Jacques Attali was born in France in 1943. He studied at the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Mines, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques and the Ecole Nationale de l’Administration. In 1972, Attali received a PhD in economics from the University Paris Dauphine. He then taught economic theory at the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussées and the University of Paris-Dauphine.
In 1973, Attali directed François Mitterrand's unsuccessful presidential political campaign and then became his main chief of staff in the opposition. In 1981, Mitterrand was elected President and named Attali as his special adviser.
Attali co-founded the international NGO Action Contre la Faim in 1979 and in 1980 he founded Eurêka, the European technology focused programme. In 1989, he launched an international programme of action against the disastrous floods in Bangladesh. Attali also advised the Secretary General of the United Nations on the risks of nuclear proliferation.
In 1991, Attali became the founder and first President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London. He is currently CEO of A&A, an international consulting firm in strategy, based in Paris, and President of Positive Planet, an international non-profit organisation assisting microfinance institutions all over the world.
Attali delivered the Beatty Lecture on March 5, 1993 titled "Europe on the World Stage in the Twenty-First Century".
Download a PDF of Jacques Attali's Beatty Lecture 
here.
Image: United Nations Photo Library
