Michele Alliot-Marie – Keynote Speaker

Now a Member of the European Parliament, Michèle Alliot-Marie was successively Minister a variety of French departments, including:

Secretary of State for Education, 1986 – 1988
Minister of Youth and Sports, 1993 – 1995
Minister of Defence, 2002 – 2007
Minister of the Interior, Overseas Territories and Territorial Communities, 2007 – 2009
Minister of State and Minister of Justice and Freedoms, 2009 – 2010
Minister of State and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, 2010 – 2011

Michèle was also the first woman in France to lead a major political party, which allowed her to forge international links.

Prior to her political career she was an associate professor of public law at University Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne in 1984.  She was awarded the Minister of the Year award in 2005