Khaled El-Anani Elected as New UNESCO Director-General

Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) — At the 43rd session of the UNESCO General Conference held on November 6 in Samarkand, Egypt’s Khaled El-Anani was elected as the organization’s new Director-General.

He succeeds Audrey Azoulay, who led UNESCO since 2017, the organization’s press service reported.

El-Anani received 172 out of 179 votes. He will become UNESCO’s 12th Director-General and the first representative of the Arab world to hold this position. Additionally, he will be the second African to lead the organization, following Amadou-Mahtar M’Bow from Senegal, who served from 1974 to 1987.

The 54-year-old Khaled Ahmed El-Anani Ali Ezz is a professor of Egyptology at Helwan University, where he has taught for over three decades. He has held positions as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Director of the Open Learning Center, and Head of the Department of Tourism Management.

El-Anani earned his doctorate in Egyptology from Paul Valéry University in Montpellier, France, where he has also served multiple times as a visiting professor.

Over the years, he has led the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization (2014–2016) and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (2015–2016). From 2016 to 2022, he served as Egypt’s Minister of Antiquities and subsequently as Minister of Tourism and Antiquities.

In November 2024, El-Anani was appointed Special Ambassador of the World Tourism Organization for Cultural Tourism and later joined the Board of Trustees of the African World Heritage Fund.

He is fluent in Arabic, French, and English.