Nobuo Tanaka
Chairman of the Steering Committee of Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF)
Former Director General of the International Energy Agency (IEA) (2007-11)
Mr.Tanaka joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in 1973 and served as the Director General of the International Energy Agency (IEA) from 2007 to 2011. At the IEA, he pioneered the concept of “comprehensive energy security. He also promoted activities focusing on climate change, renewable energy, and the transition to a low-carbon energy economy.
From 2015 to 2008, he served as Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, and then as Chairman. He is currently CEO of Tanaka Global Inc., a Special Fellow of the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, an External Director of Chiyoda Corporation, an External Auditor of Innotek Corporation, and a Senior Executive Advisor of Air Liquide Japan, Inc. He is also the Chairman of the Steering Committee of the “Innovation for Cool Earth Forum (ICEF)”. In education, he is a visiting professor at the University of Tokyo’s School of Public Policy and a Distinguished Fellow at Columbia University’s Center on Global Policy.
He served in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), where he held a number of posts in foreign relations, including Director of the Trade Organization Division of the Trade Policy Bureau. From 1982 to 1985, he served as First Secretary for Economic Affairs at the Japanese Embassy in Washington, D.C., where he worked on issues such as semiconductor trade friction, and from 1998 to 2000, he served as Minister of Commerce and Energy at the U.S. Embassy in Washington, D.C. From 1998 to 2000, he served as Minister of Commerce and Energy at the U.S. Embassy in Washington, D.C. He served twice as Director of the Science, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), an international organization based in Paris (1989-95 and 2004-07).
Graduated from the University of Tokyo, Faculty of Economics.
