Fatih Birol (born 22 March 1958, in Ankara) is a Turkish economist and energy expert, who has served as the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) since 1 September 2015. During his time in charge of the IEA, he has taken a series of steps to modernise the Paris-based international organisation, including strengthening ties with emerging economies like India[1] and China and stepping up work on the clean energy transition and international efforts to reach net zero emissions.[2]