Helmut Kutin was born in Bolzano (Italy) in 1941.
Following a family tragedy he was admitted to the world's first SOS Children's Village in Imst (Austria) in 1953.
Later he moved to the SOS Youth House in Innsbruck. He graduated from high school and enrolled as a student of economics at Innsbruck University.
Following lengthy discussions with Hermann Gmeiner he decided in 1967 to give up his work in the field of tourism and as a tutor, and he took on his first assignmentfor SOS Children's Villages International, namely the construction of the first Vietnamese SOS Children's Village in what is now Ho Chi Minh City.
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| Helmut Kutin, President of SOS Children's Villages International |
In 1968 he was appointed director of the village, which at the time was the biggest SOS Children's Village in the world. He subsequently set up and supervised further SOS Children's Village facilities in Vietnam before he had to leave the country one year after the end of the war in 1976.
In response to his outstanding achievements for SOS Children's Villages, Helmut Kutin was appointed SOS Children's Villages International's representative for Asia in 1971.
It was thanks to his pioneering work that over fifty SOS Children's Villages and another fifty supporting facilities were built there within a few years. Other major achievements include the resumption of SOS Children's Village work in Vietnam in 1987 and the opening of the first two SOS Children's Villages in China in the same year.
In 1985 Helmut Kutin was elected to succeed Hermann Gmeiner as President of the umbrella organisation SOS Children's Villages International and thus became the senior representative of SOS Children's Villages worldwide.