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Fatih Birol
International Energy Agency
Executive Director
Biography
Dr Fatih Birol (@fbirol) has served as Executive Director of the IEA since 2015. After taking office, Dr Birol led the IEA in its first comprehensive modernisation programme since its creation in 1974. These efforts focused on “opening the doors” of the IEA to major emerging economies; making the IEA the global hub for clean energy transitions; and broadening the IEA’s energy security mandate beyond oil to also cover electricity, natural gas, renewables and the critical minerals needed in many of today's clean energy technologies.
Dr Birol took up his current position after rising through the ranks of the IEA over two decades. He joined as a junior analyst in the mid-1990s and rose to the position of Chief Economist responsible for the IEA’s flagship World Energy Outlook. Dr Birol has been named in the TIME100, TIME's annual list of the world's most influential people, and by Forbes as one of the most influential people in the world of energy. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s (Davos) Energy Advisory Board. He is the recipient of numerous state decorations, including the French Legion of Honour, the Japanese Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun, the Order of the Polar Star from the King of Sweden and the highest Presidential decorations from Austria, Germany and Italy.
Before the IEA, Dr Birol worked at the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna for six years. He earned a BSc degree in power engineering from the Technical University of Istanbul and received an MSc and PhD in energy economics from the Technical University of Vienna. He is an honorary life member of Galatasaray Football Club.
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