Deputy Secretary General, IOE
Roberto Suárez Santos was appointed Deputy Secretary-General at the IOE Secretariat in December 2012. He is a trained lawyer with experience in European and international labour law, as well as in international relations.
Prior to his appointment as Deputy Secretary-General, Roberto was based in Tunisia, working for the International Labour Organization (ILO) as Programme Director for the promotion of youth employment in the Maghreb region. Before that, he worked at the Spanish Confederation of Employer’s Organisations (CEOE) in various capacities which covered the spectrum from comparative labour policies and labour relations to youth unemployment and social and employment policy. His most recent position at CEOE was Head of the European and International Social Area, where he managed, implemented and evaluated social and youth employment projects.
Roberto has also been involved in academia. He has taught European Social Law as an associate professor at both the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Universidad Pontificia de Comillas in Spain.
Roberto was a member of the European Social Dialogue Committee and has also worked as President of the CSR group for the European employer’s organisation, Businesseurope. He was Businesseurope’s Vice-President for Labour Affairs for several years and has been the spokesperson for European employers at Euromed meetings such as Marrakech (2009) Barcelona (2010) and Brussels (2011). Roberto was Vice-President of BIAC’s Employment and Labour Affairs Committee, and has also been a member of various follow up committees for the European Social Fund and the EU Economic and Social committee.