Nobuo Tanaka nominated to succeed Claude Mandil as IEA Executive Director in September 2007

The Governing Board of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has announced that Mr. Nobuo Tanaka of Japan will succeed Mr. Claude Mandil of France, who will serve until 31 August 2007 - completing more than four years of service.

Mr. Tanaka - who is currently Director for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD - will take up duties on 1 September 2007. This is the first time a non-European has been selected for this IEA post.

With a degree in Economics from the University of Tokyo and an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, Mr. Tanaka started his career as a civil servant during the first oil crisis in 1973 in MITI's petroleum office. Since this time, he has gained deep knowledge and wide experience in international economic, science and trade policy - both at the national and international levels.

Mr. Tanaka has exercised high-level functions in the Japanese government, the ANRE (Agency for Natural Resources and Energy), the Embassy of Japan in Washington, the MITI/METI bureaus in charge of energy consuming industries and the Paris-based Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Entering the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI, formerly known as MITI) in 1973, Mr. Tanaka held a range of posts of increasing seniority within the Ministry - Deputy-Director of the General Affairs Division, Machinery and Information Industries Bureau, Personnel Division, Director of International Nuclear Energy Affairs of the Natural Resources and Energy Agency.

He first joined the OECD in 1989 as Deputy Director of the Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry and was promoted to Director in 1992. In 1995, he returned to METI - first, as Director of the Industrial Finance Division and later, as Director-General of the Multilateral Trade System Department, Trade Policy Bureau. In this role, he led many trade negotiations for the World Trade Organisation (WTO), including negotiations on energy issues.

On 16 August 2004, Mr. Tanaka was named Director for Science, Technology and Industry at the OECD, with responsibility for science policy, information and communication technologies, economic and statistical analyses, biosciences and sectoral issues.