Vincent Defourny has a Doctorate from the Université Catholique de Louvain. Before joining UNESCO in 1997, he worked in Uganda, where he taught in a secondary school, before teaching at university in Belgium and France (Université Catholique de Louvain, Celsa, SciencesPo and ENA International); he also spent several years working as a communications and management consultant for a wide range of companies in the public, private and non-profit sectors.

At UNESCO, he has held positions in programme evaluation, web management and fundraising. He was a UNESCO representative in Brazil from 2006 to 2011. Today, he runs UNESCO’s communications department.