An executive agency, also known as a next-step agency, is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate in order to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Assembly or Northern Ireland Executive. Executive agencies are "machinery of government" devices distinct both from non-ministerial government departments and non-departmental public bodies (or "quangos"), each of which enjoy a real legal and constitutional separation from ministerial control. The model was also applied in several other countries.

Agencies range from Her Majesty's Prison Service to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The largest agency in terms of staff numbers is Jobcentre Plus, employing 100,000 people. The annual budget for each agency, allocated by Her Majesty's Treasury ranges from a few million pounds for the smallest agencies to £700m for the Court Service to £4bn for Jobcentre Plus. Virtually all government departments have at least one agency.

Nobuo Tanaka (田中 伸男, Tanaka Nobuo^?, born 3 March 1950) is the Japanese official and the former Executive Director of the International Energy Agency. He was born on 3 March 1950 in Japan. He is 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). In 1973 he began his career with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan (METI). In 1989 he joined the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as the Deputy-Director for Science, Technology and Industry, and served in 1991-1995 as the Director for Science, Technology and Industry.

In 1995 he returned to METI where he served as Director for Industrial Finance Division and as Director for Policy Planning and Coordination Division. In 1998–2000 he was posted at the Embassy of Japan in Washington, D.C., as Minister for Energy, Trade and Industry. After returning to Japan in 2000 he took a post of the Executive Vice President for the Research Institute of Economy Trade and Industry, and in 2002–2004 the post of the Director-General for the Multilateral Trade System Department of METI.

The International Energy Agency (IEA; French: Agence internationale de l'énergie) is a Paris-based autonomous intergovernmental organization established in the framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1974 in the wake of the 1973 oil crisis. The IEA was initially dedicated to responding to physical disruptions in the supply of oil, as well as serving as an information source on statistics about the international oil market and other energy sectors.

The IEA acts as a policy adviser to its member states, but also works with non-member countries, especially China, India and Russia. The Agency's mandate has broadened to focus on the "3Es" of sound energy policy: energy security, economic development, and environmental protection. The latter has focused on mitigating climate change. The IEA has a broad role in promoting alternate energy sources (including renewable energy), rational energy policies, and multinational energy technology co-operation.

IEA member countries are required to maintain total oil stock levels equivalent to at least 90 days of the previous year's net imports. At the end of July 2009, IEA member countries held a combined stockpile of almost 4,300,000,000 barrels (680,000,000 m³) of oil.

Mary Thomas née Harris (30 August 1787 - 10 February 1875) was a diarist, poet and early settler of South Australia.

She accompanied her husband, newspaper proprietor Robert Thomas to South Australia on the Africaine and arrived at Holdfast Bay in November 1836. He printed Governor John Hindmarsh's proclamation of the colony, which occurred under the Old Gum Tree on 28 December 1836.

Already a published poet at the time of her arrival in South Australia, she was a prolific letter writer and kept a diary which was first published in 1915 as The Diary and Letters of Mary Thomas. This gave a detailed account of her voyage on the Africaine as well as an insight into early colonial life.

She died at her house in Adelaide on 10 February 1875, leaving two sons and two daughters.