John S. Zvereff : New Secretary General of the International Council of Museums (ICOM)

19 November 2004

John Zvereff, a U.S citizen, has been appointed Secretary General of the International Council of Museums - ICOM , by the Executive Council.
John Zvereff succeeds Manus Brinkman (from the Netherlands), who occupied this post from 1998 to 2004. The new Secretary General took office in Paris on November 2nd, 2004.

The Secretary General, is ICOM's Executive Officer and directs the Organization, from its Paris Headquarters (France), with a multicultural staff of fifteen. Under the aegis of the Executive Council, he will implement the Strategic Plan of ICOM as well as the decisions and policies adopted by the Organization's Council.

John Zvereff has a degree in Languages and Linguistics from Georgetown University, in Washington D.C. (United States) and did graduate work in Italian literature at Rutgers University in New Brunswick (New Jersey, United States). An experienced linguist, John Zvereff is fluent in English, Spanish, Italian and Catalan, and has a good knowledge of French with communicative skills in Russian.

John Zvereff has an extensive international career in art and multicultural non-profit institutions, where he held executive positions. Interim Director of the Museum Society of Tangiers (Morocco) in 1976, and Director of the American Language Centre of Tangier, he moved to Barcelona (Spain) two years later, having been appointed Academic Director of the Institute of North American Studies, and then Executive Director of the same institution from 1980 to 1996.

From 1997 to 2002, John Zvereff served as Chief Executive Officer of the Museu d'Art Contemporani in Barcelona (Spain), and for a year and a half after that was an independent consultant for cultural and art projects.

The new Secretary General, assisted by his staff, will be responsible for managing, co-ordinating and servicing a network of 20,000 museums and museum professionals. Under the leadership of ICOM's new president, Alissandra Cummins, and its Executive Council, John Zvereff will pursue a more proactive role for the organization and new partnerships to allow for increased and better services to its membership.