The host country (Chair-in-Office) assumes responsibility for the preparatory process and the implementation of each Forum. The host government chairs all sessions related to Forum preparations and chairs the Forum. The Chair-in-Office is assisted by the country that organized the previous Forum and the country that will host the following meeting of the Forum. These three countries form the Troika that includes the outgoing Chair, the Chair-in-Office, and the forthcoming Chair of the Forum.

The Chair-in-Office should, in principle, alternate annually between a developing and a developed country. Countries interested in assuming the Chair of the Forum shall communicate their intention to the Troika.

• The Geneva GFMD meeting was chaired by Ambassador Eduard Gnesa, Swiss Special Ambassador for International Cooperation in Migration. He chaired all preparatory meetings of the GFMD in 2011, and some of the GFMD 2011 thematic meetings held all over the world. He was assisted by a Taskforce that included national and international experts and advisors. Three Swiss agencies formed part of the Swiss GFMD Taskforce, namely, the Human Security Division of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the Swiss Federal Office for Migration.
• The Brussels GFMD was chaired by Mrs. Régine de Clercq, former Ambassador for Migration and Asylum Policy of Belgium, who acted as the Belgian Executive Director of the Global Forum on Migration and Development.
• The Manila GFMD was chaired by Mr. Esteban B. Conejos Jr., Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs of the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. He was the Philippine GFMD focal point and Secretary General of the GFMD National Organizing Committee.
• The Athens GFMD was chaired by Mrs. Theodora Tzakri, Deputy Minister of Interior, Decentralization and E-Governance. Ambassador Anastasios Scopelitis was appointed as the Head of the GFMD Athens 2009 Taskforce, comprising both the national and international experts. In this capacity, Ambassador Scopelitis directed the substantive and organizational preparations for the Athens meeting.
• The Mexico GFMD meeting was initially chaired by Ambassador Juan Manuel Gómez Robledo, Undersecretary for Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mrs. Cecilia Romero Castillo, then Commissioner of INM, acted as Executive Director. On 7 October, she was succeeded by Mr. Salvador Beltrán del Rio Madrid. In late October 2010, Amb Julián Ventura Valero, Undersecretary for North America at the SRE assumed the role of the GFMD Chair.

Current Chair:	Previous Chairs:
Mr. Ali Mansoor Mauritius GFMD 2012	Mr. Eduard Gnesa Switzerland GFMD 2011	Mr. Julián Ventura Valero Mexico GFMD 2010
Mrs. Theodora Tzakri Athens GFMD 2009	Mr. Esteban B. Conejos, Jr. Manila GFMD 2008	Mrs. Régine De Clercq Brussels GFMD 2007