Speakers 2026

A senior French civil servant specializing in cultural and heritage policies, Marie-Christine Labourdette is a graduate of the École nationale d’administration (ENA) and Sciences Po Paris. She began her career at the City of Paris before joining the Ministry of Culture. She has held several senior positions, notably as Secretary-General of the French Academy in Rome and Regional Director of Cultural Affairs for Burgundy. In 2008, she was appointed Director of the Museums of France, a position she held for nearly ten years, overseeing national museum policy and supporting major projects. She then served as President of the City of Architecture and Heritage (2018–2021). Since 2021, she has been President of the public institution of the Château de Fontainebleau and of the École Spéciale d’Architecture. She is recognized for her commitment to promoting and enhancing cultural heritage.

A graduate of the Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan Military Academy, Louis Laugier began his career as an Army officer, serving as a platoon leader in a battalion of Alpine Hunters. He has extensive experience in security affairs and in the management of the National Police. He joined the prefectural administration in 2000 and subsequently held several senior positions in prefectures and at the Ministry of the Interior, notably within the Human Resources Directorate of the National Police. After serving as Secretary General of the Bouches-du-Rhône Prefecture, he was appointed Prefect of Aveyron in 2015, then successively of Savoie, Haut-Rhin, and finally Isère in 2023. He was appointed Director General of the National Police (DGPN) on November 4, 2024.

Prof. Leon Laulusa is Executive President and Dean of ESCP Business School since June 2023. He previously held several leadership roles within the School, including Dean for Academic Affairs and International Relations, and Dean of the Paris, Warsaw and Dubai campuses. Professor of Financial Reporting and Audit, he teaches accounting, governance and leadership, notably in China. His research focuses on cultural influences on management and accounting. He advises senior executives on strategy and performance and serves on multiple boards, including CFJ Paris, as well as advisory boards in France, China, India and Poland. Formerly Partner at Deloitte and Managing Partner at BDO, he led international projects, especially in Asia. He holds a PhD from Paris-Dauphine, an MBA from IAE Paris and is a French Chartered Accountant.

A graduate of Panthéon-Assas University, Olivier Laureau joined the Servier Group in 1982, working in the Intellectual Property Department before moving to the Legal Department. In 2008, he continued his career within the pharmaceutical group by becoming Chief Financial Officer. Appointed Chairman of Servier in 2014, Olivier Laureau launched a major transformation plan for the company aimed at ensuring Servier’s independence, growth and long-term sustainability. The company is investing in oncology, neuroscience and immuno-inflammation, as well as in its traditional areas of expertise: cardiology, metabolic diseases and venous diseases. A prominent figure in healthcare sector discussions, he sits on the board of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) and on the board of the G5, an organization representing France's leading pharmaceutical companies, as well as the Biopharmaceutical CEOs Roundtable (a global forum on health policy).

French diplomat and senior civil servant Anne-Claire Legendre is a recognized expert on the Maghreb and the Middle East, trained at Sciences Po and the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. After beginning her career at the French Embassy in Yemen, she held key positions, including at France’s Permanent Mission to the UN in New York, and as an advisor for North Africa and the Middle East at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Élysée Palace. Appointed Ambassador to Kuwait in 2020 and later Director of Communications for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2021, she became, in February 2026, the first woman to lead the Institut du monde arabe, succeeding Jack Lang. Her expertise and leadership aim to reform and revitalize this pivotal institution for Franco-Arab dialogue.

A senior heritage curator, Hervé Lemoine joined the Army Historical Service in 1996, where he became Deputy Director of Archives and Libraries. In 2005, he was appointed Deputy Director for Memory, Heritage and Archives at the Ministry of Defence, in charge of archival and library policy. In January 2009, he took over as Director of the Musée des Monuments français and of the Heritage Department at the Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine, where he curated several exhibitions. From 2010 to 2018, he served as Director of the Archives de France at the Ministry of Culture and Communication, before being appointed in February 2018 Director of the Mobilier national. n January 2025, he was appointed President of the Manufactures nationales.

Blanche Leridon is a political scientist and an expert on transformations in public debate in France. She joined the Institut Montaigne in 2015, where she conducts research on democracy, populist dynamics, and the evolution of political discourse in France and across Europe. Between 2018 and 2021, she held several positions within ministerial cabinets, notably working with the Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation on parliamentary affairs, equal opportunities, and culture. She also served as an advisor to the President of the French National Assembly on cultural and educational issues. A lecturer at Sciences Po, she focuses on the evolution of political discourse under the Fifth Republic. She is a regular media contributor and the author of two essays, "Odyssées ordinaires" (2022) and "Le château de mes sœurs" (2024).

Born in Poland, Daniel Libeskind initially pursued a career in music before turning to architecture. Trained at New York’s Cooper Union School, he embraced deconstructivist theories, heavily influenced by the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. In 1985, Libeskind won the Leone di Petra first prize at the Venice Biennale. In 1988, he participated in the Deconstructivist Architecture exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. From 1988 to 1999, he oversaw the construction of the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Libeskind founded his own firm, Studio Daniel Libeskind, based in Berlin. Since 1994, he has taught at the University of California, Los Angeles, and has also lectured at universities worldwide. His work includes various project, such as the Jewish Museum in San Francisco and the Holocaust Centre in Manchester. Notably, Daniel Libeskind was selected to design the reconstruction of the World Trade Center in New York.

After studying modern literature at the Sorbonne and musicology at the EHESS, Olivier Mantei taught music in Casablanca before returning to Paris in the early 1990s. He then contributed to the development of the Accentus choir, founded by Laurence Equilbey, and became one of its administrators. In 1998, he founded the production agency Instant Pluriel, which supports several classical music ensembles and artists. Beginning in 2000, he worked with theatre director Peter Brook as an administrator at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord. In 2007, he joined the Opéra-Comique as Deputy Director before becoming its Director in 2015. In 2021, he was appointed CEO of the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris by the President of France. . His vision emphasizes cultural accessibility, inclusion, and the institution’s international influence.

After completing a PhD in law at the University of Pavia and teaching at the Universities of Trento and Parma, Dario Mantovani became Professor of Roman Law in Pavia. Director of the journal Athenaeum and a scientific contributor to several specialized European journals, he has been Vice-President of the International Society of Classical Bibliography since 2020. He directs the CEDANT Research Center (University of Pavia) and leads the ERC project “Redhis,” which aims to shed light on Roman legal culture in Late Antiquity. Since 2018, he has been a professor at the Collège de France, holding the chair “Law, Culture and Society of Ancient Rome,” and dedicates his work to Roman legal thought and its contemporary influence on European culture.

Graduated in Economics and from IESE Business School in Madrid, Enrique Martinez joined Fnac in 1998 with the mission of establishing and developing the brand in Portugal. In 2004, he became Managing Director of the Iberian region, before taking charge of the brand for France and Northern Europe in 2012.
Chief Executive Officer of the Fnac Darty group and a member of its Board of Directors since 2017, he has led the first synergies and integration projects between Fnac and Darty.
Having significantly contributed to the group’s transformation into a European leader in specialized retail, Enrique Martinez has expressed his ambition to make Fnac Darty a benchmark for sustainable and responsible retail, through the offering of high value-added services to its customers.

William Marx, having ranked first in the agrégation competitive examination in Classical Literature in 1989, completed his doctoral thesis in 2000 at the Sorbonne University. He taught in the United States and Japan, as well as at several French universities, before being appointed in 2019 as Professor of Comparative Literature at the Collège de France. He is a member of Academia Europaea, a laureate of the Académie française and the Académie des sciences morales et politiques, a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the Institut Universitaire de France, a recipient of the International Francqui Chair, and a former fellow of the Berlin Institute for Advanced Study. He is regularly invited to speak at universities abroad. His works include "A Summer with Don Quixote" (2024), and "Libraries of the Mind" (2025).

Admitted to the Paris Bar in 2003, she holds a doctorate in law from Panthéon-Sorbonne University and is an active member of the International Bar Association (IBA). She is a recognized expert in criminal defense and internal investigations. For more than twenty years, she has been involved in high-profile cases involving economic and political criminal defense, such as the Concorde crash, the sinking of the Erika, the AZF factory explosion, and Penelope Fillon’s appeal trial. Recognized for her expertise, she is also a highly regarded professor at Sciences Po Paris, where she teaches courses in economic criminal law. She has been recognized individually in the categories of “business criminal law” and “compliance and investigations” by the prestigious independent legal research firms Chambers and Partners France 2025 and Legal 500 EMEA 2025.

Christian Monjou, a holder of the agrégation, a lecturer and researcher at University of Oxford, and a former recipient of a Besse Foundation award, is a specialist in Anglo-Saxon civilisation. For many years, he was a Senior Lecturer in the khâgne B/L programme at the Lycée Henri-IV in Paris and a lecturer preparing students for the agrégation at the ENS. A recognised expert with the APM and GERME groups, he also lectures for HEC Executive Education and at the request of numerous consulting firms. Christian Monjou uses the arts (visual arts, theatre, opera) as a medium to explore managerial issues such as leadership, interpersonal relationships, innovation and positive competition, and intercultural relations.

Alessandro Morbidelli, a planetary scientist at the Côte d’Azur Observatory, is an associate member of the French Academy of Sciences and the Royal Academy of Belgium. He headed the National Planetary Science Programme (PNP) at the CNRS from 2010 to 2018 and has chaired the Solar System thematic group at the CNES since 2019. Since 2021, he has also served as Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Icarus, dedicated to planetary science and founded by Carl Sagan. He has received numerous honours, including the Urey Prize from the Division of Planetary Sciences of the American Astronomical Society in 2000, the Mergier-Bourdeix Grand Prize from the French Academy of Sciences in 2009, and the CNRS Silver Medal in 2019. In 2023, he was elected Professor at the Collège de France, where he holds the Chair of Planetary Formation : From Earth to Exoplanets.

Benjamin Morel is a constitutional law expert and Senior Lecturer in Public Law at the Paris-Panthéon-Assas University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the ENS Paris-Saclay. His research focuses on political institutions, constitutional law, Parliament, and local authorities. His publications include "Les bases du droit constitutionnel" (2020) and "Le Sénat et sa légitimité, l’institution interprète d’un rôle constitutionnel" (2018). He is Head of Institutional Studies at the Rousseau institute.

Wajdi Mouawad, born in Lebanon, is a leading playwright, director, and actor in contemporary theatre. Shaped by experiences of exile — a childhood in Lebanon, adolescence in France, and training in Montreal — he graduated from the National Theatre School of Canada in 1991 and co-founded Théâtre Ô Parleur. He later directed Théâtre de Quat’Sous and established several companies in both Quebec and France. His work, deeply imbued with themes of war, memory, and identity, includes the cycle "Le Sang des Promesses" (Littoral, Incendies, Forêts, Ciels). The play "Incendies", adapted for the cinema by Denis Villeneuve, has achieved international success. He holded the Chair "The invention of Eurpe through Languages and Cultures" from 2024 to 2025. As director of the Théâtre national de la Colline from 2016 to 2026, he has developed a demanding and socially engaged body of work, blending theatre, the novel, and opera, and has established himself as a leading voice in the French-speaking world.