Irina Bokova
Irina Georgieva Bokova (also written Irina Georgieva Bokova, Bulgarian Ирина Георгиева Бокова; born July 12, 1952 in Sofia) is a Bulgarian politician of the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP ) and elected Director-General of UNESCO.
Education and political career
Irina Bokova is the daughter Georgi Bokows, a former editor in chief of Rabotnichesko delo ( The Workers' Cause ), the central organ of the Bulgarian Communist Party 1948 until 1990. Your High School put it in 1971 at the prestigious First English Language School in Sofia. She then studied at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations, where in 1976 a Master of Business Administration acquired. A postgraduate course on the topic of U.S. foreign policy, she graduated in 1989 from the University of Maryland, School of Public Affairs.
In 1977 she joined the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry, to which she held various positions. At times, she was a staff of Bulgaria to the United Nations in New York. Between 1986 and 1990 she served as Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in the rank of First Secretary. From 1995 onwards, she coordinated as Deputy Minister the relations of Bulgaria to the European Union; November 1996 to February 1997, she headed the cabinet of Prime Minister Shan Widenov the Ministry itself
As a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party they belonged 1990-1991 the Constituent Grand National Assembly of Bulgaria and between 2001 and 2005 the Narodno Sabranie, the national parliament, to. Since 2005 she has Bulgarian ambassador to France and Monaco and UNESCO.
UNESCO
On September 22, 2009, she struck UNESCO's Executive Board before in place of Koichiro Matsuura as Director-General of the organization. Previously, she had prevailed in five rounds of voting against their biggest rival, the Egyptian Farouk Hosni, and seven other candidates. The General Conference of UNESCO confirmed its election on 15 October 2009. The official handover was on November 15, 2009. She is the first woman and the first representative of a former socialist state at the head of a UN organization.
For her performance in that office in 2011 received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa.
Family
Irina Bokova is married and has two adult children.