Caritas Australia CEO Kirsty Robertson has been elected as the new Vice President of Caritas Internationalis and will serve the Confederation over the next four years across 162 national Caritas member organisations.  

Kirsty has over 20 years of experience in the humanitarian aid and development sector. She started her career at Caritas Australia in the justice resources team, and has since lived, worked and travelled in over 50 countries, including in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, working with the development arm of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. She also worked at Machermo, a health post in the Gokyo Valley in Nepal, looking into the protection of the rights of porters for the International Porters Protection Agency.  

Kirsty has worked at Anglican Board of Mission, Act for Peace, and spent five years as CEO of Mary MacKillop Today. She returned to Caritas Australia in September 2019 to become the first female CEO of the organisation.   

“It’s a wonderful privilege to be taking on this role, a privilege to be serving the members of the Caritas Confederation across the world, and a privilege to be serving the Church and all of the supporters of Caritas Internationalis,” said Kirsty. 

“We are an amazing confederation, one united by our mission in service to the world’s poor. As a woman it is a particularly important day for us in the confederation. By every measure possible, women are disproportionately affected by poverty. As a confederation we are committed to serving women in villages, parishes, and communities, but also in leadership. My appointment today reflects that commitment.”  

Kirsty will continue in her role as Caritas Australia CEO alongside her duties as Vice President of Caritas Internationalis.  

Alistair Dutton, Executive Director of SCIAF (Caritas Scotland), was elected as Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis. The elections of Alistair and Kirsty comes two days after Archbishop of Tokyo, Tarcisio Isao Kikuchi, was elected as the new President of Caritas Internationalis.  

“I would like to congratulate Alistair Dutton for his election to the role of General Secretary of the Confederation. I believe that Caritas is in safe hands with him leading the Confederation over the coming years,” said Kirsty.