In a meeting open to representatives of all IAEA member states, the 35-nation board of governors appointed Mr Grossi to serve for four years from 3 December.
The board’s decision will be submitted for approval to a special session of the IAEA general conference on 2 December. The conference consists of representatives of all 171 member states.
A career diplomat with over 35 years of experience in non-proliferation and disarmament, Mr Grossi is currently argentina’s ambassador to Austria and the country’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based International organisations, including the IAEA.
Mr Grossi will be the IAEA’s sixth head since the Vienna-based UN agency was founded in 1957.
He succeeds Yukiya Amano of Japan, who died on 18 July 2019. Mr Amano was the agency’s fifth director-general. He was first appointed to the office effective December 2009 and reappointed in 2013 and 2017.
He followed Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director-general from 1997 to 2009; Hans Blix, from 1981 to 1997; Sigvard Eklund, from 1961 to 1981; and Sterling Cole, from 1957 to 1961.
