Thierry de Montbrial

Thierry René Henri de Montbrial (; born 3 March 1943) is the executive chairman of the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI), which he founded in 1979. He is also the founder and chairman of the World Policy Conference (WPC), which he created in 2008. He has been a member of the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences since 1992. He is an honorary member of numerous foreign academies.

Biography Montbrial is the son of François, inspector-general of the Bank of France and Monique Lecuyer-Corthis. He married Marie-Christine de Montbrial (née Balling) in 1967, who is a movie producer (StarDance Pictures) and daughter of Charles Balling (born in 1912; graduate from the École polytechnique in 1935). He is the father of lawyer Thibault de Montbrial and Alexandra Pilleux-de Montbrial.

Education Montbrial graduated from the École polytechnique (1963) and from the École des Mines (1969) as a general engineer. He received his doctorate in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in the United States. He wrote his doctoral thesis at Berkeley on the time dimension in the economic theory of general equilibrium, directed by the professor Gérard Debreu (Nobel Prize of Economy, 1983).

In 1973, Michel Jobert, then Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, put him in charge of setting up the Center of Analysis and Prevision (CAP) for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He then became the first Head Director of the Policy Planning Staff until 1979,

In 1979, de Montbrial created the French Institute of Foreign Relations (Ifri), which publishes – among others – the annual report RAMSES (yearly global report on the economic system and strategies) and the periodical Politique étrangère (foreign policy).

In 2008, Montbrial founded the World Policy Conference (WPC), an annual meeting which addresses global governance issues and which gathers political, economic and social leaders.

de Montbrial was also chairman of the French-Austrian Centre for European Economic Convergence (CFA) between 1985 and 2015. Between 1993 and 2001, he was the inaugural chairman of the Foundation for Strategic Research. and chairman of the international advisory board of the Group OCP (Morocco), and member of the board of directors of the Renault Foundation. He was a member of the advisory council of the WTO secretary general, Geneva (2003–2005), member of the Commission Defense and National Security White Paper (20072008) and member of the Steering Committee for the Bilderberg Meetings (19762011).

de Montbrial is a member of the advisory committee of the Peterson Institute for International Economics (Washington),

Academies de Montbrial was elected at the French Academy of Moral and Political Sciences on 29 June 1992. He is also a member of the Academia Europaea (elected in March 1993), the Royal Academy of Belgium (elected in January 1996), the Swedish Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences (elected in 1999), the Romanian Academy (elected in December 1999), the Academy of Science of Russia (elected in May 2003), the Academy of Science of Moldavia (elected in January 2006), the Academy of Science of Bulgaria (elected in July 2006) and in 2010 was accepted as corresponding academician in the Royal Academy of Economics and Financial Sciences of Spain.

de Montbrial is Doctor Honoris Causa of the Romanian Academy for economic studies (1996), the Academy of Science of Azerbaidjan (2002), (2017).

Distinctions and honours Grand Officier of the Légion d'honneur (France, 2019) Grand Officier of the Ordre national du Mérite (France, 2011) Commandeur of the Ordre des Palmes académiques (France, 2003) Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France, 2023) Commandeur of the Ordre du Mérite agricole (France) Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold of the Decoration of Honour for Services to the Republic of Austria (Austria) Officier of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Commandeur of the Order of the Southern Cross (Brazil) Commandeur of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland (Poland) Grand Officier of the Order of the Star of Romania Awarded Grand Prix of the Société de Géographie for his collected works (2003).