Johan Ketelers took up his responsibilities as Secretary General of the Geneva-based International Catholic Migration Commission in December 2004 and has recently been re-elected for a second mandate. Under his tenure ICMC was granted canonical public juridical status by the Vatican while the organization increased its operational volumes and policy activities, and consolidated its relations with members worldwide.

Ketelers has acquired valuable international expertise in migration issues and has been a speaker on many forums and platforms. He was an official member of the Holy See Delegation at the first Global Forum on Migration and Development and contributed in recent years to the building of the Forum of International Catholic inspired NGOs, a network that unites more than 100 international Catholic NGOs.

Prior to this appointment, he was the Director of the Catholic aid agency Caritas International Belgium, and was deeply involved in migration issues, social services for migrants, emergency relief aid, micro-credit and food security programs. He served as a chair and as a member on the Board of various platforms related to migration and development issues based in Brussels. He was honoured by H.E. Cardinal Danneels with the Golden Saint Rombouts’ Cross.

Prior to this position Mr. Ketelers had been in charge of organizing global communications at the headquarters of Caritas Internationalis in Rome where he developed and implemented a communications strategy and where he created a global Working Group on Communications which he animated for more than 8 years. He started his career as a teacher and was subsequently posted in Belgium, various central African countries and at the European school in Brussels. He is married and has two sons and a daughter.