Claude Mandil

Executive Director
International Energy Agency

Born in Lyon, France in 1942, Claude Mandil is a graduate of France’s Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole des Mines.

From 1967 until 1974, he worked as a state engineer for the Lorraine and Brittany regions. He then served as a senior officer in the Delegation for Area Planning (DATAR) from 1974 until 1977 and from 1978 until 1981, as Indepartmental and Regional Director of the National Agency for the Encouragement of Research (ANVAR) for the Pays-de-la-Loire region, in Nantes.

In 1981, Mr. Mandil became Technical Advisor in the French Prime Minister’s cabinet, where he was responsible for industry, energy and research until 1982. He was then named Chief Executive Officer of the Institute for Industrial Development (IDI), an investment bank and held the post from 1984 to 1988. He oversaw the privatisation of the bank in 1987, including the transfer of 40 percent of the capital to the bank’s employees. He subsequently became Director General of the Bureau of Mines and Geology (BGRM) and held the post from 1988 to 1990.

From 1990 to 1998 Mr. Mandil served as Director General for Energy and Raw Materials at the Ministry of Industry, Post and Telecommunications. In this post, he was instrumental in the adhesion of France to the IEA in 1991. He became France’s first representative on the IEA’s Governing Board, and served as Chairman thereof from 1997 to 1998.

From 1991 to 1998, he also represented France at the Nuclear Safety Working Group of the G7 and served as President of this group in 1996.

He was named Managing Director of Gaz de France in October 1998, and then Chairman and CEO of the Institut Français du Pétrole in April 2000.

Mr. Mandil is married and has five children.