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Board of Trustees
Irina Bokova
Ms. Irina Bokova is the former Director-General of UNESCO and Chair of the Governing Council of the UN University for Peace. She was the first woman to be elected Director-General of UNESCO, serving from 2009 to 2017.
Before joining UNESCO, Ms. Bokova served as Bulgaria’s Ambassador to France and Monaco and as Permanent Delegate to UNESCO. During her tenure as Director-General, she contributed to advancing the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and advocated for the protection of cultural heritage during conflicts in Mali, Syria and Iraq. This work contributed to the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2347 on the protection of cultural heritage.
Her distinctions include the Duke of Edinburgh Conservation Award in 2016 and recognition among Forbes’ World’s Most Influential Women in 2016. She was elected a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2020 and the World Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021. She holds honorary doctorates from universities around the world and serves on several international advisory boards.
Ms. Bokova graduated from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and pursued further studies at the University of Maryland and Harvard Kennedy School. She speaks Bulgarian, English, French, Spanish and Russian.
