On the 20th of March 1996, Juan Edmundo Vecchi was elected Rector Major of the Salesian Society and head of the Salesian Family.

Fr. Vecchi, 64, was a native of Argentina, and the first non-Italian to serve as Superior General of Don Bosco's family. In 1971, he was elected to the General Council as regional delegate for Eastern Latin America. In 1977, he became delegate for Youth Ministry, and in 1990 was elected vicar general of the Salesians, serving as Fr. Egidio Vigano's right hand in the administration of the Salesian Society and Salesian Family. At the death of Fr Vigano June 23 on 1995, Fr. Juan Vecchi took over the administration of the Society on an interim basis, as the Salesian constitutions and Canon Law demanded.

In 2002, on January 23rd, Father Juan Edmund Vecchi, S.D.B. died at their Rome headquarters following an extended illness with cancer. He was 71 and had led the Salesians since 1996.