Henri de La Croix de Castries, 5th Comte de Castries (born August 15, 1954 in Bayonne

Bayonne

Bayonne is a city and commune in south-western France at the confluence of the Nive and Adour rivers, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department, of which it is a sub-prefecture...

) is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 businessman. he is Chairman and CEO of AXA

AXA

AXA S.A. is a French global insurance group headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. AXA is a conglomerate of independently run businesses, operated according to the laws and regulations of many different countries. The AXA group of companies engage in life, health and other forms of...

  since May 2000. His father is probably Christian de Castries, the commander of the doomed French garrison at Dien Bien Phu. In an October 2010 interview with the Singapore Business Times newspaper, he states that his father fought in Indo-China after the Second World War.

Education

• School at Ecole Saint-Jean-de-Passy
• High school at Collège Stanislas
  Collège Stanislas de Paris
  Le Collège Stanislas de Paris is a private Catholic school in Paris, situated on "Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs" in the Montparnasse arrondissement. It has approximately 3,000 students, and is the largest private school in France....
  
   in Paris
• 1976 : Graduated from HEC Paris (same year as Serge Lepeltier
  Serge Lepeltier
  Serge Lepeltier is a French politician.He studied at École des Hautes Études Commerciales.He was mayor of Bourges in 1995 and again in 2001...
  
   and Denis Kessler
  Denis Kessler
  Denis Kessler is a French businessman. He has served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of SCOR SE since 2002...
  
  )
• 1980 : Graduated from ENA (Promotion Voltaire, same one as Dominique de Villepin
  Dominique de Villepin
  Dominique Marie François René Galouzeau de Villepin is a French politician who served as the Prime Minister of France from 31 May 2005 to 17 May 2007....
  
  , *François Hollande
  François Hollande
  François Gérard Georges Hollande is a French politician. From 1997 to 2008, he was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party. He has also served as a Deputy of the National Assembly of France, representing the first constituency of Corrèze, since 1997. He previously represented that seat...
  
   and Ségolène Royal
  Ségolène Royal
  Marie-Ségolène Royal , known as Ségolène Royal, is a French politician. She is the president of the Poitou-Charentes Regional Council, a former member of the National Assembly, a former government minister, and a prominent member of the French Socialist Party...
  
  )
• law degree

Career

• 1980-1984 : auditing on behalf of the Minister of Finances of France
• 1984 : becomes a member of the French Treasury
• 1986 : participate in the privatisation initiated by the Chirac government
• 1989 : joins the central financial direction of AXA
• 1991 : Appointed general secretary of AXA, in charge of restructurations and mergers (integration of compagnie du Midi)
• 1993 : Appointed general director of AXA
• 1994 : In charge of North America and UK
• 1996 : in charge of the merger and integration with Union des assurances de Paris (UAP)
• 1997 : President of the Board of Equitable (which became AXA Financial)
• 2000 : incumbent : President of the Directorate of AXA
• 2010 : Chairman of the Bilderberg Group's Steering Committee

Henri de Castries is also an administrator of the Association pour l'Aide aux Jeunes Infirmes (an NGO aiming to support young handicapped people) and is President of AXA Atout Cœur.