Pascal Lamy

Pascal Lamy: Champion of Global Trade and European Integration

Pascal Lamy holds various mandates at the global, European, and French levels. He is notably the Vice-President of the Paris Peace Forum, of the European branch of the Brunswick Group and coordinator of the Jacques Delors Institutes (Paris, Berlin, Brussels).

Pascal Lamy served two terms as Director General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) from September 2005 to September 2013 .

He graduated from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Paris, from the Faculty of Law (Sorbonne), from the Institut d’Études Politiques (IEP) and from the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

He began his career in the French civil service at the General Inspectorate of Finance and the Treasury. In 1981, he became advisor to the Minister of Economy and Finance, Jacques Delors, then Deputy Head of Prime Minister’s Pierre Mauroy cabinet in 1983.

From 1985 to 1994, Pascal Lamy was the chief of staff of the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, and his “sherpa” at the G7.

In 1994, he joined the team in charge of the recovery of the French bank Crédit Lyonnais then becoming its CEO up to its privatization in 1999, before returning to the European Commission as Trade Commissioner (Romano Prodi’s Presidency) until the end of 2004.

After his mandate in Brussels, Pascal Lamy chaired for a brief sabbatical period the think tank working on European integration created by Jacques Delors, “Notre Europe” (now “Jacques Delors Institute”). He also became an associate professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris and an advisor to Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, President of the European Socialist Party. In 2005, he was elected to head the WTO.

Pascal Lamy has set out his commitment to European integration and his vision of a “harnessed” globalization in several thought-provoking books:

• Strange New World (with N. Gnesotto, Odile Jacob, 2020)
• Where is the world going? (with N. Gnesotto and JM. Baer, ​​Odile Jacob, 2017 – republished in 2018)
• When France Wakes Up (Odile Jacob, 2014)
• The Geneva Consensus, (Cambridge University Press, 2013)
• Now for the Long Term (Report of the Oxford Martin Commission for Future Generations, 2013)
• World Democracy – For another global governance (Seuil, 2004)
• Europe on the front line (Seuil, 2002)
• The Europe of our wills (with J. Pisani-Ferry, Plon, 2002 The Europe we want, Arch Press / The Policy Network, 2002)
• “World-Europe” report, chaired by P. Lamy in the framework of the XIth Plan of the Commissariat général du Plan (Dunod, 1993).

He has received the title of Doctor Honoris Causa from 8 universities as well as numerous awards and distinctions in France and throughout the world.

Pascal Lamy is the vice-chair of the Paris Peace Forum which he chaired previously since 2019, chair of the French National Committee of the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC), the European Starfish mission (ocean), the Danone mission committee, the Aspen Africa-Europe meetings. He coordinates the Jacques Delors Institutes (Paris, Berlin, Brussels). He co-chairs the Antartica 2020 coalition. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the European Climate Foundation (ECF), Transparency International France, the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), IFPRI (where he chairs the strategy and programs committee), the Musiciens du Louvre (Minkowski orchestra), the Institut Pierre-Mendès-France, Collegium International, Senior Advisor to Trade Mark East Africa (TMEA) and the World Trade Board, member of the Advisory Board of Transparency International, the Oxford Martin School, the Back to Blue Initiative (The Economist), Covid Gap (Duke University) and the World Risk Report (WEF). He is a trustee of Europeum and Friends of Europe, an affiliated professor at HEC, distinguished professor China Europe International Business School CEIBS Shanghai and a Center for Economic Policy Research fellow. He is also a member of the Global Foundation Roundtable (Rome), a member of the Steering Committee of the Colbert Foundation and a member of the Advisory Board of the Alpbach Forum and the Senior Advisory Council of the Beijing Forum.

Pascal Lamy also lectures, including to the benefit of Institut Jacques Delors, among other engagements on issues related to globalization, global governance, international trade, international economics, regional integration, European and French issues.