Parviz Shahbazov

Minister
Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan

In 1992, he graduated from Azerbaijan State Oil Academy where he majored in Oil & Gas Economics and Management.

In 1990, he launched his career as a practicing diplomat at the Department of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. 

In 1992-1996, he worked as an attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany. In 1996-2001, he held several positions (Assistant Secretary, First Secretary, Department Head and Deputy Head) at the departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan in Europe, the USA and Canada.

In 2001-2005, he worked as the Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Austria, where, later on, he was appointed as the Charge d'affaires.

In 2005, he became the Chairman of The OSCE Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC).

In 2005, he was appointed the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the Federal Republic of Germany and worked in this capacity until 2016.

 In 2016-2017, he worked as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Azerbaijan. Later, he was appointed as the Minister of Energy of the Republic of Azerbaijan on the 12^th of October 2017.

He is fluent in Azerbaijani, Russian, English and German.

He is married and has two kids. 

Yury Sentyurin

Secretary General
GECF

Yury P. Sentyurin is the Secretary General of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, GECF, a position he assumed on January 1, 2018. Prior to joining the GECF, he was State Secretary and Deputy Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation; State Secretary, Deputy Minister of Education and Science; Deputy Head of Committee on Energy, Transport and Communications of the State Duma; First Deputy Governor of the Nizhegorodsky Region and Head, Department of the Ministry on Antimonopoly Policy and Business Support 

Dr. Sentyurin was also Co-chair of several intergovernmental Commissions between the Russian Federation and Bolivia, Afghanistan and Congo respectively, and also Chief negotiator on cooperation in gas and oil, with India, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil, Venezuela, Vietnam, Cuba, Syria, and South Africa.

A recipient of several Awards including the Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation, Dr. Sentyurin who speaks Russian, English, French and Farsi, has a Ph. D. in Political Science, Master’s degree in Law and another Master’s degree in Economics