsibilities in commercial plant breeding and plant propagation, he assumed

responsibility for technical matters at the the British Society of Plant Breeders Ltd. (BSPB) and later at the UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Plant Variety and Seeds Division).  In 2000, he joined the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) as Technical Director and was appointed Vice Secretary-General of UPOV from 2010 to 2023.   

 

In his time at UPOV, Peter initiated and oversaw the development of comprehensive guidance on the UPOV Convention and drove initiatives to demonstrate the impact of plant variety protection (PVP).  He has assisted countries to develop and implement legislation on PVP and pioneered an international, digital system for implementation of PVP using block-chain technology (UPOV e-PVP). 

 

Peter has chaired a number of intergovernmental meetings and groups on administrative, legal and technical matters, including the scope of plant breeders’ rights, use of DNA techniques in relation to PVP and variety denominations.  

 

In his time at UPOV, Peter organized and moderated a number of international seminars and symposia on matters such as: the role of plant breeding and plant variety protection in enabling agriculture to mitigate and adapt to climate change; strategies and policies involving plant breeding and plant variety protection; interaction between plant variety protection and the use of plant breeding technologies;  interrelations between the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA) and the UPOV Convention, and various legal and technical aspects of PVP. 

 

Peter has extensive experience in organizing and making presentations on plant variety protection and has developed innovative approaches for the use of distance learning and train-the-trainer courses.