Ms. Maria van der Hoeven
Executive Director
International Energy Agency

Ms. Maria van der Hoeven took over as Executive Director of the IEA on 1
September 2011.

Previously, 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.

Ms. Van der Hoeven played an active role in European energy policy
development, with a special focus on issues such as market liberalisation
and energy security. Ms. Van der Hoeven 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.