Jean-Pierre RAFFARIN

Former Prime Minister, France

Member of the Board, Boao Forum for Asia

 

 Jean-Pierre Raffarin was born in 1948 in Poitiers. He went to the Henri IV high school in Poitiers, studied law at Paris-Assas University and then graduated from the Ecole supérieure de commerce in Paris. He was a senior lecturer at the Institut d’études politiques in Paris from 1979 to 1988. He has been a lecturer at ESCP Europe since 2007. He began his career as Marketing Director with Jacques Vabre Coffee from 1973 to 1976, and then became Technical Advisor to the cabinet of Lionel Stoléru, Minister for Labor, from 1976 to 1981. He was Executive Director of Bernard Krief Communication from 1981 to 1988 and then became Executive Officer of the Euro-92 Institute, a post which he held until 1989. He was appointed Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce and Craft in 1995, a post he held until 1997. He was appointed Prime Minister by Jacques Chirac on May 6, 2002, and remained in this post until May 31, 2005. He is Chairman of the Foundation pour la Prospective et l’Innovation (Foundation for Innovation and Future Technologies).