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Former Director General, UNESCO
Irina Bokova is a current member of several organizations and institutions, such as the Board of “Ban Ki Moon Centre for Global Citizens”, the Concordia Leadership Council, as well as a Global Champion of UN “Education Cannot Wait” Fund. She is also a Lecturer, inter alia, at SciencePo on Cultural Diplomacy, at the University of Geneva on Sustainable Development and a Miwon Scholar of Peace Studies at Kyung-Hee University.
She has been two terms the Director-General of UNESCO from 2009 to 2017. She is the first woman to lead the Organisation. As Director-General, Irina Bokova was actively engaged in the UN efforts to adopt Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and the protection of the world’s cultural heritage against the destruction by extremists in Mali, Syria and Iraq. From 2005 to 2009, Irina Bokova was Ambassador of Bulgaria to France, Monaco and UNESCO, as well as Personal Representative of the President of the Republic of Bulgaria to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie.
Irina Bokova was on the Forbes List of the world’s most influential women for 2016. She has received state distinctions from more than 40 countries across the world and is Doctor honoris causa of leading universities across the world, such as King’s College and University of Edinburgh, UK, Paris-Sud Saclay, France, Boston University, US, Catholic University of Milan, Italy, and others. In 2020 she is also elected International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in the category of Scientific, Cultural and Non-profit Leadership.
Irina Bokova was graduated from Moscow State Institute of International Relations. She was a Fellow at the University of Maryland, Washington, and followed an executive program at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.