Profile of Don Juan Manuel Suárez Del Toro Rivero
President, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

Juan Manuel Suárez del Toro Rivero has been active in the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement since he joined his local youth branch in Gran Canaria in 1979. He rose through the ranks of the Spanish Red Cross to become its President in June 1994, and was elected President of the International Federation at the General Assembly in Geneva in November 2001. He replaced Dr Astrid N. Heiberg, the Federation’s first woman President, who had been in office since 1997.

On his election, 49-year-old Mr Suárez del Toro said it meant a great deal to him that a volunteer could become President of the Federation. His vision is for "a Federation that thinks, conceptualizes and acts in consequence" in order to become the benchmark for other organizations in the business of providing humanitarian aid.

An industrial engineer by profession, he is a professor at the University of Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, and is the director of a public transport company. All his public activities have been within the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, holding the post of youth director, vice president and president of the Las Palmas Provincial Assembly, President of the Canary Islands branch of the Spanish Red Cross, member of the National Committee, national vice president and president.

Married with two daughters, he is a former member of the Federation’s Executive Council (now Governing Board), a former vice president of the Federation and chairman of the Development Commission. He is a holder of the Spanish Red Cross Gold Medal and the Grand Cross of the Ministry of Defence for his contribution to humanitarian operations.

Mr Suárez del Toro has called for all Red Cross/Red Crescent staff and volunteers “to ensure that we serve humanity, and that we work to ensure that in the future the world is fairer and more humane."