Audrey Azoulay

Audrey Azoulay (born 4 August 1972) is a French civil servant and politician who has served as the 11th Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2017, becoming the second female leader of the organization.

Azoulay recalled having participated in demonstrations against the Devaquet bill in 1986 and against the Juppé plan in 1995, and against the candidature of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the 2002 French presidential election.

Her role models are Simone Veil and Jean Zay.

Her father, André Azoulay, is the current senior adviser to King Mohammed VI of Morocco, having previously been the adviser to his predecessor King Hassan II from 1991 to 1999.

Her mother, Katia Azoulay, is a Moroccan writer.

Her aunt, Éliane, is a journalist for the French magazine Télérama.

She indicates having "grown up in a very left-wing environment", in the Beaugrenelle neighborhood, with her two older sisters, Judith, who worked in the Association française d'action artistique (AFAA), and Sabrina, who is a producer.

Azoulay gained a master's degree in management sciences from Paris Dauphine University in 1994 and a master's degree in business administration from Lancaster University.

She also studied at Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration (ENA) in 2000 (promotion Averroès, alongside Fleur Pellerin, Alexis Kohler and Nicolas Kazadi among others).

During her university studies, Azoulay worked at a bank, which she says she "hated".

During her studies in the École Nationale d'Administration, she says she "discovered the old French anti-Semitism".

In 2000, Azoulay was appointed civil administrator, assigned to the general secretariat of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's government.

From April 2000 to July 2003, she worked as the head of the public audiovisual sector office, especially for the strategy and the funding of sector organizations in the media development department.

At the same time, she manages media expertise missions for the European Commission within the process of pre-accession programs.

In 2003, Azoulay was in charge of the conference on media strategy, audiovisual and cinema financing at Sciences Po.

From September 2003 to February 2006, she worked for the Ile-de-France Regional Chamber Accounts and with the committee for inquiry into the cost and performance of public service.

In 2004, she appeared in the distribution of the film "Le Grand Rôle" by the director Steve Suissa, where she played the director's assistant.

In 2006, Azoulay joined the National Center of Cinematography and the moving image (CNC), successively holding the positions of Deputy Director for Multimedia Affairs, Chief Financial and Legal Officer and Deputy Director-General.

From 2014 until 2016, Azoulay served as an advisor on communications and cultural affairs to President François Hollande.

She previously served as France's Minister of Culture under Prime Ministers Manuel Valls and Bernard Cazeneuve from 2016 to 2017.

Azoulay was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira.

Azoulay succeeded Fleur Pellerin as Minister of Culture on 11 February 2016.

Internationally, she played a key role in the joint initiatives of France, the UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates to safeguard cultural heritage in conflict zones, announced in December 2016, and was a signatory to the Florence Declaration condemning the destruction of cultural sites at the first G7 culture summit in March 2017.

By the end of 2016, Azoulay eventually decided against becoming a candidate herself in the 2017 French legislative election.

During her time in office, she increased her department's budget by 6.6% to a total of €2.9 billion in 2017 – the largest amount of government money promised for the arts in the country's history.

Under her leadership, the Ministry lent support to a women's contemporary art prize launched by AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions).

On 24 March 2017, she presented Draft Resolution 2347 on the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflicts to the UN Security Council.

This resolution, put forward by France, Italy and UNESCO, was adopted unanimously.

In the Socialist Party's presidential primaries, she endorsed Manuel Valls as the party's candidate for the 2017 French presidential election.

After the Socialist Party was eliminated in the first round of the election, she publicly declared her support for Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen.

In 2017, Azoulay was one of the nine candidates seeking to succeed Irina Bokova as Director-General of UNESCO.

In the final round against Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, she was elected as Director-General of UNESCO, and her candidacy was presented for approval at UNESCO's general assembly on 10 November 2017.

In 2021, Azoulay was elected to a second four-year term.

Although her chances were considered very slim when she declared her candidacy, she came second in the first round of voting, ahead of Egyptian candidate Moushira Khattab and behind Qatari candidate Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari.

In the fourth round of balloting, the 58 members of the Executive Board nominated only one of the two finalists, Qatar's Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, who was first with 22 votes.

Audrey Azoulay and Moushira Khattab tied for second place with 18 votes.

In a new ballot, Audrey Azoulay was chosen as the second candidate, and the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs called on voters to support her.

She was elected during a fifth and final round of voting by the 58 members of the Executive Board, with a majority of 30 votes against 28 for the Qatari candidate, who suffered from the division of the Arab world, exacerbated by the Gulf crisis.

Audrey Azoulay becomes the second woman to be elected to this position, after Irina Bokova whom she succeeds.

The final choice was submitted to the General Conference made up of the 195 member states on November 10, 2017, which endorsed her election to head the Organization.