WADA appoints Benjamin Cohen as Director, European Regional Office and International Federations Relations

The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Benjamin Cohen as Director, European Regional Office and International Federations Relations. Mr. Cohen will assume the role, in Lausanne, Switzerland on 1 November 2016.

Currently Head of Governance and Legal Affairs for the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), Mr. Cohen has been managing FIBA’s Legal Services since 2009. Prior to FIBA, Benjamin held various roles with the United Nations Office of Sport for Development and Peace in New York and the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) in Nyon, Switzerland.

In his new role, Mr. Cohen will reinforce WADA’s mission by ensuring that anti-doping programs are compliant with the World Anti-Doping Code and the Agency’s objectives are successfully met. More specifically, Benjamin will support International Federations with their development of high quality programs; liaise with IF umbrella associations, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sports bodies; and, engage as appropriate with governmental and intergovernmental bodies in the European region such as the Council of Europe and the European Union.

Mr. Cohen is a member of various Commissions, Task Forces and Expert Groups with the IOC; the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) and the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF). Benjamin is also President of the Legal Commission for the International League against Racism (LICRA).

Mr. Cohen has a Bachelor and Masters of Law from the University of Fribourg, Switzerland and the University of Durham, England. Benjamin also holds a Masters of Advanced Studies in Sports Administration and Technology from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), University of Geneva & Lausanne. He is a regular lecturer on the topic of sports governance and dispute resolution for various sports management programs; notably, at Columbia University, the CIES FIFA Master, the AISTS Master in Sports Administration & Technology and other universities worldwide. He is currently pursuing his PhD in Law on International Sports Governance at the University of Zurich, in Switzerland – supervised by Professor, Dr. Ulrich Haas.

Mr. Cohen succeeds Frédéric Donzé who, as previously announced, will be taking up his new role as WADA’s Chief Operating Officer, in Montreal, on 3 October 2016.

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