Nobuo Tanaka

is a Japanese official and the former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency.

Biography He was born on 3 March 1950 in Japan. He graduated from the University of Tokyo in the field of economics in 1972, and has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (1979). On 1 September 2007 he succeeded Claude Mandil as the Executive Director of the IEA.

Since September 2011 he is Global Associate for Energy Security and Sustainability at the Institute for Energy Economics, Japan ("Eneken") in Tokyo. He is also a professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Tokyo. He is also a fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University in New York where he has given lectures on subjects like Post Fukushima energy policy, the Shale revolution and energy security, China energy and sustainability, and the Integral Fast Reactor during frequent weekly visits to the Columbia Morningside campus each academic semester. He is a vocal advocate for advanced nuclear energy for Japan and international cooperation between Japan and the Republic of Korea to build the first commercial Integral Fast Reactor in the world. On May 28, 2014 he hosted the Global Leader Program for Social Design and Management (GSDM) 15th Platform Seminar, The 79th Public Policy Seminar at the University of Tokyo (title: "Peaceful and Safer Use of Nuclear Power: Role of Integral Fast Reactor"). His research paper on the role of the Integral Fast Reactor was published in January 2017.

Nobuo Tanaka is married and has two children.