Executive Committee

Pierre François is a sociologist and CNRS research director at the Center for the Sociology of Organizations (CSO). He served as director of Sciences Po’s department of sociology from 2014 to 2017. His research focuses on the dynamics of the worlds of art – particularly contemporary poetry – and on the sociology of businesses and their leaders. Pierre François teaches in Sciences Po’s masters program as well as the Collège universitaire (undergraduate level), where he teaches the introduction to sociology course. He was a professor of sociology at the École polytechnique between 2009 and 2017. Pierre François aims to enable Sciences Po’s Doctoral School to meet the twin challenges of research internationalization and of the growing scientific and methodological requirements it involves. 

Maya Tolstoy became Interim Executive Vice President of Arts and Sciences and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in September 2018. She is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. Professor Tolstoy is a marine geophysicist specializing in seafloor earthquakes and volcanoes. She holds a BSc Honors in Geophysics from the University of Edinburgh and a Ph.D. in Earth Science from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego.

Madeline Woker is a PhD student in International and Global History at Columbia University in New York. In June 2014, she obtained an MPhil in Modern European History from the University of Cambridge. She holds also a Double Master in European Affairs from London School of Economics and Political Science and Sciences Po Paris. Her dissertation project examines the politics of taxation in the French colonial empire.

John H. Coatsworth is the Provost of Columbia University, as well as Professor of International and Public Affairs and of History.

Provost Coatsworth is a leading scholar of Latin American economic and international history. Previously, he was Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs. Prior to his appointment as Dean in 2008, he served as a visiting professor at Columbia University (2006 – 2007) and Interim Dean of SIPA (2007 – 2008). 

Before Joining Columbia, Coatsworth served as the Monroe Gutman Professor of Latin American Affairs at Harvard University (1992–2007). He was the founding director of Harvard's David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies and the chair of the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Studies. Prior to his work at Harvard, Coatsworth was a member of the faculty at the University of Chicago (1969–1992). Other academic posts have included visiting professorships at El Colegio de México, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the National University of Buenos Aires, the Instituto Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, and the Instituto Ortega y Gassett in Madrid.

Coatsworth is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Board of Directors of the Tinker Foundation and numerous professional associations. He is the former president of the American Historical Association and Latin American Studies Association. Coatsworth has served on the editorial boards of scholarly journals including the American Historical Review, the Journal of Economic History, the Hispanic American Historical Review and other social science journals published in Britain, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Peru, and Spain.

In 1986, Coatsworth was awarded the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. He has served as Senior Fulbright Lecturer three times, with appointments in Argentina and Mexico, and has received numerous research and institutional grants from public agencies and private foundations. He has acted as a consultant for program design or review to numerous U.S. universities and foundations.

Coatsworth received his BA in History from Wesleyan University, and his MA and PhD in Economic History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Gérard Araud was appointed Ambassador of France to the United States in September 2014. He previously held numerous positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development, notably including that of Director for Strategic Affairs, Security and Disarmament (2000-2003), Ambassador of France to Israel (2003-2006), Director General for Political Affairs and Security (2006-2009), and, most recently, Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations in New York (2009-2014).

Over the course of his career, Mr. Araud has developed specialized knowledge in two key areas: the Middle East and strategic & security issues. As regards the latter, he was the French negotiator on the Iranian nuclear issue from 2003 to 2006. In New York, at the Security Council, he notably contributed to the adoption of resolutions on Libya (#1970 and #1973), Côte d’Ivoire (#1975), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali and the Central African Republic, and participated in debates on the Syrian and Ukrainian crises.

He has written numerous journal articles, including one recently published in Commentaire, on the outbreak of World War One, and another in Esprit, on the search for a new world order.

Georges Hadded is the newly appointed President of Paris 1 - Pantheon Sorbonne. Georges Haddad, a graduate of the École Normale Supérieure, holds an M.A. in Mathematical Sciences from the University of Paris VII and a D.E.A. (postgraduate diploma) in mathematics from the University of Paris VI.  He also holds the Agrégation in mathematics and a doctorate (Doctorat d’Etat) in mathematical sciences.

Professor Haddad started his career as an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Tours (1975-1976), later on moving to the University of Paris-Dauphine (1976-1983).  From 1983 to 1984, he took up the position of Lecturer at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.  Appointed Professor in 1984 at the University of Nice, he has since been Professor at the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.  He was President of the latter University from 1989 to 1994, and also First Vice-President (Chairman) of the French Conference of University Presidents from 1992 to 1994.  Professor Haddad was formerly Honorary President of the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.  He participated in the World Conference on Higher Education as Chairperson of its Steering Committee, from 1994 to 1999, and was also a member of the Task Force on Higher Education in Developing Countries (World Bank-UNESCO) from 1998 to 2000.

He founded the “Marin Mersenne” research laboratory for mathematics, informatics and interdisciplinary applications and is a member of several scientific and educational councils.

Professor Haddad’s personal commitment to education and sciences through mathematics, their development and multidisciplinary applications has been rewarded by honorary distinctions such as Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur for Scientific Research and Commander of Palmes Académiques for Education, among others.

Frédéric Mion attended Sciences Po, Princeton University, the École Normale Supérieure (ENS), and the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA) where he specialised in public law and the humanities.

He has held senior management positions in the public and private sectors. From 2007-2013, he served as Vice President of Canal +, France’s largest media group, and before this, worked as a partner at Allen & Overy LLP, where he led the Public Law team. Prior to his work in the private sector, Mion held positions at the Ministry of Education and the Conseil d’État (France’s Supreme Court for administrative justice).

Frédéric Mion succeeds the late Richard Descoings. He takes the helm of an institution intent on remaining open to the world and its diversity, and at the centre of academic excellence and research in the social sciences.

Frédéric Mion was appointed President following an open competition organised by Sciences Po’s two main governing bodies composed of faculty, students, employees and trustees.

Emmanuel Kattan is Director of the Alliance Program. He was previously Director of the British Council in New York, where he oversaw academic collaboration programs. He created partnerships with the Henry Luce Foundation and the Carnegie Corporation to launch initiatives connecting higher education institutions across the Atlantic. Before joining the British Council, Emmanuel was Senior Adviser at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, where he managed strategic communications and engagement with academic communities. He also held senior positions at the Commonwealth Secretariat and at the Quebec Delegation in London, where he was in charge of academic relations programs. A native of Montreal, Emmanuel studied politics at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and earned a PhD from the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is the author of four books: an essay on the politics of memory and three novels.

Graduated from École polytechnique (Class of ’94), Dominique Rossin also received his PhD in Computer Science. He began his career in 2001 as a researcher at CNRS (The National Center for Scientific Research)  in the Computer Science department of University Paris Diderot.

He lead the Combinatorics and Algorithmic team for five years, and was member of the scientific Committee for computer science of the CNRS.

After ten years, he was appointed to École polytechnique in 2011 as a researcher and part-time professor.

From 2013 to 2014, he was also the deputy delegate for Computer Science and Mathematics in the Regional Delegation for Research and Technology of Paris area.

In 2015, he was appointed Vice-Provost for Education at École polytechnique.

Carlos J. Alonso is the Morris A. and Alma Schapiro Professor in the Humanities. He came to the Department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures at Columbia in fall 2005 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the Edwin B. and Leonore R. Williams Professor of Romance Languages. He specializes in 19th- and 20th-century Latin American intellectual history and cultural production, and in contemporary literary and cultural theory. He is the author of Modernity and Autochthony: The Spanish American Regional Novel (Cambridge UP), and The Burden of Modernity: The Rhetoric of Cultural Discourse in Spanish America (Oxford UP), and editor of Julio Cortázar: New Readings (Cambridge UP). He was also Editor of PMLA—arguably the premier journal of literary criticism and theory—during 2000-03, and edited the Hispanic Review in 2003-06, a period that ushered in changes that led to an award in 2005 for best journal design by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals. While at Penn, Prof. Alonso was the recipient of a Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching, the university's highest award for pedagogical excellence.

At Columbia he was chair of the department of Latin American and Iberian Cultures from 2005-10, and was Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society for four years. He has taught recently the required graduate seminar on "Literary and Cultural Theory" and the course "Theories of Culture in Latin America." Under his editorship the department's Revista Hispánica Moderna received the 2009 Council of Editors of Learned Journals Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement.
Prof. Alonso became Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences in July 2011.

Since April 2017, Benoit Deveaud is the Deputy Director for Research and Teaching at Ecole Polytechnique in Palaiseau. He is responsible for the whole research center of Ecole Polytechnique, in coordination with the different partners. 

He spent 25 years at EPFL, where has been the director of the Institute of Quantum Electronics and Photonics for more than 10 years. The institute housed more than 80 members. A significant part of the load as a director was the proper organization, management and development of the common technological facilities of the Institute.

He has also been the Deputy Director of the National Center of Competence in research “Quantum Photonics” from 2001 to 2005 and the Director of this NCCR from 2005 till the closing in 2013. The center coordinated the activity of 14 research teams spread all over Switzerland. The direct annual funding has been of the order of 4 MCHF, and allowed a total funding, including third parties, of 14 MCHF /year. The direction team had the responsibility for preparing the program, managing the finances, organizing the tech transfer activities and carrying out specific actions in terms of women’s promotion, education as well as contact with the press and the public (see nccr-qp.epfl.ch).

Benoit Deveaud has been Dean for Research at EPFL from 2008 to 2014, in charge of the planning and organization of research activities. In this position, one of his major tasks has been the equipment budget both for startup packages and for platform equipment. He has been able to convince the Direction of EPFL to increase significantly the budget in this direction.

In 2014, Benoit Deveaud stepped down as a Dean of research to take the lead of Physics at EPFL. The visibility of Physics indeed suffered from the absence of a leadership in the field. After 18 months of intense negotiations, the structure of the new Institute has been set and Benoit Deveaud was elected the Director of the new Institute as of the 1^st of January 2016. The Institute corresponds to approximately 650 persons, including 200 PhD students. The external funding of the Institute amounts to 220 MF over the last 6 years.

Benoit Deveaud has been a member of the Academic Promotion Committee of EPFL from 2001 to 2014. He has been the President of the EPFL research commission from 2008 till 2016.

As Cultural Counselor of the French Embassy in the United States, Bénédicte de Montlaur facilitates French-American cultural relations and supports French universities and arts, literature and education organizations in the United States.  She also serves as the Permanent Representative of French Universities in the United States and develops French-American higher education exchanges, creating opportunities for researchers, scholars and students to collaborate.

A seasoned diplomat, Montlaur has held several notable positions as a political and human rights advisor and negotiator with her experience focusing primarily on the Middle East.  Most recently, Montlaur served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for North Africa at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Paris, where she also taught international relations and diplomacy at the Ecole Normale Supérieure.  From 2008 to 2012, she was Political Advisor for the Middle East to the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York, after three years as a negotiator on Africa and the Middle East at the United Nations Security Council for the French Mission to the United Nations. Montlaur also held positions at the French Embassy in Syria from 2005-2008.  

Drawing from her background working in the Middle East, Africa, and France, Montlaur aims to promote an image of France as a diverse and inclusive nation through French and Francophone cultural initiatives in the United States.  She also strives to fuel a spirit of intercultural debate and mutual understanding between France and the United States.

Montlaur completed sociology studies at the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Ulm) and public affairs and Middle Eastern studies at Sciences Po, Paris.

Beyond her vast experience in international relations and diplomacy, Montlaur is a polyglot – she speaks French, English, Arabic and Spanish fluently – and a New York culture enthusiast.  In New York, she served as Vice President of the Carrefour de la Francophonie, a social advocacy organization dedicated to New York’s French-speaking families, and spearheaded its fundraising efforts.  She was also member of New York Times literary critic Liesl Schillinger’s book club and created an original exhibition of photos entitled “Islam and the City” on New York’s relationship with the religion.  She also ran the New York City Marathon in 2011.

After a bachelor degree in political sciences specialized in transition studies in Central and Eastern Europe, Aude-Cécile Monnot spent a year in Prague at Charles University. There, she nurtured her curiosity for Post-Soviet studies and the history of the Soviet Union. After studying Russian during her first academic years, she graduated from the National Institute of Language and Oriental Civilization in Paris, with a major in Farsi.

In 2013 Aude-Cécile started a Ph.D. on the history of Soviet Central Asia, focusing on issues of justice and legal practices at the local level. This everyday history of justice lies at the cross-road of different specialties such as state building, practices of power, legal history and colonial studies. Therefore Aude-Cécile uses a research framework that borrows from other disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, and political sciences.