His mother was from Bessarabia. Member of the Corps des Mines, he gradu- ated from Ecole Polytechnique and Mines ParisTech. He was an economic and sci- entific advisor to French Prime ministers Georges Pompidou and Maurice Couve de Murville, then to President Pompidou. He became director of Credit Lyonnais (1974- 1977), then chairman and CEO of Compagnie Financière Edmond de Rothschild, the French part ofthe Rothschild Group, for seventeen years. He has been Vice-Chairman and Chairman of Bolloré Group, Vice-Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Lagardère, Chairman of Ecole Polytechnique, Institut Pasteur and Centre français du commerce extérieur(CFCE), also being adirector on the Board of Saint-Gobain, Total, Pierre Fabre. He was for nine years a member of the Commission des operations de bourse (COB) within the Autorité des marchés finan- ciers (AMF). He is involved in several medical and charity societies. He has published Le Troisième Conflit mondial (1977), La Guerre économique mondiale (1991) and Pompidou, capitaine d'industries (1994). r e During his time as President, he increased the institution's standing on the in- ternational scene, and opened a new Doctoral School. Conscious of the need to bring PX closer to the world of business to help it develop and successfully enter the 21st century, Bernard Esambert created the École Polytechnique Foundation in 1987.