Jacques Attali is a French economist, professor, and writer. He was Special Adviser to French President François Mitterrand for ten years, and is the founder of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Action contre la faim, EUREKA, BERD, and Positive Planet. Attali has authored 80 books, written more than 1,000 op-eds in the French magazine L’Express, and is now a columnist at les Echos. He has also conducted several orchestras across the world—in Paris, Grenoble, London, Jerusalem, Shanghai, Astana, Montreal, Lausanne, Bruxelles, and Helsinki.