IREX Europe Leadership

Mike de Villiers
IREX Europe Director

De Villiers is a journalist and media program manager with over 15 years of international experience. From 2000 through 2004, de Villiers managed IREX's media development program in Macedonia, implementing projects there at the height of inter-ethnic tensions during the country's conflict in 2001. He has a strong background in international affairs and has covered global events as a reporter and editor with BBC World Service Television, BBC World Service Radio, and British Columbia Television in Canada. He has extensive experience implementing programs focusing on journalism and media management, media law, and sensitive issues such as inter-ethnic conflict.

De Villiers moved to France in 2004 to lead IREX's geographic expansion and project development in partnership with European governments and agencies, and the European Union. IREX Europe was registered in Lyon on June 7 2004.

De Villiers has provided training and guidance to a number of IREX Europe projects, including assisting in establishing the Liberian Media Center in 2004 in Monrovia, Liberia and working with Georgian media professionals and NGO workers on the “Making Waves – Community Radio Project,” in Tbilisi and Batumi, Georgia in 2007.