Jean-Claude Trichet has been Chairman of the Group of Thirty in Washington, DC since 2011 and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bruegel Institute in Brussels since 2012. He is a member of the Institut de France (Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques). He has chaired the Trilateral Commission for Europe since 2012. He has also been serving on the Board of Directors of Airbus Group since 2012.

Jean-Claude Trichet was President of the European Central Bank from 2003 to 2011 and Chair of the European Systemic Risk Board from 2010 to 2011. Beforehand he was Governor of the Banque de France (1993-2003) and Undersecretary at the French Treasury (1987-93). In these positions he was instrumental in pursuing the French strategy of competitive disinflation in the 1980s and 1990s. He was Chairman of the Paris Club (debt rescheduling) (1985-93), Chairman of the European Monetary Committee (1992-93), Chairman of the Group of Ten Central Bank Governors, and President of the Global Economy Meeting in Basel (2002-11). He was named “Person of the Year” by the Financial Times in 2007, ranked the fifth most powerful person in the world by Newsweek in 2008, and described as one of the “most influential people in the world” by Time Magazine in 2011. He was awarded the International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen in 2011 for his contribution to European unity.

Born in Lyons in 1942, Jean-Claude Trichet is an honorary Inspecteur général des Finances and Ingénieur civil des Mines. He is a graduate of the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), of the University of Paris (in Economics) and of the Ecole nationale d’administration. Jean-Claude Trichet has been awarded honorary doctorates by the Universities of Montreal, Liège, Tel Aviv, Stirling, Bologna and Sofia.