Jean-Claude Anne-Marie Louis Trichet (French: [ʒɑ̃klod tʁiʃɛ]; born 20 December 1942) is a French economist and senior official who was President of the European Central Bank (ECB) from 2004 to 2011. Previous to his assumption of the presidency he was Governor of the Bank of France from 1993 to 2004.
After stepping down from the ECB, Trichet has taken speaking arrangements across France and was on the board of directors of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). He was also asked to join the Brussels-based non-doctrinal think tank Bruegel to consult on economic policy. In 2008, Trichet ranked fifth on Newsweek's list of the world's most powerful along with economic triumvirs Ben Bernanke (fourth) and Masaaki Shirakawa (sixth).
Trichet was born in 1942 in Lyon, the son of a professor of Greek and Latin. He was educated at the École des Mines de Nancy, from which he graduated in 1964. He later earned a master's degree in economics from the University of Paris and then trained at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris (best known as Sciences Po), finishing in 1966, and the École nationale d'administration (ENA) from 1969–1971, two French higher education institutions in the field of political science and state administration.
From 1987, Trichet was head of the Trésor public. In this capacity, he also chaired the Paris Club of creditor nations in the mid-1980s and was closely involved in debt problems that struck Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. He also became a member of Washington-based financial advisory body, the Group of Thirty. Soon after taking office at Trésor, Trichet oversaw the change to an anti-inflationary franc fort (strong franc) policy, to pave the way for currency union with Germany. In 1993, he led Trésor’s move to grant the Bank of France independence to set its own interest rates.
In 1993, Trichet was appointed governor of Banque de France. Both as director of the French Treasury and then governor of the Banque de France, he was widely seen as one of the architects of the European monetary union.
By 1997, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and President Jacques Chirac proposed Trichet as France’s candidate for the position as president of the European Central Bank; this way they opposed Wim Duisenberg, the candidate preferred by the majority of the Eurozone members. Under a compromise laid out by German Finance Minister Theo Waigel, Duisenberg would resign midway through his eight-year term to make way for Trichet. On 1 November 2003 he succeeded Wim Duisenberg.
During his time in office, Trichet oversaw the ECB’s response to the European debt crisis, including its Securities Markets Programme to stem the crisis in eurozone government bond markets. In 2011, ECB board member Jürgen Stark resigned in what was widely seen as a protest against this policy.
On 28 January 2012, the board of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company approved Trichet’s nomination to the Board, where he represented (with Dominique d’Hinnin of the Lagardère Group) the French state’s holding company SOGEADE.
Trichet succeeded Mario Monti as chairman of the European branch of the Trilateral Commission in 2012.
Trichet was a member of the Eminent Persons Group on Global Financial Governance, which was established by the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors for the period from 2017 to 2018. In early 2021, Trichet was appointed by the G20 to the High Level Independent Panel (HLIP) on financing the global commons for pandemic preparedness and response, co-chaired by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Lawrence Summers.
European Central Bank, Chair of the Ethics Committee (2016–2019)
European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), Chair (2010–2011)
PIMCO, Member of the Global Advisory Board (since 2015)
Bretton Woods Committee, Member of the Advisory Council (since 2020)
Scope Foundation, Member of the Honorary Board (since 2020)
Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), Distinguished Fellow (since 2019)
Bruegel, Chairman of the Board (since 2012)
Bilderberg Group, Member of the Steering Committee