On 15 November Audrey Azoulay (France) took office as a new Director-General of UNESCO. Born in 1972, Ms Azoulay is a graduate of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration and the Paris Institut d’études politiques. She also holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from the University of Lancaster (UK). Ms Azoulay was France’s Minister of Culture and Communication from February 2016 to May 2017. She has occupied senior positions in France’s public broadcasting sector and then served as rapporteur to France’s public auditing authority, the Cour des comptes, and as a European Commission legislative expert on issues of culture and the media.
After receiving congratulations on her appointment, Audrey Azoulay declared to the General Conference: “Despite many limits and constraints, UNESCO has been able to demonstrate throughout its history a real capacity to bring creative responses to the challenges of the times”. She also added: “I believe in the need for concerted strategies in the framework of multilateralism to face these challenges today and tomorrow. This is what we achieved collectively with the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and the Paris Climate Agreement”.
Ms Azoulay is the 11th Director-General of UNESCO and the second woman to occupy this position after Ms Irina Bokova (Bulgaria).