Throughout his career, in addition to his academic background, Jean François BUREAU has developed a large experience in defence, security and technology policies, which he contributed to both in public institutions (interior and defence French ministries, Court of Auditors, NATO) and private entities (Eutelsat). In this last position, he experienced the challenges Europeans face with regard to quickly evolving worldwide competition and the need to speed up innovation and disruptive technologies.
Jean-François Bureau, a graduate of the Institute’s Etudes politiques de Paris (1974) and Sorbonne faculty in political science (1977) began his career as an academic dealing with defence issues (1977-1981). Then, he joined the National Assembly as an advisor to the Defence Committee and moved to the private office of France’s Minister of Defence where he was an advisor for political and strategic affairs from 1983 to 1985 (this position included the chairmanship of the first MoD space task force). He subsequently carried out various responsibilities at the Ministry of the Interior, including as sub-prefect and civil administrator from 1985 to 1991 before joining back the Minister of Defence private office as advisor from January to September 1991.
From 1991 to 1994, he acted as a counsellor in the secretariat-general of the Presidency of the French Republic, and from 1994 to 1998, was a rapporteur at France’s Court of Auditors (Cour des Comptes), dealing with defence and industry/technology
issues. In 1998, Jean-François Bureau set up the Communications and Information Directorate at France’s Ministry of Defence, which he managed until 2007, in addition to acting as the Ministry of Defense spokesman. From 2007 to 2010, he was NATO Assistant Secretary General, in charge of Public Diplomacy and Scientific affairs. He was an Armed Forces General Controller at France’s Ministry of Defence from July 2010 to October 2011, when he joined Eutelsat Group as VP, in charge of Institutional
and International Affairs. He served as Eutelsat group VP until July 2020.
Since July 2020, Mr Bureau has been the Chairman of the consulting firm “Innovation & Organisations Conseil” (IOCONSEIL), which aims to support private and public entities with regard to evolving regulations and prospects in space, telecommunications, data and digital economy.