- Xavier de Villepin
Xavier Galouzeau de Villepin (born
March 14 ,1926 inBrussels ,Belgium ), simply known as Xavier de Villepin, is a former high ranking civil servant ofFrance , and a former French senator from the center-right UMP party (and before that from the more centrist UDF party). He is the father of the formerPrime Minister of France ,Dominique de Villepin .Biography
Xavier de Villepin graduated from the renowned French business school HEC, and later from the
Harvard Business School . He took part in theFrench Resistance in1944 . As a French civil servant, he spent many years overseas. From1950 until1979 , he served in chronological order inFrench Algeria , inAustralia , in the Frenchprotectorate ofMorocco , inVenezuela , and finally in theUnited States . He became a member of the Association of French Citizens Abroad ("Union des Français de l'Étranger") in1960 , and its 2nd vice-president in1979 .Xavier de Villepin was elected to the
French senate in1986 by the constituency of the French citizens living abroad, and remained a French senator until September2004 , when he chose not to run for a third term. In1993 he was elected chairman of the French Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Armed Forces ("Commission des affaires étrangères, de la défense et des forces armées"). He resigned from the committee in2002 following the appointment of his son Dominique de Villepin as Minister of Foreign Affairs.
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