45 Facts About Jacques Attali

Jacques Jose Mardoche Attali is a French economic and social theorist, writer, political adviser and senior civil servant, who served as a counselor to President Francois Mitterrand from 1981 to 1991, and was the first head of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1991 to 1993.

Jacques Attali has published more than fifty books, including Verbatim, Noise: The Political Economy of Music, Labyrinth in Culture and Society: Pathways to Wisdom, and A Brief History of the Future.

Jacques Attali was born on 1 November 1943 in Algiers, with his twin brother Bernard Attali, in a Jewish family.

Jacques Attali's father, Simon Attali, is a self-educated person who achieved success in perfumery in Algiers.

In 1966, Jacques Attali graduated from the Ecole polytechnique.

Jacques Attali graduated from the Ecole des mines, Sciences Po and the Ecole nationale d'administration.

In 1972, Jacques Attali received a PhD in economics from University Paris Dauphine, for a thesis written under the supervision of Alain Cotta.

Jacques Attali taught economics from 1968 to 1985 at the Paris Dauphine University, at the Ecole polytechnique and at the Ecole des Ponts et chaussees.

Jacques Attali directed his political campaign for the presidential elections in 1974.

Jacques Attali then became his main chief of staff in the opposition.

From this moment on, Jacques Attali wrote notes every evening for the attention of the French President, which dealt with economics, culture, politics, or the last book he read.

Jacques Attali attended all the Cabinet meetings, the Defense Council, and all bilateral meetings between President Francois Mitterrand and foreign heads of States and governments.

Jacques Attali advised the President to get Jean-Louis Bianco, Alain Boublil and several young, promising graduates from the Ecole nationale d'administration to join his team.

Jacques Attali took an active part in the organization of the celebrations for the bicentenary of the French Revolution on 14 July 1989.

In 2013, Jacques Attali advocated the concept of positive economy in a report delivered to President Francois Hollande at his request.

Jacques Attali's ideas inspired some of the provisions of the law proposed by Emmanuel Macron, Minister of Economy.

Jacques Attali is often credited with having spotted Emmanuel Macron and enabling him to become President of the French Republic.

In 1979, Jacques Attali co-founded the international NGO Action Against Hunger.

Jacques Attali founded the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, in London, and became its first president.

Jacques Attali had initiated the idea of this institution in June 1989, before the fall of the Berlin Wall, in order to support the reconstruction of Eastern European countries.

Jacques Attali chaired the Paris negotiating conference which led to the creation of the EBRD.

In 1991, Jacques Attali invited Mikhail Gorbachev to the EBRD headquarters, in London, against the opinion of British Prime Minister John Major.

Jacques Attali explains his stance in a chapter of his book C'etait Francois Mitterrand, entitled "Verbatim and the EBRD": "the work in question had been done under the supervision of an international working group to which I did not belong".

Indeed, when Jacques Attali left the EBRD the board of governors gave him final discharge for the management of the institution.

In 1993, Jacques Attali won a libel suit; he had been accused of having reproduced in his book Verbatim, without Francois Mitterrand's authorization, secret archives and several sentences of the French head of State which were meant for another book.

Francois Mitterrand confirmed in a long interview that he had asked Jacques Attali to write this book, and acknowledged that he had proofread it and had been given the possibility to make corrections.

In 1998, Jacques Attali founded Positive Planet, a non-profit organization which is active in more than 80 countries, employing over 500 staff, and provides funding, technical assistance and advisory services to 10,000 microfinance players and stakeholders.

In 2001 Jacques Attali was subject to investigations on the charges of "concealment of company assets which have been misused and influence peddling".

Jacques Attali was discharged on 27 October 2009 by the magistrate's court of Paris, "on the benefit of the doubt".

Jacques Attali thinks the regulation of the economy by a global financial supervisory institution may be a solution to the financial crisis which started 2008.

In 2012, Jacques Attali became a member of the supervisory board of Kepler Capital Markets, a Swiss broker based in Geneva.

In September 2010, Jacques Attali was appointed as a member of the directorate of the Musee d'Orsay.

Jacques Attali has a passion for music: he plays the piano, and wrote lyrics for Barbara.

Jacques Attali is the author of the book Bruits, an essay which deals with the economy of music and the importance of music in the evolution of our societies.

Jacques Attali performed very different pieces, which ranged from a symphony composed by Benda to Bach's violin concertos, a mass composed by Mozart, Barber's Adagio and Mendelssohn's double concerto for violin, piano and orchestra.

Jacques Attali directed orchestra in Shanghai, Bondy, Marseille, London and Astana.

The literary work of Jacques Attali covers a wide range of topics and almost every possible subject in the field of literature: mathematics, economic theory, essays, novels, biographies, memoirs, children's stories, and theater.

Jacques Attali has put forward several readers and several publications on analytical methods.

Jacques Attali's work reveals a distinct vision of history and its successive stages, which are simultaneously ideological, technological and geopolitical.

Jacques Attali has, in books written during key events, tried to highlight particular moments of the present and the near future and he proposed reforms to implement, either in books he authored or in collective reports.

Jacques Attali reflected on the future of the concepts of socialism and altruism and advocated methods of personal growth.

Jacques Attali has reflected on the many dimensions, as well as the place, of Jewish thought and the Jewish people in history ; he took on this subject at the theatre in Du cristal a la fumee.

Jacques Attali reflected on inter-religious dialogue.

Jacques Attali has narrated some of the major events in which he was involved in several memoirs: first, in Verbatim 1,2 and 3, he kept, at the request of Francois Mitterrand, the daily newspaper in the years during Mitterrand's presidency.

Jacques Attali recounted his memories of the creation of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in Europe and drew a portrait of Francois Mitterrand in C'etait Francois Mitterrand, from the twenty years he spent at his side.