Ambassador Francois Rivasseau is today Senior professor (International Relations and International Business Environnement) in Kedge , Senior Contractor on diplomacy and new technologies in the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Vice-President elected representing the European region in the negotiations conducted in the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the preparation and responses to pandemies.
He has been the French permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva since September 2018, and has been representing France to the WHO and its governing bodies meetings until September 2021.
Ambassador Rivasseau played a decisive role in France's support to WHO since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and then in the call for the strengthening of the WHO when France, alongside its European partners, initiated discussions on the subject in the summer of 2020 which led to the adoption by consensus of resolution AMS73.1 and the creation of the Working Group of Member States on Strengthening WHO Preparedness and Response to Health Emergencies.
Ambassador Rivasseau has an extensive carrier in diplomacy. For 40 years, he has been representing France at the highest level on the international arena. He served as number two of the French Embassy in Colombia (1986/1989), as Head of the NATO and European security desk in Paris (1989/1993) and as deputy assistant secretary for political multilateral affairs (1993/1995). After a first posting in Geneva, he became Vice Spokesperson then Spokesperson, Director of Press and communication for the French Ministry of Foreign affairs (1998/2003).
He came back to Geneva in the Conference on Disarmament (Ambassador from 2003 to 2006) and went then in the French Embassy in Washington DC (2007-2011) as a Minister Counsellor. He has also served at the delegation of the European Union in the USA (2011-2015) and then as the Special Envoy for Space, Head of security Policy and Space for the European External Action service in Brussel (2015-2018).
Ambassador Rivasseau is highly recognized for his leadership to lead multilateral negotiations and to build consensus: he has served as Co-Chairman of the Iran-EU3 Nuclear Negotiating Group in Geneva (2004-2005), Chairman of the Five-Year Review Conference of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (2006), Chairman of the WIPO Coordination Committee (2019-2020) and Chairman of the Platform for Climate Displacement (PDD, 2019-2020).
Born in Bordeaux, François Rivasseau graduated from the Bordeaux Institute of Political Studies (1975) and holds a PhD in Law from the University of Bordeaux I (1981). Graduate of the National School of Administration, (1979/1981), he also holds a degree of Roman languages from the University of Bordeaux III (1983). He speaks fluently in English, Spanish and German and has basic knowledge of Russian. Senior Fellow of the CSIS in Washington , he has taught international relations continuously in Bordeaux Sciences Po) since thirty years and has given lectures in more than thirty Universities and Think tanks worldwide (including outside France Columbia, Princeton, Harvard, Stanford , LSE, Wilton Park, Germany , Russia , India , Japan, Australia …) .
He is married with Elisabeth and has four children , Mailys, Thomas, Matthieu and Marc. His hobbies include outside activities and reflexion games. He chaired the European (game of) Diplomacy Association, EDA.
