Ms. Maria van der Hoeven, former Minister of Economic
Affairs of the
Netherlands
,
took charge today as the new Executive Director of the International Energy
Agency (IEA) and vowed a focus on excellence as the agency strives to address
the challenges of energy security and climate change in an era of unprecedented
economic uncertainty.
"I am thoroughly convinced of the value of the
IEA's world-class expertise in meeting today's energy challenges, and it is
therefore vital that our expertise remain unrivalled, objective and focused on
the right issues," said Ms. Van der Hoeven, who was elected in March by
the IEA Governing Board to succeed Mr. Nobuo Tanaka of
Japan
.
Ms. Van der Hoeven credited Mr. Tanaka with helping to
build the agency's profile. She said she would focus on further strengthening
the IEA's expertise and reach, promoting the use of the agency's knowledge and
experience to address energy issues impacting IEA Member countries, emerging
economies and exporters of energy. "This means bringing the organisation's
expertise and well-founded views to the table at highest levels, in support of
policymaking as well as to inform discussions with other organisations and
institutions," she said. Ms. Van der Hoeven served as Minister of Economic
Affairs of the
Netherlands
from February 2007 to October 2010, during which time she demonstrated
leadership on energy policy at the national, regional and global levels.
As minister, Ms. Van der Hoeven took the initiative in
advancing several key aspects of her country's energy policy, including
unbundling, infrastructure modernisation and extension, developing the Dutch
gas hub policy, and accelerating the development and use of renewables. She
played an active role in European energy policy development, with a special
focus on issues such as market liberalisation and energy security. She promoted
the strengthening of regional ties by helping to set up the Pentalateral Forum,
which establishes cooperation on electricity between
Germany
,
France
and the
Benelux
countries
and which is evolving into a model for other regions of
Europe
.
On the world stage, Ms. Van der Hoeven contributed to
international dialogue on both energy security and sustainability. She
participated actively in both the Jeddah and
London
summits on the future of oil prices, and in 2009 she chaired the IEA
ministerial meeting. As the responsible minister of a gas-exporting country
that is regarded as Europe's hub for trade in crude oil and oil products, she
gained valuable insights on a broad range of energy-related issues and
assembled an extensive international network and numerous ministerial contacts
in both OECD and non-OECD countries.
Ms. Van der Hoeven is a fierce supporter of market
principles, promoting transparency and establishing a level playing field. In
administrative affairs, she managed to shorten bureaucratic procedures and cut
through red tape to accelerate large-scale energy investments, including
large-scale offshore wind power in the
North Sea
and the creation of the natural gas hub. It is her personal conviction that
energy production and use should be made comprehensively more efficient and
cleaner by improving energy efficiency, developing and using renewables, and
producing and using energy otherwise generated in the cleanest possible ways,
such as clean fossil fuels and carbon capture and storage.
Prior to becoming Minister of Economic Affairs, Ms.
Van der Hoeven was Minister of Education, Culture and Science from 2002 to
2007. She was an elected member of the Netherlands House of Representatives of
the States-General from 1991 to 2002. Until 1987 she was head of the Adult
Commercial Vocational Training Centre in
Maastricht
,
after which she served as head of the Limburg Technology Centre until 1991. A
native Dutch speaker, Ms. Van der Hoeven is fluent in English and speaks French
and German.