Dr. Khaled El-Enany has won the post of Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) by a landslide majority, becoming the first Egyptian and Arab to hold the post since the organization was founded. He will lead the organization from 2026, after securing 55 out of a total of 57 votes.
El-Enany served as Minister of Tourism and Antiquities from December 2019 to August 2022 in the government of Prime Minister Dr. Mostafa Madbouly, after the two ministries were merged for the first time since 1964. Dr. Khaled El-Enany had taken over the Ministry of Antiquities portfolio in March 2016, and before that he served as general supervisor of the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization and the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir.
Biography
El-Enany graduated from the Tourist Guidance Department at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Helwan University, in 1992, and obtained a master's degree from the same university in 1996. He then enrolled at Paul Valéry University Montpellier 3 in France to study for a postgraduate diploma and a doctorate (1997-2001).
After obtaining his doctorate, he rose through the academic ranks in the Tourist Guidance Department at the Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, Helwan University, working as a lecturer from 2001 to 2006, then as an assistant professor until 2011, and then as a professor at the university in the same year. He was also appointed head of the faculty's Tourist Guidance Department (2011-2012), vice dean of the faculty for education and student affairs (2011-2012), and director of the faculty's Open Education Center (2010-2012).
Scientific Experience
He held several research positions, including associate researcher at the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo (2002-2011), scientific expert at the institute (2012-2014), and member of the institute's board (2011-2016).
He also taught Egyptology at Paul Valéry University Montpellier as a visiting professor for a year in 2013, in addition to six other times, each lasting one month, between 2006 and 2011, and has been an associate researcher at research unit UMR5140 of France's National Center for Scientific Research and Paul Valéry University Montpellier since 2002.
Dr. Khaled El-Enany has received numerous awards and honors, including the rank of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters from France in 2015, as well as honorary membership of the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo in the same year, and he was granted honorary membership of the French Society of Egyptology in Paris in 2016.
He has published 20 research papers and scientific books in internationally peer-reviewed journals, and has taken part in more than 30 conferences in many countries around the world, including Egypt, France, Germany, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland.
