Brunson McKinley, Director General, IOM

Brunson McKinley took office as Director General of the International Organization for Migration in October 1998. He was re-elected to a second five-year term in 2003. Mr. McKinley has sought to enhance IOM’s ability to serve governments and migrants by:

• establishing IOM as an international focal point for dialogue and debate on migration policy questions in line with the rapid growth of interest in the subject worldwide,
• focusing IOM’s expertise on delivering results in service areas such as labour migration, measures against smuggling and trafficking in persons, social integration, diaspora management, development and migrant health,
• launching and nurturing forums for regional migration dialogue and practical cooperation,
• helping the international community cope with conflicts and emergencies like Colombia, Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan,
• developing an IOM capacity to respond to disaster of all kinds,
• reaching out to the private sector, and
• improving and streamlining IOM’s administrative structures and processes.

A firm believer in supporting IOM colleagues in the field, Mr. McKinley travels widely and seeks to build direct ties with governments, migrants and civil society. IOM’s operational budget has more than quadrupled in the period of his stewardship.

Mr. McKinley came to IOM from a career in the diplomatic service of the United States, with posts in Italy, China, Vietnam, the United Kingdom and Germany. He was the first American Ambassador to Haiti in the post-Duvalier period. Beginning in 1990 he developed a speciality in migration issues. From 1995 to 1998 he served as the US Humanitarian Coordinator in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Brunson McKinley was born in 1943. He studied classical languages at the University of Chicago and Harvard University and served as an Army officer for five years. He speaks French and German and has studied Spanish, Italian, Chinese and Vietnamese. He is married and has a son and a daughter.