Roger Karoutchi | |
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Member of the French Senate for Hauts-de-Seine |
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Assumed office 1 October 2011 |
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Personal details | |
Born |
Casablanca, Morocco |
26 August 1951
Nationality | French Moroccan |
Political party | The Republicans |
Alma mater | Sciences Po Aix |
Religion | Judaism |
Roger Karoutchi (born 26 August 1951) is the French Ambassador to the OECD. He is a former Secretary of State to the French Prime Minister, with responsibility for Relations with Parliament.
Karoutchi was born in Casablanca into a Jewish-Armenian family that settled in Morocco in the 18th century. They had come from Livorno in Italy.
He received a master's degree from the Institut d'études politiques d'Aix-en-Provence.
He became a history teacher, first in Goussainville, and then in Paris, teaching from 1975 to 1985. He continued his political activity, which he had started at the age of 16, during that period, being a national delegate of the Rassemblement pour la République (RPR) from 1981 to 1986.
At that time, he joined the office of Philippe Séguin, the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, eventually becoming Séguin's chief of staff when he became president of the Assemblée nationale.
Karoutchi was a European delegate from 1997 to 1999 and Senator from Hauts-de-Seine from 1999 to 2007.
He was very active in the 2007 presidential campaign of Nicolas Sarkozy, with whom he has a close personal relationship.
In January 2009, Karoutchi publicly announced that he is gay. As such, he was the first French Minister to come out while in office.
From 2009 to 2011, he worked as the French Ambassador to the OECD.