from 16 august 2004 to 31 august 2007 nobuo tanaka was the director for science, technology and industry at the oecd, and head of the internal oecd steering group for the centre for entrepreneurship. on 1 september 2007 he succeeded claude mandil as the executive director of the iea. on 1 september 2011, he was succeeded in this role by the former minister of economic affairs of the netherlands, maria van der hoeven.