The President, nominated by the Council and elected by the General Assembly, legally represents the Federation. IFAC had twenty-two Presidents thus far:
- 1957-1958 Harold Chestnut (US) ✝
- 1958-1960 Aleksander M. Letov (SU) ✝
- 1960-1963 Eduard Gerecke (CH) ✝
- 1963-1966 John F. Coales (UK) ✝
- 1966-1969 Pawel J. Nowacki (PL) ✝
- 1969-1972 Victor Broida (FR) ✝
- 1972-1975 John C. Lozier (US) ✝
- 1975-1978 Uolevi A. Luoto (FI) ✝
- 1978-1981 Yoshikazu Sawaragi (JP) ✝
- 1981-1984 Tibor Vamos (HU) ✝
- 1984-1987 Manfred Thoma (DE)✝
- 1987-1990 Boris Tamm (SU) ✝
- 1990-1993 Brian D.O. Anderson (AU)
- 1993-1996 Stephen J. Kahne (US)
- 1996-1999 Yong-Zai Lu (CN)
- 1999–2002 Pedro Albertos (ES)
- 2002-2005 Vladimir Kucera (CZ)
- 2005-2008 Wook Hyun Kwon (KR)
- 2008-2011 Alberto Isidori (IT)
- 2011-2014 Ian Craig (ZA)
- 2014-2017 Janan Zaytoon (FR)
- 2017-2020 Frank Allgöwer (DE)
- 2020-2023 Hajime Asama (JP)
- 2023-2026 Dong-il (Dan) Cho (KR)