WEB DESK
Audrey Azoulay has been elected to become the next chief of UNESCO – the UN’s education, science and culture agency. zoulay, 45, a former French culture minister, defeated Qatar’s Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari in the final 30-28 vote after she won a runoff with a third finalist from Egypt earlier yesterday.
If confirmed by UNESCO’s 195 member-general assembly next month, Azoulay will succeed outgoing Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria.
Azoulay was born in Paris to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira, and is the daughter of Andre Azoulay, an adviser to king Mohammed VI of Morocco.
In brief remarks after she won the election, Ms. Azoulay said that the response to UNESCO’s problems should be to reform the agency, not to walk away from it.