Anne-Claire Legendre

Anne-Claire Legendre (born 3 June 1979 in Brittany) is a French female diplomat and politician. Since February 2026, she has served as President of the Institut du monde arabe, succeeding Jack Lang.

Biography Anne-Claire Legendre was born on 3 June 1979 in Brittany, France. Her mother, Maurice Fresneau, was a professor of medicine, and was the founder of the Universite Angevine du Temps Libre.

Prior to entering politics, she studied at Sciences Po and humanities at the Sorbonne Nouvelle University, before studying Arabic at the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales.

Between 2010 and 2013, she joined the Permanent Mission of France to the United Nations, where she was given trust on sensitive files regarding the Middle East in the United Nations Security Council.

On 10 September 2020, Legendre was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the French Republic to the State of Kuwait. On July 28, 2021, she was appointed Director of Communications and Press for the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and took office on September 1.

In 2026, as the first woman to hold the position, she was appointed president of the Institut du monde arabe, succeeding Jack Lang after his retirement from the Epstein files.