Executive Committee

Mohamed Bouabdallah has been appointed Cultural Counselor of France in the United States and Director of Villa Albertine. He officially took office yesterday in New York City.

Working under the authority of the Ambassador of France in the United States, Laurent Bili, Mohamed Bouabdallah will lead France’s strategy for cultural, educational, and university exchanges in the US. This includes directing France’s expansive education initiatives in the US, such as ‘French for All’, and taking the helm of Villa Albertine, the multidisciplinary and innovative arts institution with hubs in 10 cities across the country.

Luis Vassy is President of Sciences Po and Administrator of the Fondation nationale des sciences politiques. Prior to this appointment in October 2024, Luis served for twenty years as a French Diplomat (2004- 2024). He specialized on South Asia and nuclear non-proliferation, before taking the role of press advisor and spokesperson at the Embassy of France in Washington, DC. (2008-2012). Between 2012 and 2017, Luis held several senior roles within the French Ministry of Defense, first as Deputy Diplomatic Advisor, then as chief of staff to the Minister of Veterans Affairs, before taking the position of advisor to the Minister of Defense.
In 2017, he was appointed deputy chief of staff to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian. In 2019, he served as Ambassador of France to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). Upon his return to France, he took the role of chief of staff of successive ministers for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna and Stéphane Séjourné.
Luis has been a lecturer in international relations at Sciences Po and at the University of Paris I. He is a graduate of the École normale supérieure de Cachan in Economics, of Sciences Po in Public Administration and of the École nationale d'administration (ENA).

A graduate of the French National School of Public Administration (ENA) (Victor Hugo Year, 1989-91), Laurent Bili joined the French Foreign Ministry’s Strategic Affairs and Disarmament Directorate (1991-93).

Seconded to the Defense Ministry as Deputy Diplomatic Adviser (1993-95), he then held several positions at the Quai d’Orsay:

• First Secretary and then Second Counsellor at the Embassy of France in Ankara (1995-99),
• First Secretary, Permanent Representative of France to the Western European Union (WEU) (1998-2000),
• Adviser to the European Union’s interim Political and Security Committee (PSC) in Brussels (2000-02),
• Head of Strategic Affairs (2002).

In 2002, he was Director of the Private Office of the Minister Delegate for European Affairs and became technical adviser at the Diplomatic Unit of the Presidency of the French Republic (2002-07).

He successively held the positions of Ambassador to Thailand (2007-09), Director of the Defense Minister’s Civilian and Military Office (2009-10), Ambassador to Turkey (2011-15) and then to Brazil (2015-17).

Laurent Bili was then Director-General for Global Affairs, Culture, Education and International Development at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and G7/G20 Sous-Sherpa (2017-2019).

Prior to his appointment in Washington, Laurent Bili was Ambassador to China since September 2019.

Laura Chaubard, Director-General of École polytechnique has also been entrusted with the interim role of president of the School's Board of Directors, as of September 17th, 2023.

Eric Labaye's term as Chairman of X, which he had held since 2018, ended on September 16th. Eric Labaye's role as President of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris also came to an end on this date. École polytechnique is one of the founding Schools of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris, alongside ENSTA Paris, ENSAE Paris, Télécom Paris and Télécom SudParis.

The ministerial order appointing Laura Chaubard, issued by the Minister of the Armed Forces on September 13th, states that the Director General of the École Polytechnique, "is responsible for acting as president of the Board of Directors of the École Polytechnique, as of September 17th, 2023".

At the same time, Professor Thierry Coulhon was appointed acting Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Institut Polytechnique de Paris.

After completing her studies at École Polytechnique, Laura Chaubard joined the Corps de l’Armement, a high level engineer and public servant body in charge of the French State armament policy, and pursued a PhD in algorithms at the University of Paris Diderot (Paris VII), focusing on the theory of formal languages from 2002 to 2006.

In September 2006, she joined the General Directorate for Armament (DGA), the French Defense procurement agency, where she held technical responsibilities for six years as an expert in big data and artificial intelligence. Between 2013 and 2016, she was head of the strategic SMEs office in charge of identifying, accompanying and supporting the 600 French SMEs of interest to the Ministry for Armed Forces. From January to August 2017, still within the DGA, she was in charge of budget programming. There, she supervised the work of preparing the 2018-2022 Military Programming Law, in a context of a historic increase in resources for the Ministry for Armed Forces.

In August 2017, she was appointed advisor for innovation and digital technology in the cabinet of the Minister of Armed Forces, Florence Parly. There, she successfully led the creation of the Defense Innovation Agency, the "Definvest" investment fund, the General Directorate of Digital Technology, as well as the drafting of the "Artificial Intelligence" roadmap of the Ministry for Armed Forces.

She took up her position as CEO of the Établissement Public du Parc et de la Grande Halle de la Villette (EPPGHV) in October 2019. Located in the northeast region of Paris, La Villette encompasses a national museum of science and technology, a major architectural complex devoted to music and an urban park dedicated to culture and open to all.

At the head of this public cultural institution, Laura Chaubard was in charge of coordinating the fifty or so players present on site and of supervising the multidisciplinary artistic program hosted in the Grande Halle de la Villette, the park or the new venues staging performances and events

Laura Chaubard is a Knight of the National Order of Merit and a Knight of the Legion of Honor.

Professor Olinto is a pioneer of astroparticle physics. Her research has made seminal contributions to our understanding of the inflationary origins of the universe, the cosmological effects of magnetic fields, the structure of neutron stars, and the highest energy cosmic rays, gamma-rays, and neutrinos. The implications of her work touch on everything from the workings of the universe to the evolution of life on this planet.

Professor Olinto comes to Columbia with an extensive background in academic administration and leadership. In her role as Dean of the Division of the Physical Sciences, which she has held since 2018, she oversees the departments of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geophysical Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics, as well as a number of research institutes and centers at the University of Chicago. Twice, she served as Chair of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics.