Alain Minc was born on April 15, 1949, in Paris[2][3] to a family of Jewish immigrants from Poland.[4] His father, Joseph Minkowski, was a dentist and a member of the Communist Party.[5]
Alain Minc is a graduate of the École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris, Sciences Po and the École nationale d'administration.[2][3][6]
In 1979, he became CFO of Compagnie de Saint-Gobain.[2][3] In 1981, he was selected to be one of the first Young Leaders of the French-American Foundation.[7] In 1986, he became Vice-Chairman of CIR International and General Manager of Cerus, non-Italian affiliates of Benedetti Group.[2][3] In 1991, he founded his own consultancy firm, AM Conseil.[1] He has been the Chairman of Le Monde's supervisory board.[1][3][8] He sits on the board of directors of Criteria CaixaCorp since 2007.[3] He is also a board member of Prisa, Fnac, Direct Energie, Ingenico, and Yves Saint Laurent.[3][6]
He has been an advisor to Edouard Balladur, François Pinault, Vincent Bolloré,[9] and ex-French President Nicolas Sarkozy.[10] He came under fire for criticizing Pope Benedict XVI's position on the French Romani repatriation in 2010.[10]
He is a member of the Nicolas Berggruen Institute.[2] He is also a recipient of the Legion of Honour.[6][11]
Since December 2011, he is President of the board of directors of Société des Autoroutes du Nord et de l'Est de la France (SANEF)[12] which operates motorways in northeast France under a French government concession.[13]
