Brecht DECLERCQ is the current President of FIAT/IFTA and head of Archives at the Italian speaking public broadcaster of Switzerland (RSI). He holds a Master’s Degree in Contemporary History and one in International Relations, obtained at KUBrussel, KULeuven and UCLouvain.

He worked as a radio archivist for the Flemish public broadcaster VRT from 2004 until 2008 and as a policy researcher for FARO in 2008. From 2008 until 2013, he was in charge of the digitisation of VRT’s radio archives. Main tasks also included the archive’s international relations.

From 2013 until 2022 he worked for meemoo, the Flemish Institute for Archives. As digitisation manager he was responsible for the digitisation and digital acquisition of the Flemish audiovisual heritage preserved at Flemish broadcasters, cultural heritage institutions, city archives, government agencies and performing arts organisations.

In the International Federation of Television Archives (FIAT/IFTA) he was on the Media Management Commission for 5 years and chaired the Preservation & Migration Commission from 2016 until 2018. Since 2014 he’s a member of FIAT/IFTA’s Executive Council. From 2017 until 2020 he was the General Secretary and in 2020 he was elected President.

In his 15 years’ experience, he’s built a solid list of scientific and popularizing articles and served globally as a curator, speaker, guest lecturer, advisor, jury and expert panel member.

Brecht DECLERCQ always tries to connect history and media to the endless possibilities of new technologies. Driven by passion, curiosity and quality, he’s a flexible constructor, always open for new initiatives and challenges. He’s fluent in Dutch, French, English, Italian and German and enjoys working in an international environment. Living near Lugano, his personal interests include international politics, contemporary history, summer evenings with friends and everything Italian.