Ariel Guarco, the recently elected President of the International Co-operative Alliance (the Alliance) this week spoke to over 200 delegates at the 25th Annual ICMIF/Americas Conference currently being held in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Guarco was one of the speakers in the official conference opening ceremony where he was joined by Georgina Díaz Sánchez (pictured with Guarco), Chair, ICMIF/Americas and General Manager, Sociedad de Seguros de Vida del Magisterio Nacional (Costa Rica); Sergio Fuentes, Chairman, Surco Seguros Uruguayos Cooperativos (Uruguay) – the host for the event; Andrés Elola, General Manager, Surco Seguros Uruguayos Cooperativos (Uruguay); Juan Pedro Cantera Sención, Superintendent of Financial Services, Central Bank of Uruguay; and Graciela Fernández Quintas, Chairwoman, Uruguayan Confederation of Cooperative Entities (CUDECOOP)
Guarco thanked both the delegates and conference organisers for allowing him to be part of the event saying it was gratifying to able to share visions on how we can continue to strengthen the cooperative movement in the Americas region and further around the globe. He told delegates that “The future will give us opportunities to work together. We are working within the same frame.”
Guarco is a cooperative leader who has worked to progress and strengthen the Argentinean cooperative movement and has built active links with the rest of the cooperative movement in the Americas from his involvement in Cooperatives of the Americas Board of Directors, where he serves as Vice President.
He is a man forged by the public services cooperative sector, particularly electric cooperatives. He started in cooperatives more than 20 years ago in the electric cooperative of his town, occupying various positions until he became president, a position he has held since 2007. In 2008 he was elected president of the Federation of Electric Cooperatives and Public Services of the province of Buenos Aires – FEDECOBA – a position he also maintains until today.
Since 2011, he has also chaired the Cooperative Confederation of the Argentine Republic (COOPERAR), the umbrella organisation of Argentine cooperatives, after being unanimously ratified for a new three year period in the role in July of this year.
In 2013, Guarco joined the Board of the International Co-operative Alliance and during the last General Assembly he was elected President of the Alliance on Friday 17 November during the Alliance’s General Assembly held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
