A Conversation with Jean-François Rischard

Room: Michigan A and B

presented by Jean-François Rischard, Former Vice-President for Europe, World Bank

Jean-François Rischard, world-renowned speaker and author, will pick up where his general session left off, facilitating a dialogue about the urgent need for new approaches to global problem-solving. This session will give members of the IB community a chance to discuss issues and share ideas with Mr Rischard, covering a broad range of topics including how we can work to cultivate students’ understanding of the significance of education in a global context.

Jean-François Rischard, Former Vice-President for Europe, World Bank
Jean-François Rischard is the author of High Noon: 20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them. This book expresses his personal views on the future and documents what he sees as the most urgent global issues of the decades to come – from climate change through contagious diseases to the global financial architecture. Mr Rischard served as the World Bank vice president for Europe from 1998 to 2005, acting as the Bank’s chief spokesman both to the European Union and to individual European countries.

He is a frequent speaker and covers such topics as managing financial crises, sustainable development, corporate governance, the role of business beyond its traditional borders, new technologies and their applications for development, the changing rules and inner workings of the new world economy, and the need for new global governance mechanisms in an increasingly complex and inter-linked world.

Mr Rischard is a Luxembourg national and he holds graduate and post-graduate degrees in economics (University of Aix-Marseille, DES, 1971 and 1973), a law doctorate (Luxembourg, 1971), and a master's in business administration (Harvard Business School, 1975).