Guy Ryder

Guy Ryder    (union leader)
Born	1956-01-03 Liverpool, United Kingdom
Nationality	British
Children	Laura Ellen Ryder
Director-General of the International Labour Organization  Director-General of the International Labour Organization In office 2012 - Present  General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation In office November 2006 - June 2010  General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions In office February 2002 - October 2006

Guy Ryder is a British international civil servant who is the tenth and current Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO). He was previously General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) (2006–2010) and previous to that position, Ryder was General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) (2002–2006).

Education

Born in Liverpool in 1956, Ryder studied Social and Political Sciences at the University of Cambridge and then Latin American Studies at Liverpool. He speaks French and Spanish as well as his mother tongue, English. He started his professional career in 1981 as an assistant in the International Department of the Trades Union Congress in London.

Early career

From 1985, Ryder held the position of Secretary of the Industry Trade Section of the International Federation of Commercial, Clerical, Professional and Technical Employees (FIET) in Geneva.

In 1988, he became Assistant Director of the Geneva office of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), then in 1993 was appointed as its Director.

Ryder first joined the International Labour Organization in 1998 as Director of its Bureau for Workers’ Activities and then in 1999 became Director of the Office of the Director-General. It was during this time that the ILO’s Decent Work Agenda was launched and won support from other international bodies.

In 2002, Ryder was appointed as General Secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), based in Brussels, where he led a process described as the global unification of the democratic international trade union movement. He also became a leading figure in the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP), for which he spoke at the 2005 World Summit. He was elected as first General Secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) when it was created in 2006 and headed its delegations to talks with the United Nations, IMF, World Bank, and World Trade Organization and to the G20 Leaders’ Summits.

In September 2010, Ryder came back to the ILO in Geneva as an Executive Director, with responsibility for international labour standards and fundamental principles and rights at work. Among other activities, he supervised the application of ILO Conventions and Recommendations and headed ILO missions to address issues related to labour standards in several member countries, including Bahrain, Colombia, Fiji, Georgia, Greece, Myanmar, and Swaziland.

Director-General of the ILO

Guy Ryder was elected as ILO Director-General by the ILO's Governing Body in May 2012 and took office on 1 October, 2012. On taking office, he pledged to position the Organization as a determined actor translating principle into action and ensuring that it had the capacity to make a major difference to the working lives of people on all of the continents. To support this he launched a major reform process geared to assuring the ILO’s authority on matters falling within its mandate.

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
WEF/Annual Meeting/2004	21 January 2004	25 January 2004	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2068 billionaires, CEOs and their politicians and "civil society" leaders met under the slogan Partnering for Prosperity and Security. "We have the people who matter," said World Economic Forum Co-Chief Executive Officer José María Figueres.
WEF/Annual Meeting/2013	23 January 2013	27 January 2013	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2500 mostly unelected leaders met to discuss "leading through adversity"
WEF/Annual Meeting/2014	22 January 2014	25 January 2014	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2604 guests in Davos considered "Reshaping The World"
WEF/Annual Meeting/2015	21 January 2015	24 January 2015	World Economic Forum Switzerland	Attended by a lot of people. This page lists only the 261 "Public Figures".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2016	20 January 2016	23 January 2016	World Economic Forum Switzerland	Attended by over 2500 people, both leaders and followers, who were explained how the Fourth Industrial Revolution would changed everything, including being a "revolution of values".
WEF/Annual Meeting/2017	17 January 2017	20 January 2017	World Economic Forum Switzerland	2950 known participants, including prominently Bill Gates. "Offers a platform for the most effective and engaged leaders to achieve common goals for greater societal leadership."
WEF/Annual Meeting/2018	23 January 2018	26 January 2018	Switzerland	~2200 of the super-rich meet to talk about "Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World"
WEF/Annual Meeting/2019	22 January 2019	25 January 2019	World Economic Forum Switzerland	"The reality is that we are in a Cold War [against China] that threatens to turn into a hot one."
WEF/Annual Meeting/2020	21 January 2020	24 January 2020	World Economic Forum Switzerland	This mega-summit of the world's ruling class and their political and media appendages happens every year, but 2020 was special, as the continuous corporate media coverage of COVID-19 started more or less from one day to the next on 20/21 January 2020, coinciding with the start of the meeting.

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