Audrey Azoulay

Audrey Azoulay (; born 4 August 1972) is a French civil servant and politician who has been serving as the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) since 2017, becoming the second female leader of the organization. She previously served as France's Minister of Culture in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls from 2016 to 2017. Early life and education Early life and family Azoulay was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira. 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. Education 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).