MTCR CHAIR AND TROIKA

Ambassador Flávio Soares Damico is the Special Representative of Brazil to the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva and was elected as Chair of the Working Group on the Strengthening of the Convention on the Prohibition of Biological and Toxic Weapons in March 2023 for a two-year mandate. From 2022 to 2023, he presided over the Group of Governmental Experts on Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems created under the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons. Previously, he was posted to Brazil's Representations to the International Organizations in Geneva, to the World Trade Organization in Geneva, to Uruguay and to the United Nations in New York. Soares Damico graduated and post-graduated in Economics from the Institute for Economics Research and Studies of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul - Brazil. He is married to Rosa Maria Campos Damico and has two children and one stepson.

Ambassador Benno Laggner is the Resident Representative of Switzerland to the IAEA, Governor on the IAEA Board of Governors and Permanent Representative to the CTBTO Preparatory Commission in Vienna. He has served as the Chair of the Hague Code of Conduct against Ballistic Missile Proliferation and Chair of the Nuclear Suppliers Group. Before being posted to Vienna, he served as the Head of the Division for Security Policy at the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs with responsibility for arms control, disarmament, non-proliferation and international security. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Relations (University of St.Gallen) and is married to Mrs. Andrea Laggner.