Arial Guarco re-elected President of the ICA at the General Assembly in Seville

The members of the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) have renewed the mandate of Ariel Guarco for the next four years. From a total of 779 total votes, Mr Guarco was re-elected President of the ICA with 455 of the votes. The elections took place at the ICA General Assembly on 20 June 2022, in Seville, Spain.

Ariel Guarco has been a cooperator since his youth, through his involvement in the Electric Cooperative of Coronel Pringles, in the southern part of Argentina. He has been the President of the ICA member Cooperative Confederation of the Argentine Republic (COOPERAR) since 2011, and he was a Board member of Cooperatives of the Americas from 2014-2018. Mr. Guarco has been an ICA Board member since 2013 and elected President of the ICA in November 2017.

He said: “I am humbled to be re-elected president of the ICA. In these four years I have done my best to meet the commitments of my mandate and I will offer once again my commitment, my dedication and my enthusiasm to move forward in a new chapter where we can crystallize new achievements.”

Two other candidates were standing for ICA President: Melina Morrison, who obtained 164 votes, nominated by Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals, Australia, and Jean-Louis Bancel, who obtained 160 votes, nominated by Coop FR, France.

ICA At Large Board of Directors
A new Board of Directors has also been elected. Twenty-two candidates were standing for 15 seats on the Board. The elected Board members are:

The ICA Members at Large results can be found here.

Four ICA sectoral organisation representatives were nominated by their respective constituents and formally elected by the General Assembly. They are Dr. Carlos Zarco from the International Health Cooperative Organisation (IHCO), Blase Lambert from Cooperative Housing International (CHI), Sung-hee Lee from the International Cooperative Agricultural Organisation (ICAO) and Shaun Tarbuck from International Cooperative and Mutual Insurance Federation (ICMIF). The youth representative – Ana Aguirre, from Spain, and gender equality chair- Xiomara Nuñez de Cespedes from the Dominican Republic were formally elected. Three Vice Presidents who were recently elected by their Regional Assemblies were ratified by the ICA General Assembly. They are High Chief Oriyomi Ayeola from ICA Africa, Chandrapal Singh Yadav from ICA-Asia Pacific, and Susanne Westhausen from Cooperatives Europe.

The full list of ICA Board members for the mandate 2022-2026 can be found here.

Around 400 cooperative leaders from 60 countries gathered in Seville, for the General Assembly. The General Assembly also included a speech from the President of ICA member COOP Ukraine who offered a speech to the audience sharing the situation of the cooperative movement in the country and calling for support.