Audrey Azoulay

Azoulay was born in Paris to a Moroccan Jewish family from Essaouira.[3] She is the daughter of André Azoulay, former adviser to the king of Morocco Hassan II from 1991 to 1999, then the current adviser to king Mohammed VI of Morocco.[4][5]She is the daughter of Katia Brami, a Moroccan writer. Her aunt, Éliane Azoulay, is a journalist for the French magazine "Télérama". She indicates having "grown up in a very left-wing environment"," politicized on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict", in the Beaugrenelle neighbourhood, with her two older sisters, Judith, who worked in the "Association française d'action artistique" (AFAA) and Sabrina, who is a producer.

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.[6][7][8] She also studied at Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration (ENA)[6] in 2000 ( promotion Averroès, alongside Fleur Pellerin, Alexis Kohler and Nicolas Kazadi among others).

During her university studies, she worked at a bank, which she says she "hated". During her studies in the École nationale d'administration, she says she "discovered the old French anti-Semitism".

She indicates having participated in demonstrations against the " Devaquet bill" in 1986 , against the "Juppé plan" in 1995 and against the candidature of Jean-Marie Le Pen in the second round of the 2002 French presidential election. - Her role models are Simone Veil and Jean Zay.

In 2000, Azoulay was appointed civil administrator, assigned to the general secretariat of Prime Minister Lionel Jospin's government. From April 2000 to July 2003, she worked at the head of the public audiovisual sector office, especially for the strategy and the funding of sector organization in the media development department. At the same time, she manages media expertise missions for the European Commission within the process of pre-accession programs.

In 2003, Azoulay was in charge of conference in media strategy, audiovisual and cinema financing at Sciences Po. From September 2003 to February 2006, she worked for the Ile-de-France Regional Chamber Accounts and with the Committee for inquiry into the cost and performance of public service. In 2004, she appeared in the distribution of the Film " Le Grand Rôle " by the director Steve Suissa, where she played the director's assistant.

In 2006, Azoulay joined the National Center of Cinematography and the moving image (CNC), successively holding the positions of Deputy Director for Multimedia Affairs, Chief Financial and Legal Officer and Deputy Director-General.[9][10]

From 2014 until 2016, Azoulay served as advisor on communications and cultural affairs to President François Hollande.

Azoulay succeeded Fleur Pellerin as Minister of Culture on 11 February 2016. During her time in office, she increased her department's budget by 6.6% to a total of €2.9 billion in 2017 – the largest amount of government money promised for the arts in the country's history.[11] Under her leadership, the Ministry lent support to a women's contemporary art prize launched by AWARE (Archives of Women Artists, Research and Exhibitions).[12] Internationally, she played a key role in the joint initiatives of France, the UNESCO and the United Arab Emirates to safeguard cultural heritage in conflict zones, announced in December 2016, and was a signatory to the Florence Declaration condemning the destruction of cultural sites at the first G7 culture summit in March 2017.[13] On 24 March 2017, she presented Draft Resolution 2347 on the protection of cultural heritage in armed conflicts to the UN Security Council. This resolution, put forward by France, Italy and UNESCO, was adopted unanimously.[14][15]

By the end of 2016, Azoulay eventually decided against becoming a candidate herself in the 2017 French legislative election.[16] In the Socialist Party's presidential primaries, she endorsed Manuel Valls as the party's candidate for the 2017 French presidential election.[17] After the Socialist Party was eliminated in the first round of the election, she publicly declared her support for Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen.[18]

In 2017, Azoulay was one of the nine candidates seeking to succeed Irina Bokova as Director-General of UNESCO.[19] In the final round against Hamad Bin Abdulaziz Al-Kawari, she was elected as Director-General of UNESCO, and her candidacy was presented for approval at UNESCO's general assembly on 10 November 2017.[20]