A lo largo del siglo, la OIT DG’s ha designado a 12 funcionarios para dirigir el trabajo de la organización sobre las cooperativas y la economía social y solidaria en general. Casi todos los miembros del personal provenían de las filas de la organización que habían trabajado en diferentes capacidades en el campo y la sede antes de liderar las cooperativas y la cartera más amplia de economía social y solidaria en la oficina. En la transición entre el nombramiento de los gerentes de COOP, hubo varios casos de Oficiales a Cargo a quienes se les delegó temporalmente la responsabilidad de liderar esta cartera en el ínterin.

1. Georges Fauquet, jefe de OIT COOP, en funciones entre 1920 y 1932
2. Maurice Colombain, jefe de OIT COOP entre 1932 y 1947
3. Goodwin Norman Lamming, jefe de OIT COOP entre finales de 1947 y 1956
4. Sailendra Narayan Roy, jefe de OIT COOP entre finales de 1956 y 1964
5. Jean Baptiste Orizet, jefe de ILO COOP entre finales de 1960 y 1970
6. Desmond Louis William Anker, jefe de OIT COOP entre 1970 y 1971
7. Thiecouta Sidibe, jefe de OIT COOP entre 1973 to 1980
8. Adoum Maurice Hél-Bongo, jefe de OIT COOP entre 1981 to 1990
9. Joseph Ciro Fazzio, jefe de OIT COOP entre 1992 to 2000
10. Juergen Schwettmann, jefe de OIT COOP entre2001 to 2006
11. Hagen Henrÿ, jefe de OIT COOP entre 2007 to 2011
12. Simel Esim, jefe de la OIT COOP desde 2012 hasta la actualidad.

Georges Fauquet (1873-1953), primer jefe de OIT COOP, en funciones entre 1920 y 1932

Georges Fauquet nace en 1873 en Lillebonne (Francia). Su labor en el cooperativismo comienza temprano en su vida. Como joven médico trata a los socios de la cooperativa L’Avenir de Plaisance, y se asocia a una cooperativa de consumo en París. En 1905 aprueba el examen habilitante como inspector del trabajo, e inspecciona las cooperativas lecheras en las regiones francesas de Charente y Poitou. Durante los dos primeros años de la Primera Guerra Mundial ejerce como médico del ejército, y trabaja para potenciar el papel de las cooperativas de consumo como proveedoras de prestaciones sociales a los empleados de las fábricas de armas.

En 1920 asume la jefatura de la Sección de Cooperación de la OIT, y trabaja estrechamente con quien había sido el primer Director de dicha Sección, Albert Thomas. Ocupa este cargo hasta 1932. Después de jubilarse de la OIT, Fauquet continúa trabajando en la esfera cooperativa. Desde 1934 hasta su muerte en Gaillard (Francia) en 1953, representa a las cooperativas francesas en el Comité Central de la Alianza Cooperativa Internacional (ACI). En 1952 Rabat le dedica un centro de cooperación al que da su nombre, el Centro George Fauquet de Estudios y Acción Cooperativa de Marruecos. En 1954, en su 19º Congreso celebrado en París, la ACI concede a Fauquet con carácter póstumo el Premio Trienal de la ACI en reconocimiento a sus contribuciones al pensamiento cooperativo.

Fauquet fue un pensador del cooperativismo y promovió la teoría de la cooperación. En la primera edición de su obra principal, titulada “The Cooperative Sector”, de 1935, definió el papel específico de las cooperativas como parte de las economías nacionales e internacionales, y no como un sistema económico independiente y distinto. Hizo un llamamiento a una mayor colaboración entre los diversos tipos de cooperativas, en particular entre las cooperativas agrícolas y las cooperativas urbanas de consumo.

En 1949 se publicó un compendio de sus artículos publicados entre 1932 y 1946, cuyo título fue “Insights on the Cooperative Movement”, en los que reflexiona sobre cuestiones propias de la unidad para la cooperación en sus diversas modalidades; la integración de las cooperativas; las diferencias entre empresas y asociaciones; la visión de la cooperación como empresas de servicios; y la naturaleza moral de la cooperación.

Maurice Colombain (1887-1966), jefe de OIT COOP entre 1932 to 1947

Maurice Colombain nace en 1887 en Calais (Francia). Se incorpora a la OIT al crearse la Sección de Cooperación en 1920, para la que Fauquet fuera designado responsable. En 1932, Colombain sustituye como jefe a Fauquet y permanece en el cargo hasta 1947. Siendo Jefe de la Sección de Cooperación en la OIT, en 1937 dirige el primer proyecto de asistencia técnica sobre cooperativas solicitado por el Gobierno de Marruecos, y ejerce de asesor de políticas de fomento de las cooperativas en el país.

Después de jubilarse de la OIT, Colombain se incorporó a la junta de la Oficina Central de Cooperativas Escolares de Francia, y fue consejero en cooperativismo en el Ministerio de Asuntos Exteriores. Además, fue Presidente del Comité Nacional de la Federación de Cooperativas de Consumo de Francia y Director del Instituto de Estudios Cooperativos de París

En 1950 la UNESCO encomienda a Maurice Colombain estudiar el tema de las cooperativas y la educación fundamental. La institución publica el estudio con el título “Las Cooperativas y la Educación Fundamental”, En esta obra, el autor explica la pedagogía aplicada a la educación en el cooperativismo en los diferentes países. Colombain encomiaba la función económica de las cooperativas, como la reducción de la usura y el endeudamiento al crear economías de escala y aumentar el poder adquisitivo, y recalcaba la experiencia educativa que la participación en sociedades cooperativas representaba para los socios, en especial para los trabajadores de la economía rural. En una monografía escribió lo siguiente:

“No cabe duda de que las instituciones de cooperación son instrumentos productivos para el desarrollo económico, pero además tienen un gran valor educativo intrínseco. Proporcionan a la comunidad rural un tipo de organización práctica que educa a sus miembros progresivamente. Las cooperativas expresan las necesidades e intereses de sus socios, de ahí el gran número de ejemplos de cooperativas que se interesan activamente en las escuelas, incluso hasta el punto de dedicar parte de sus beneficios a la educación formal. Se ha demostrado que iniciar cooperativas ya en las escuelas, para que los niños puedan formarse en los hábitos del cooperativismo es posible, y que la didáctica puede combinar la práctica y la teoría.”

Goodwin Norman Lamming (1913-2001), jefe de OIT COOP entre finales de 1947 y 1956

Goodwin Norman Lamming nace en julio de 1913 en el Reino Unido. Comienza su carrera como corresponsal de Co-operative Newsen Londres. Después de trabajar en la Sociedad Cooperativa de Compras al por Mayor, gana una beca para estudiar el cooperativismo y los movimientos sindicales en Suecia, donde se instala entre 1937 y 1939. Posteriormente publica una obra al respecto, “Sweden’s Co-operative Enterprise” (Manchester, Inglaterra: Co-operative Union, 1940). En 1940 se incorpora al personal de prensa del Consulado Británico de Estocolmo, y posteriormente se le nombra sucesivamente Agregado Auxiliar de Prensa y Agregado Laboral.é. 

Thiecouta Sidibe (1931-2003), Chief of ILO COOP from 1973 to 1980

A Senegalese national, Thiecouta Sidibé received his education in French institutions and wrote his thesis on transport and economic development of Senegal in 1958/9. After the completion of his studies he moved to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs to work on labour and social legislation. In 1961, he was recruited to work at the International Labour Standards Division of the ILO in 1961. He moved to the ILO office in Lagos in 1966 until 1969 when he was appointed as the Director of the ILO office in Yaounde. He was promoted to the position of Chief of Co-operative, Rural and Related Institutions Branch in Geneva in 1973. The name of the Branch was changed to Cooperatives in 1975. He led the branch until 1980 before moving back to the International Labour Standards Department as its Deputy Chief in 1981. He was promoted to the position of Director of the Department in 1984. He retired from that position in 1992 after more than 30 years of service at the ILO. After his retirement he devoted his time to meditation and study of Buddhism. He passed away in 2003.

Source: Curriculum Vitae of Thiecoute Sidibe from ILO Archives; ILO Friends Newsletter No. 35, December 2003, p. 39-40; and Archives Nationales d’outre-mer.

Adoum Maurice Hél-Bongo (1930 -2010), Chief of ILO COOP from 1981 to 1990

Adoum Maurice Hél-Bongo was born in 1930 in Chad. He studied law in Paris and he was the President of the Association of Chadian Students in France. Following his legal studies, he worked at different government positions in the Ministry of Economy and Finance and Minister of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry. Prior to joining the ILO as the Director of the ILO Office in Dakar in 1967, he served as the Minister of Social Affairs between 1964 -7. He transferred to Geneva as the Head of the Africa Unit at the Office for the Coordination of Practical Activities then as the Head of the African Liaison Service of the ILO. He was the Chief of the Cooperatives Branch between 1981 and 1990. After his retirement he was asked to preside over the National Sovereign Council which was charged with preparing a draft of the constitution of Chad in 1993. He was awarded the Palme d'Honneur by the Town Hall of Onex (Republic and Canton of Geneva) in 2008 and invited to give a speech on the occasion of the celebration of the Swiss National Day on the 1st of August 2008. He had five children of his own and four adopted children. In addition to French and English, he spoke Arabic and Sango (CAR). He passed away in Geneva, Switzerland in 2010.

Joseph Ciro Fazzio, Chief of ILO COOP from 1992 to 2000

Joseph Fazzio was born in the US in 1940. He has received his BA from Notre Dame University, his MA from the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at the Johns Hopkins University (Bologna and Washington, DC) on Common Market Studies and his Ph.D. in Economics from the Michigan State University. He started working in the ILO at COOP in Geneva (1967 -1974) before he took on a series of field appointments, namely in ILO Port of Spain, Lagos, and Dhaka offices before rejoining COOP in Geneva in 1987. Fazzio worked as Head of the Section for the Promotion and Development of Cooperatives between 1989 and 1990 before being promoted to the position of Chief of ILO COOP Branch in 1992. He worked in this capacity until his retirement in 2000. A polyglot, Fazzio speaks five languages other than English (German, Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese). He lives in Germany with his wife Gabriele Ullrich who also worked in ILO COOP.

For the article that Joe Fazzio and Gabriele Ullrich wrote on the occasion of ILO COOP’s 75th anniversary, see here.

Juergen Schwettmann, Chief of ILO COOP from 2001 to 2006

Juergen Schwettmann was born in Germany in 1954. He studied Business Administration and has undertaken postgraduate studies in software engineering and in cooperative development. Before joining the ILO, her served as management advisor to several coffee-marketing cooperatives in Cameroon and as rural finance advisor to Cameroon’s Rural Development Fund. He began working with the ILO in 1988 as Regional Advisor on Cooperatives for Eastern, Central and Southern Africa, before joining the COOP Branch in Geneva in 1994 as Senior Technical Advisor. He was appointed Chief of the Branch in 2001, during the time when ILO Recommendation 193 was being negotiated. After leaving the COOP Branch in 2006 he took on positions as Director of the ILO Office for East Africa (Dar es Salaam), Deputy Regional Director for Africa (Addis Ababa), and Director of the Partnerships and Development Cooperation Department (Geneva). During his 27 years at the ILO he has been instrumental in designing and promoting development cooperation projects in support of cooperatives and the wider social and solidarity economy. Since his retirement from the ILO in 2015, he has been working as an independent consultant with various multilateral and bilateral development cooperation agencies on a range of issues including rural and cooperative development, informal and social and solidarity economy. He is fluent in German, English, and French. He has three children and lives with his wife in Germany.

For Juergen Schwettmann’s ILO COOP 100 Interview, please see here. For his message to ILO COOP on its centenary, see here.

Hagen Henrÿ, Chief of ILO COOP from 2007 to 2011

Hagen Henrÿ was born in 1952 in the then Democratic Republic of Germany. He spent first three and a half years of his life in a refugee camp in South-Western Germany (Federal Republic) and the rest of his childhood and youth in that part of Germany. After high school in Germany and the United States he studied law in Geneva and Saarbrücken and qualified as a German judge in 1981. Post graduate studies in development issues and development law took him back to Geneva and to Paris. While already working he completed a licentiate, a doctorate and a professorship qualification in law at the University of Helsinki. Prior to working as Chief of the Cooperative Branch, Henrÿ had worked at the universities of Geneva and Saarbrücken and as legal advisor to the German Federal Minister of Economy. At the end of November 2020 he retires from his position as Adjunct Professor and Research Director at the University of Helsinki.

Since 1994 Henrÿ has consulted on cooperative policy and legislation in/for many countries for national, regional and international governmental and non-governmental organizations, among which the ILO, the FAO, the World Bank, the EU, the OECD, the International Trade Center and the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA). In this capacity he was also involved in the elaboration of ILO Recommendation on the Promotion of Cooperatives, 2002 (No. 193). Since 2013 he has been coordinating the ICA Cooperative Law Committee. He speaks several languages, has four children and eight grand-children and lives outside Helsinki with his wife.

For Hagen Henrÿ’s ILO COOP 100 Interview, please see here.

Simel Esim, Chief of ILO COOP from 2012 to present

Simel Esim is the 12th ILO COOP Manager who was appointed to serve in this post by an ILO DG. A Turkish-American political economist, Simel has worked on social and economic development for the past 30 years around the world. In addition to cooperative and social and solidarity economy development, she has experience working on gender equality, informal economy, and labour migration issues. Prior to her appointment as Manager of ILO COOP in 2012, Ms Esim was a senior regional technical specialist on gender equality and women workers’ rights at the ILO’s Regional Office for Arab States (2004-2012).

Before she joined the ILO, Simel worked as an economist in the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) in Washington, DC (1997-2003), Development Alternatives, Inc. (1995) and the World Bank (1991-94). Simel holds a BA in political science from the Bogazici University in Istanbul, an MA in International Economics and Middle East Studies from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy and Washington, DC and a Ph.D. in economics with a concentration in gender and development economics from the American University in Washington, DC. She speaks Turkish and English, and has working knowledge of Italian and Arabic. She is a beginner in French.