Dr. Gerry Van Kessel
Dr. Gerry Van Kessel is a retired civil servant who spent most of his career with Citizenship and Immigration Canada. He was Director General, Refugees for Citizenship and Immigration from 1997 to 2001. In that capacity he was responsible for the movement of more than 7300 Kosovars to Canada in 1999. In 2001 he become Coordinator, Intergovernmental Consultations on Migration, Asylum and Refugees (IGC) in Geneva, Switzerland. The IGC is an informal, non-decision-making forum for inter-governmental information exchange and policy debate on all issues of relevance to the management of international migratory flows. IGC is considered as the first inter-state consultation mechanism on migration. The IGC is an information and consultative organization of States in North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.