One million visitors in the last exposure

Ashore, he is rather a man of figures. When he flies, he becomes a man of letters. It square in the cloud as in the pages of a book, out a 53.116, a leaf, and he wrote. Not the speech of Antoine Riboud and Laurent Fabius, as he did in the past, but the words drawn in the style of the authors he likes. A friendly pastiche. "Stendhal, is difficult;" This requires an implementation in condition, and should refer to the text. "Balzac" More simple. "Duras" Almost childlike. "faulkner" You arrive there. It's like Pascal and Turgenev. "One of his favourites rest Thucydides: history of the Peloponnesian War." I reassure you: in French, not in Greek. "You feel better..."

Lionel Zinsou is a large financial equipped with a solid background: normal sub rue d'ulm, aggregation of Economics, economic history and development, Sciences Po in passing... He has been a consultant to UNDP (UN Development Programme), chargé de mission Ministers Pierre Dreyfus and Laurent Fabius, and then he entered at Danone to head development before moving in Rothschild where it has interested very closely in the mergers and acquisitions. Abandoning his literary pleasures favorite, just land in PAI Partners (ex-Paribas Industrial Affairs), which he now chairs the Board of Directors.

He came from Benin. Almost direct flight since, if his mother is French, his father was there, when the country was still called Dahomey. Doctor, he treated Léopold Senghor. His uncle was President of Benin. Itself has created a foundation in Cotonou. His daughter occupies, but it was he who pays. With his personal money. The first Art Museum has loaned masks, alongside the works of contemporary African artists such as Enrico Navarra, for example, and those of Jean-Michel Basquiat. One million visitors in the last exposure. The Zinsou Foundation, which also exchange collections with the British Museum in London and the Botanical Garden of Brussels, is a Museum: it has no benefit. "Our goal is not to make money but to introduce contemporary art in the life of the people of Benin, to help young artists to share and find new ways of reducing poverty."

Because if he spent part of his life in plane - home - in Paris or in his country house, Lionel Zinsou very regularly travels to Africa. And there, no more nor less that also it fun always first look that it launches it. "I still see a small surprise, a small stiffening, a question that crops out:" why are we sent this type "" "This is the condition of the métis: it is black and white." In Benin, we wonder: why white In France: Why black Here: why a white Beninese there: why a black French In all cases: a great man. Two metres. "My size also contributes to this tiny annoyance that I sometimes read in the eyes of the other." But I get me always. "

He is kind, he smiles of the gaze, it watching you high without ever toiser you. He is the senior without wear grey costume to another outward sign of wealth. He received on the last floor of PAI Partners, overlooking the Opera House and the rooms of meeting, all more sinister than the others, including the largest, each 35 green seats elongated table where should talk dollars and CAC 40. The roof of the world; Finally, a certain world.

In Benin, we respect him for his lineage in Europe for its function. Meritocracy protects. However, it remains inextricably solidarity with those who suffer from discrimination. The Montaigne Institute, founded by Claude Bébéar, it has supported the principle of the anonymous CV. He defended the policy of opening of Sciences Po. He deplored that in France the world of the leaders of companies is so closed to women, to scientists, to foreigners. He who knows the world of the suburbs by his wife, who teaches in the sensitive areas of traps and its environs, criticizes the lack of solidarity that contributes to the development of the communalism: "if our Republican values were better defended, the Republican school model was more solid, equality of opportunity is benefit."

Human figures as well as letters, black and white, BlackBerry and iPhone, Lionel Zinsou adds another (possible) paradox in his arc: left pattern. "I worked at Danone for eleven years." The House claimed social and ethical values specified. It is renowned for the quality of its social dialogue and for its proper management of the risks of unemployment... Rothschild, it is another story because there, we know what the term discrimination means. The wars, the nationalizations, the mass deportations... This dramatic story is a philosophy of exceptional life. For Danone, there was a social project in Rothschild, a freedom to think more large than elsewhere. "

PAI, investment company, from those who have the reputation of selling the cut after, having won many benefits "Nothing to see." Danone has 6,000 employees and many factories in the world. Rothschild and PAI are financial companies. It is no longer in mass consumption, but in haute couture. The industry is in people. Not finance. "

Small sigh doubled of a fun grimace: "And I must admit that financiers are more conservative than the industry." Consequence: when it arrives in terra incognita, French of Benin origin receives, in addition to the usual small discomfort, the draft of a suspicion. "As an obstacle and more."

He would one day help French finance to better locate in Africa. Simple step. Europe is left supplant, the France including: cotton does share more in the Vosges mountains but in Jiangsu. The Chinese and the Indians arrive, and the United States are investing heavily in oil. "Europe has moved away from Africa because itself is in a phase of decline." And it did not measure the full potential of the continent. She refuses to see that Africa develops almost as soon as Asia. For ten years, economic growth is exceptional. The agricultural revolution, which is made in two centuries in Europe, will be accomplished in thirty years. "

In addition, Africa has water supplies lacking elsewhere. And now she knows to defend himself. Earth scarred for centuries, it claims its history, which is not immobile men portrayed in Dakar. Incidentally, rather than to give lessons, the masters of Europe could perhaps consider learn their example revising the chapter devoted to the harm to the theft to the massacres. Sétif: 45 000 dead. And how many in Madagascar in 1947 In Côte d'Ivoire Elsewhere And slavery "I am for repentance." It maintains the memory and opposes the trivialisation of things. It prevents repetition. But it may not be of repentance about slavery: it is too far and it lasted too long; It is as if one is remorseful of the thirty years war. However, I would like that a day is a foundation for the memory of colonization as there is one for the memory of the Shoah. "

With Care France, Lionel Zinsou fight against child labour, "one of the largest trafficking today, unbearable modern slavery". Between this battle, that it leads to Africa, defence and the development of its Foundation, its associative responsibilities, in the family (a wife and three children) Zinsou, he has little time for the rest. Leisure La Rochelle to berate the Socialists, the forum of release to support the journal.

Because it is also a Director of parole. Close to those who have supported him - Seydoux, Pathé, Riboud-, admirer of Serge July, he joined the daily personal capital when Edouard de Rothschild asked the checkbook on the table. Not to write or to practice journalism. "It is not where my skills." But I could help solve the problems of the company. "He has done." Today, the waterways are resolved. "A life without parole would not work."

Therefore, in aircraft, after having joyfully après avoir joyeusement plagié plagiarized its authors preferred, Lionel Zinsou can open the newspaper founded by Sartre & Cie, then dream of a better world that it would contribute to shaping.

A suggestion. The PAI Partners Company, which acquired CHR. Hansen for 1.1 billion euros, Kaufman & Broad to 1.4 billion, the Saur to 1.03 billion, Spie 1.04 billion, could is grouped with other investment fund to buy all or part of Africa, help it grow and then Exchange it world for 1 symbolic euro, to the best purchasers. Which The Africans, of course...