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John Rossant

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John Rossant (born January 29th 1955) is the American-born Executive Chairman of PublicisLive, the Geneva-based thought-leadership events organizer, which has been producing the World Economic Forum  (WEF) in Davos since 1995. PublicisLive, under Rossant’s leadership, has launched and organized other annual events such as the Monaco Media Forum (MMF) in Monte Carlo, and the Abu Dhabi Media Summit (ADMS) in the United Arab Emirates. In October, 2010, PublicisLive organized and produced on behalf of the Swiss Government, the 13th Summit of French-Speaking Nations in Montreux, Switzerland.

Contents

•	Early Life and Education •	Career in Journalism •	Publicis Groupe and PublicisLive •	Personal Life •	Other Honorary Commitments •	References •	External Links

Early Life and Education

Rossant was born and brought up in New York City, the second son of a transatlantic marriage between Murray Rossant, a New Yorker, and the London-born Naima Landman. His father was a distinguished journalist, who worked for Newsweek, served on the Editorial Board on the New York Times, and later became director of the progressive public policy group, the Twentieth Century Fund (now known as The Century Foundation). A precocious child with an eye for worldwide events from an early age, he “ read the New York Times at the breakfast table from the age of five” (1). After graduating from Collegiate School on New York’s Upper West Side in 1972, he was admitted to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he achieved a BA (Hons) in 1977. Having developed a passion for the Middle East and Classical Arabic, he obtained a CASA postgraduate scholarship to study at the American University of Cairo in Egypt, successfully completing his course in 1978.

Career in Journalism

On returning to New York from Egypt, he followed his father’s professional example and became a journalist: his first full-time job was as the Riyadh-based correspondent of Arab News, the English-language daily newspaper in Saudi Arabia, from 1979 to 1981. This was a particularly turbulent period in the Middle East which saw the Second Oil Shock and the 1979 assault by Islamist extremists on the Great Mosque of Mecca – both events reported on extensively by Rossant. Rossant returned to the US, where he helped found a newsletter on the global energy market, Petroleum Information International, before joining the staff of BusinessWeek in 1983. In 1984, he was then posted to Paris as BusinessWeek correspondent, where he remained until 1989, when he moved to Italy as BusinessWeek’s Rome Bureau Chief and Middle Eastern Correspondent. After spending a decade in the Italian capital, he returned to Paris in 1999 as BusinessWeek’s European Editor, managing the correspondents and support staff of the magazine’s four Europe-based news bureaus until 2005.

Apart from helping to guide BusinessWeek’s overall editorial policy, he also helped shape the  magazine’s international expansion strategy, setting up editorial joint ventures in France, Poland and the Middle East. During his years as a journalist and editorial pundit, Rossant’s articles also appeared in numerous other publications, including The New York Times, International Herald Tribune, Le Figaro, Le Point, L’Expansion Liberation, Il Corriere della Sera, and Il Foglio.

During his tenure as Europe Editor of BusinessWeek, Rossant took a year’s sabbatical in order to write a biography of the Saudi Arabian businessman and investor Prince AlWaleed bin Talal. He spent most of the year traveling around the world with the Prince, but the manuscript was never published, possibly due editorial differences between Prince AlWaleed and Rossant.

During his career as a journalist and bureau chief, Rossant received several prizes in recognition of his work, including the Overseas Press Club Award, in 1989 and  1993 ; and the German Marshall Fund Peter Weitz Award, in 2000 and 2003.

Publicis Groupe and PublicisLive

In 2005, whilst still Europe Editor of BusinessWeek, Rossant was approached by Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of the Paris-based Publicis Groupe, and offered the job of internal and external communications director for the entire group, the third largest communications and advertising enterprise in the world, and the largest in Europe. His official title was Vice President, Communications and Public Affairs. He also became a member of the Publicis Groupe’s Executive Committee, the P12. One of the first projects that Rossant implemented was the Monaco Media Forum in Monte Carlo in 2006, envisaged as Europe’s answer to the well established Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. Held under the auspices of Prince Albert II of Monaco, the MMF continues to attract an eclectic mix of global media figures.

In 2008, Publicis Groupe President Maurice Lévy offered Rossant the chance to run his own free-standing company, PublicisLive. Based in Geneva, and formally helmed by Richard Attias, it is best known for producing the World Economic Forum in Davos, the brainchild of Klaus Schwab who launched the first edition back in 1971. Shortly after Rossant’s arrival in Geneva, the WEF signed a seven year exclusive contract with PublicisLive. PublicisLive is also responsible for the various spin-off regional editions of the WEF, such as in the Middle East, Dalian in China and in South America. In March 2010, Rossant’s PublicisLive oversaw the successful launch of the Abu Dhabi Media Summit (ADMS), inspired by the successful formula of the Monaco Media Forum. Even more than the MMF, the ADMS managed to summon a formidable tally of major worldwide and regional media players, from News Corp’s Chairman Rupert Murdoch to Eric Schmidt of Google (+ ¾ Chinese/Indian major names). The main theme of the first edition of the ADMS was how to attract and then integrate the estimated two billion new media users mainly in Asia, Africa and South America who will log onto the internet for the first time in the next three or four years. In October 2010 PublicisLive organized the 13th Sommet de la Francophonie, (Worldwide Francophone Summit) which was held in Montreux, welcoming over 3,000 participants and 40 heads of states and delegations.

Personal life

In September 1992 John Rossant married Antonella Caruso, at the time a special adviser to the Italian Foreign Minister Gianni De Michelis in the field of Middle Eastern Affairs. A fluent Arabic speaker, she currently directs an Italian government-funded programme to promote political reconciliation between the warring factions in Iraq. The Rossants have three children, Jordan (b. 1993), Matteo (1996) and Alexandre (2006). Their principal residence is in Central Paris, while their country retreat at Livry in Normandy is an 18th c. chateau, which the Rossants have extensively restored and renovated over the last few years. (3) Rossant has spent many years assembling a much admired collection of original African and Polynesian Tribal Art, and is also a familiar figure at Hotel Drouot, the Paris auction house.

Other Honorary Committments

Rossant is a Member of the Dean’s International Council, University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy Studies. He is also Co-founder and Board Member of the Fondation Tocqueville, Paris.

References

(1)	http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/realestate/greathomes/16GH-normandy.html (2)	 interview with John Rossant in Swiss Style magazine, October 2009 http://www.swissstyle.com/high-striving

External Links Swiss Style: http://www.swissstyle.com/high-striving NYT property piece

Categories: 1955 births / Alumni of Collegiate School / List of University of Wisconsin–Madison people / American Art Collectors /