After starting at the Journal du Dimanche and then working as a freelance creative for various advertising agencies, Xavier du Crest became Creative Director for Parisian agencies and co-founded his own advertising agency. At 31, he sold his clients and joined Havas-Dentsu-Marsteler, where he became one of the youngest Creative Directors. In 1991, he co-founded a communication group that he co-directed for 20 years and contributed to the development of the first international network of 90 independent agencies, “Independent Network.” During this period, he worked pro bono for Handicap International, launching the association’s first major advertising campaigns against anti-personnel mines, the “Pyramids of Shoes” events, and solidarity products such as the “Sac à Sapin” and the “Kit Plio.”
In 2010, Xavier du Crest left the agency he had founded to join a start-up in premium communication, worked pro bono on the strategic plan of Aide et Action (now Action-Education), and in 2012, called by the latter, he definitively shifted to humanitarian work. He became the International Director of Communication and Influence for this development association in Geneva. In March 2016, Handicap International called him to oversee and deploy the association’s international communication strategy in France, with the new brand identity HI. In January 2017, he was appointed Director of Handicap International France, thus leading the association he had helped grow for over 20 years.
In 2019, he became Secretary General of France Générosité, and at the same time, president of Alliance Urgences, which he helped create with MDM, ACF, Care, Plan International, and Solidarité Internationale.
Since August 2022, Xavier du Crest de Villeneuve has been President of Handicap International France, still President of Alliance Urgences, President of Gaïa-Lyon - a very young association he helped create - and is involved in many other associations, all focused on supporting vulnerabilities, exclusion, and precariousness. In June 2024, he created Fair-Formations with three partners to meet the needs of aligning individuals and organizations with societal transformation.
