Fleur Pellerin, Minister of Culture and Communication, welcomes the appointment, by decree of the President of the Republic on 8 September 2014, of Jean-François Chougnet, as President of the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MuCEM).

Jean-François Chougnet, born in 1957, is a historian, a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and a former student of the École Nationale d'Administration.

Jean-François Chougnet has been assigned to the Ministry of Culture since his release from the ENA and has devoted his entire career to cultural policies. He was Director General of the Public Establishment of the Park and the Villette Hall from 2001 to 2006, before being appointed Director of the Berardo Foundation in Lisbon from 2007 to 2011, a museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art.

In 2005, he was Commissioner General of the Year of Brazil in France.

In April 2011, Jean-François Chougnet became Director General of the Marseille-Provence 2013 association and coordinated all the events related to this event, which had the greatest success.

Jean-François Chougnet’s experience in leading major institutions, his passion for all forms of art and creation, and his great mastery of cultural programming have all the qualities to confirm and amplify the success of MuCEM.

Jean-François Chougnet succeeds Bruno Suzzarelli, the forerunner and first president of the MuCEM, whose exemplary career and investment in the museum and culture is praised by Fleur Pellerin.