Pierre Heilbronn is a Visiting Professor in Practice at LSE European Institute. He has more than twenty years of experience in policy-making in domestic, European and broader global context. 

Before rejoining the French Inspection générale des finances at the end of 2021, Pierre was Vice President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) where he had overall responsibility for the formulation, communication, coordination and implementation of the Bank’s country and sector strategies, the Bank’s policy engagement, technical cooperation assignments, and related initiatives upholding and supporting the Bank’s transition mandate. Responsible of the application of the political aspects of the Bank’s mandate, taking the lead on EBRD engagement with countries of operation, EU institutions and other key external organisations, he had also overall accountability on the mobilisation and management of donor funds. He was a member of the Executive Committee and chaired the Strategy and Policy Committee of the Bank. 

Pierre joined the EBRD from the French administration where he was deputy chief of staff for the Minister of Economy and Finance. For three years, he supervised the devising and implementation of the economic strategy aimed at increasing the competitiveness of companies, restoring the credibility of public finances, improving the transparency of economic life and opening up new opportunities for businesses and households. He was also directly involved in the international and European agendas especially the implementation of the Juncker plan, the development policy agenda associated with the French presidency of COP21 and also in banking and financial markets issues. 

Before that, he served as the European advisor of the French Prime Minister and for six years supervised the handling of most European dossiers managing the department in charge of European coordination under the Prime Minister’s authority. Notably, he coordinated the French Presidency of the European Union of 2008, led the French engagement with the G20, the European Council and the Eurogroup/ECOFIN. He extensively dealt with issues linked to the stabilisation of the euro area, the enlargement of the European Union, major multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations and played a decisive role in helping to define, develop and deliver assistance to Greece in response to the crisis.

Earlier in his career, Pierre assisted in the definition and creation of the European External Action Service. Acting as head of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for External Relations and Management of Development Aid, he worked directly on the Neighbourhood policy and was responsible for the management of EU development aid. He started his career as a diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Department of European cooperation) and in the Ministry of Finance (Inspection générale des Finances and Directorate of Tax Legislation).

Pierre graduated from the Institut d’Etudes politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) and the Ecole nationale d’administration (ENA). He holds a Master of Economics from Cambridge University and a Master of European studies from the College of Europe of Bruges. He also studied in Yale University and Georgetown University (Walsh School of Foreign Service).