Audrey Azoulay was elected the Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2017. Azoulay launched a vast strategic transformation program for the organisation with a view to position UNESCO at the heart of emerging challenges in the 21st century. A former student of the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, Azoulay is a graduate of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris and holds a B.A. from the University of Lancaster (United Kingdom). As the French Minister of Culture, she was strongly committed to the protection of endangered heritage, particularly in the Middle East. She was also dedicated to the facilitation of children’s access to culture by launching artistic and cultural education programmes. Azoulay is committed to positioning UNESCO as a platform for humanist cooperation, as a standards-producing arena, and as an agency of experts that helps to disseminate knowledge and know-how throughout the world to the greatest number of people.