Ingmar De Vos (BEL) was elected President of the International Equestrian Federation on 14 December 2014. He ran uncontested and was re-elected for second four-year term on 21 November 2018, and again for a final and third term during the FEI General Assembly in Cape Town (RSA) on 13 November 2022.
Ingmar De Vos (BEL) was elected as FEI President on 14 December 2014 at the FEI General Assembly in Baku (AZE). It was a contested election, which the Belgian native won by an overwhelming majority in the first round of voting, earning 98 votes out of a possible 131.
De Vos became the 13th FEI President since the Federation was founded in 1921, and only the fourth to become an IOC Member. He succeeded HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein (JOR) who had been FEI President from 2006 to 2014.
Ingmar De Vos was re-elected for a second four-year term at the FEI General Assembly in Manama (BRN) on 21 November 2018, where he pledged to build on the success of his first term in office. He received unanimous support from delegates representing the FEI’s 134 National Federations. It was the first time since 2002 there had been an uncontested election for the FEI’s top role.
On 13 November 2022 De Vos was re-elected to serve a third and final term as FEI President with an overwhelming majority. The presidential election took place during the FEI Hybrid General Assembly held in Cape Town (RSA) and virtually, allowing National Federations unable to attend in-person to vote online in real time. Standing unopposed for a second time, the 59-year-old received widespread support for his last four-year term, which will run until 2026.
Ingmar De Vos' Presidential manifesto presented in 2014 focused on five main pillars: "Serving our community", "Sport: our core business", "Equestrian Sport in the Olympic and Paralympic Games", "FEI Solidarity", and "Horses as our Partners". These five pillars served as his blueprint for the four-year presidential term 2014-2018 and were reiterated in his Presidential Programme 2018-2022 A Roadmap for the Future.
In his Presidential Programme 2022-2026 Looking at the past, the present and the future De Vos dwells on “the chance to look back at what has been accomplished, and to look forward at what we want and need to achieve in the future. It also provides me with a unique opportunity to look at the legacy I would like to leave for my successor – and the community – in four years’ time so that we can guarantee the continuity and the well-being of our organisation.”
Under the leadership of Ingmar De Vos, the FEI as an organisation has earned a strong standing in the Olympic community for its sustainability initiatives, advancing animal welfare, championing gender diversity, equality and inclusion, as well as promoting youth sport. De Vos has also led the equestrian community in critical discussions over key changes to the Olympic formats to bring the sport more in line with the aims and ambitions of Olympic agenda 2020+5.
Since taking office in 2014, he has introduced several changes to the governance structures of the international body. The FEI has consistently appeared in the top five organisations in the ASOIF International Federation governance review, and took first place in the ranking in 2022.
At the FEI Sports Forum 2022, De Vos delivered on a promise to integrate fully Grooms into the FEI Family with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the FEI and the International Grooms Association.
In June 2022, he announced the creation of an independent Equine Ethics and Wellbeing Commission to develop a practical framework to address current and future concerns related to the use of horses in sport.
Biography
A Belgian native, Ingmar De Vos was born on 5 August 1963. He holds Masters degrees in political science, international relations, and international and European law from the Vrije Universiteit Brussels (BEL).
He began his professional career as an advisor to the Belgian Senate. He joined the Fédération Royale Belge des Sports Equestres (Royal Belgian Equestrian Federation) as Director General in 1990 and from 1997 to 2011 served as the Federation’s Secretary General (CEO).
During his time at the Belgian Equestrian Federation, Ingmar De Vos was Chef d’Equipe of the Belgian Jumping team at several FEI Nations Cup™ competitions (1990-2010). He served as chef de mission for the Belgian team at six FEI World Equestrian Games™ between 1990 and 2010 and was head of the Belgian equestrian delegation at three Olympic Games – Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, and Beijing 2008. He is a member of the Belgian Olympic Academy and since 2017 he has sat on the Board of the Comité Olympique et Interfédéral Belge (Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee).
From 1989 to 2011, he was the organiser of various equestrian competitions.
De Vos was the co-founder of the European Equestrian Federation (EEF), where he served as Secretary General from 2010 to 2011.
In 2011, Ingmar De Vos joined the FEI as Secretary General (CEO).
On 14 December 2014, at the FEI General Assembly held in Baku (AZE), after three years as FEI Secretary General, the Belgian native was elected FEI President in a contested election by an overwhelming majority in the first round of voting, earning 98 votes out of a possible 131. Four years later, at the FEI General Assembly in Manama (BRN) on 20 November 2018, he stood unopposed and was unanimously re-elected for another four-year term, where he pledged to build on the success of his first term in office. On 13 November 2022, De Vos was re-elected for a third and final term in office by the FEI General Assembly in Cape Town (RSA). He run unopposed as had been the case four years earlier.
Ingmar De Vos was elected as a Member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in September 2017 and is a member of the following IOC Commissions: Coordination Commission for the Games of the XXXIV Olympiad Los Angeles 2028 (2019 - ); Legal Affairs (2018 - ); and Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (2019 - ). He was a member of the Digital and Technology Commission from 2018 to 2019.
Since 2016, he has been a member of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) Governance Taskforce. In 2019 he joined the ASOIF Council.
On 9 April 2024, he was elected unanimously as the new President of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) at the 48th ASOIF General Assembly held in Birmingham (GBR) during the SportAccord World Sport and Business Summit. Ingmar De Vos ran unopposed and was elected by secret ballot for a term of four years. He took up his new position on 1 January 2025.
He has been a member of the Executive Committee of SportAccord, the world sport and business summit, since 2021.
From 2018 to 2022, Ingmar De Vos served on the Foundation Board of the World Anti Doping Agency (WADA). Since 2018, he has been a member of the WADA Executive Committee.
In 2014, he was a delegate to the International Horse Sports Confederation (IHSC). He was the organisation’s Vice President (2014-2019 and 2022-2024) and President from 2020 to 2022. He was re-elected to the IHSC presidency on 6 December 2024 at the organisation’s General Assembly in Hong Kong for the last two years of his term in office at the FEI President.
Ingmar De Vos is a Gender Champion for the United Nations and is fluent in Dutch, English and French.
In November 2018, De Vos was appointed to the Global Association of International Sports Federations (GAISF) Council and remains a member until the organisation’s dissolution which was decided in November 2022 will be finished.
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Documents Library | |
Presidential manifesto, 2014 - 2018 | |
Presidentail Programme 2018 - 2022 - Road Map for the Future | |
Presidential Programme 2022-2026 - Looking at the past the present and the future |
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