Chris Brooks heads the Public Affairs and Communications Directorate which he created in 1997. He is responsible for the Organisation’s corporate image, its media relations, public affairs and political liaison and publishing activities. He is a member of the Secretary-General’s management board and he reports directly to the chief executive, Mr. Angel Gurría.

Mr. Brooks is an economist by training and has worked in various capacities at the OECD, running research programmes on employment and unemployment, local development and entrepreneurship, regional policy, urban policy and rural development. He has initiated many innovations within the Organisation.

He chairs various non-profit organisations, working for improved education, training and employment of young people. A frequent lecturer at international events and a contributing author to many publications for over 30 years. Mr. Brooks has supervised change management in many different fields. Before joining the OECD in 1979, Mr. Brooks worked in the banking sector and as a political advisor in the United Kingdom and France. He founded YOUTHAID, a U.K. charity working on youth employment and unemployment issues in 1977.

Bilingual, he is married to Marie-Dominique Gervais and has six children.