prof. dr. Jacques Attali

Professor of economics and political sciences, prolific writer, European statesman, philosopher and CEO. Jacques Attali must be rated as one of the great European thinkers of our time. A renaissance man but also an organizer who has proven that he can move mountains whether it concerns a project of state of French, European or Global dimensions.

He has often done it all simultaneously. He remains a thinker. Writing such bestsellers as Noise: The Political Economy of Music, A Brief History of the Future: What the World Will Be in 100 Years, Labyrinth in Culture and Society: Pathways to Wisdom. He recently accepted a new challenge when French President Nicolas Sarkozy approached him to head a new commission to promote growth in the French economy. A project that is central to the agenda of Sarkozy and vital to future the of France and Europe. Attali has experience with important projects of sometimes gargantuan size, and he has proven he can accomplish them successfully (where others are bogged down by the complexity and size of the undertaking Attali as a master analyst manages to stay focussed and yet also lead).

He gained his political experience at the highest levels. As an honorary member of the council of the French republic he was special advisor to the president of France from 1981 to 1991. He also was amongst other things the founder and first president of the European bank for reconstruction and development from 1991 to 1993.

Jacques Attali is currently next to being head of the special French commission in charge of reigniting the French economy’s potential for growth, CEO of an international consulting firm specialized in new technologies. He is widely acclaimed to be an authority on micro-finance. His advise is much sought after by NGOs, financial institutions, governments and central banks.

In 1980 he founded Action Contre la Faim (action against world famine). In 1989 he launched a programme of action against the disastrous floods in Bangladesh. He was the founding father of the Eureka programme (the major European programme on new technologies that invented, among other things, the mp3). Jacques Attali advised the Secretary General of the United Nations on the risks of nuclear proliferation. One of his most lasting and far reaching accomplishments is his reform of European higher education for the entire EU, known as LMD. To this we owe amongst other things the bachelor and master structure.

Jacques Attali also is an editorialist for the magazine L’Express. He has written forty books, translated into more than twenty languages, with over six million copies sold all over the world. With famous titles like: Noise: The Political Economy of Music, Labyrinth in Culture and Society: Pathways to Wisdom. His biography of President François Mitterand is one of the best insider views ever to come out of the Ellysée Palace. He wrote an outstanding biography on Warburg the banker-financier, under the title ''A Man of Influence''. (His essays deal with a wide variety of subjects ranging from mathematical economics, to music), biographies, novels, children’s tales and plays.

Jacques Attali graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique (first in the class 1963), the Ecole des Mines, the Institut d'Etudes Politiques and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration.