Prof von Solms started his association with IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing, in the early 1980s when he got involved with Working Group (WG) 11.1 of Technical Committee 11 of IFIP. In about 1982 he was elected as Chair of WG 11.1. As Chair of WG 11.1 he became a member of the management committee of TC 11. In 1994 he was elected as Vice-Chair of TC 11. However, at IFIP’s General Assembly meeting in August 1994 he was appointed as Acting Chair of TC 11. At the TC 11 meeting in 1995 he was formally elected as Chair of TC 11.

He was elected as Vice-President of IFIP in 2000 and became the Chair of IFIP’s Technical Assembly.

At the GA meeting in Chile in 2006, he was elected as incoming President of IFIP. He became President of in 2007 for a 3-year term till 2010. Prof von Solms was the President when IFIP celebrated its 50th birthday in 2010. During his term as President he started some changes, specifically to the Governance structure of IFIP.

In 2014 he was elected as an Honorary member of IFIP.