December 2017

Assembly elects
new president
and board
Ariel Guarco from Argentina was elected president
of the Alliance at its General Assembly.
Mr Guarco is president of Cooperar, the
Co-operative Confederation of Argentina, and has
been a board member of the Alliance since 2013.
Cooperar works with 67 co-operative federations,
5,000 co-operatives, and ten million members.
Mr Guarco comes from a family of co-operators,
his mother having worked for her local village’s
electric co-op. After joining the co-op and holding
various positions, Mr Guarco was elected president.
He later became president of the federation of
public service co-operatives of Buenos Aires
(Fedecoba). He still presides over the Buenos Aires
Electric Cooperative Federation.
He says his priorities at the Alliance will be to
strengthen the interactions between its regional
and sectoral organisations, as well as consolidating
youth and gender spaces. He wants to improve
the quality and quantity of information given to
members on income, balance sheets, and projects
– and in doing so, empower organisations when
it comes to decision-making. All his proposals are
explained on his website.
Mr Guarco takes over from Monique Leroux, who
led the Alliance since 2015. During her leadership,
the Alliance sought to present the movement’s
voice at international forums and at major
economic gatherings. Co-ops were represented
by the Alliance at B20 meetings, the International
Economic Forum of the Americas’ Conference in
Montreal and the United Nations.
Ms Leroux said it had been a difficult decision
not to stand for re-election but that the diversity
of the business more also meant that co-operators
from different regions with different experiences
convictions would be represented.
Mr Guarco was the only candidate in the election
after Yogeshwar Krishna from Fiji withdrew his
candidacy. The second co-operator from the region
to lead the organisation, he received 671 votes.
He said: “It is a tremendous honour to be elected
president of the Alliance. Our movement includes
one billion people across the world. The Alliance
needs to be the lighthouse that guides them.
“The global context requires us to go out on the
pitch wearing the co-operative shirt and confront
warmongering, speculators and those controlling
p Ariel Guarco accepts the presidency of the Alliance
the economy, who are taking humanity on a road
without return, with our coherence and diversity.”
He said co-op principles were important for “the
construction of more just, inclusive and peaceful
society” and wanted the Alliance to make an
impact on decisions being made at a global scale,
on the issues facing the world.
Composition of the new Alliance board
Gregory Wall (Australia, nominated by Capricorn Society); Onofre Cezário
De Souza Filho (Brazil, nominated by Organização das Cooperativas
Brasileiras); Alexandra Wilson (Canada, nominated by Co-operatives
and Mutuals Canada); Susanne Westhausen (Denmark, nominated
by Kooperationen); Marjaana Saarikoski (Finland, nominated by SOK
Corporation); Florence Raineix (France, nominated by Coop FR); Aditya
Yadav (India, nominated by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative); Carlo
Scarzanella (Italy, nominated by Associazione Generale Cooperative
Italiane); Toru Nakaya (Japan, nominated by JA Zenchu – Central Union of
Agricultural Co-operatives); Kamarudin Ismail (Malaysia, nominated by
Malaysian National Cooperative Movement – ANGKASA); Om Devi Malia
(Napal, nominated by National Cooperative Federation of Nepal); Kok
Kwong Kwek (Singapore, nominated by Singapore National Cooperative
Federation); Anders Lago (Sweden, nominated by HSB); Ben Reid (UK,
nominated by the Midcounties Co-operative); Martin Lowery (USA,
nominated by National Rural Electric Cooperative Association).
The Assembly also increased the number of sectoral representatives
to four and the inclusion of the Gender Equality Committee chair on
the board. The board has been ratified with vice presidents Stanley
Charles Muchiri (Africa); Ramon Imperial Zúñiga (Americas); Chunsheng
Li (Asia-Pacific); Jean-Louis Bancel (Europe). Sectoral representatives
Kim Byeongown (International Co-operative Agricultural Organisation);
Isabelle Ferrand (International Co-operative Banking Association); Manuel
Mariscal (CICOPA); Petar Stefanov (Consumer Cooperatives Worldwide).
From the Gender Equality Committee, Maria Eugenia Pérez Zea; youth
representative, Sébastien Chaillou.
DECEMBER 2017 | 21