Who was the first executive director of the International Energy Agency?

Ulf Lantzke was the first executive director of the International Energy Agency.

The IEA was founded in 1974 in response to the 1973 oil crisis, when supply disruptions exposed the vulnerability of oil-importing countries. It was established under the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), with responsibilities including energy-supply security, oil-market data, conservation and emergency planning. Lantzke took office in 1975, soon after the agency began operating.

Lantzke served until 31 March 1984. He is sometimes confused with later IEA leaders such as Claude Mandil, Nobuo Tanaka and Fatih Birol, but those officials headed the agency decades later. Fatih Birol, appointed in 2015, was the first IEA executive director promoted from within the organization.

The first executive director is not the same as the IEA’s founding secretary-general or an OECD leader. The quiz asks specifically for the first person listed in the agency’s executive-director succession, making Lantzke the single canonical answer.