Roberto Suarez Santos

Roberto Suárez Santos was appointed Secretary-General of the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) on 26 October 2018, having held the post of Deputy Secretary-General since December 2012. After successfully deputising for the Secretary-General over this period, dealing mainly with ILO matters and employers’ activities in the ILO Governing Body (GB) and International Labour Conference (ILC), Roberto stepped in as acting Secretary-General from March to October 2018. In his new post, Roberto is supported by a multilingual, multi-disciplinary team in discharging his overall responsibility for the day-to-day management of the Secretariat and for ensuring the Organisation works towards the achievement of the strategic priorities adopted by the IOE General Council.

Prior to joining the IOE, Roberto was ILO Programme Director for the promotion of youth employment in the Maghreb region. He previously worked at the Spanish Confederation of Employers’ Organisations (CEOE) in various areas ranging from comparative labour policies and labour relations to youth unemployment and social and employment policy. Roberto was a member of the European Social Dialogue Committee and President of the CSR group for BUSINESSEUROPE. He was BUSINESSEUROPE’s Vice President for Labour Affairs for several years and spokesperson for European employers at Euromed meetings, including Marrakech (2009), Barcelona (2010) and Brussels (2011). Roberto was Vice-President of BIAC’s Employment and Labour Affairs Committee and has been a member of various follow-up committees for the European Social Fund and the EU Economic and Social Committee.

Roberto’s experience extends to academia, having served as associate professor of European Social Law at both the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Spain. Roberto is a trained lawyer with experience in European and international labour law, as well as in international relations. In addition to his native Spanish, he speaks French and English. The IOE is the largest network of the private sector in the world. With more than 150 business and employer organisation members in 145 countries around the world, the IOE is a powerful voice for business at the international level.