Astrid Panosyan

Astrid Panosyan
Birth date	13 August 1971
Lived in	Paris
Resides in	Paris
Education	Harvard
Languages	French, English
Ethnicities	Armenian, Norwegian
Awards	Knight of the National Order of Merit
Spouses	Laurent Bouvet

Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet (born 13 August 1971) is a French politician and corporate director who has been serving as Minister of Labour in the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier since 2024. She served as a member of the National Assembly for Paris's 4th constituency from 2022 to 2024.

Early life and education

Born to an Armenian father and a Norwegian mother, Panosyan-Bouvet is a graduate of HEC Paris, Sciences Po and the Harvard Kennedy School.

Career in the private sector

Panosyan-Bouvet held senior positions at two of the main insurance groups in France, AXA and Groupama.

Political career

As a member of Emmanuel Macron’s cabinet when he was France’s economy minister, Panosyan-Bouvet advised him on international investments and the attractiveness of France’s economy. In 2016, she co-founded the En Marche movement and was later part of a trio (together with Arnaud Leroy and Bariza Khiari) who led the movement for several months before Christophe Castaner took over the position as party leader. As the movement’s head of international relations, she negotiated its coalition with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) ahead of the 2019 European Parliament election.

In parliament, Panosyan-Bouvet served on the Committee on Social Affairs from 2022 to 2024. In addition to her committee assignments, she was a member of the French-Israeli Parliamentary Friendship Group and the French-American Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2022 to 2024.

Other activities

• Centre Pompidou, Member of the Supervisory Board (2022–2024)

Articles

French Armenian Astrid Panosyan named Knight of the National Order of Merit

Siranush Ghazanchyan September 8, 2020, 12:38

French Armenian politician and businesswoman Astrid Panosyan has been honored with a rank of the Knight of the National Order of Merit.

President Emmanuel Macron handed over the Order during a ceremony at the Elysee Palace.

Astrid Panosyan is the co-founder of La République en Marche (LREM) a centrist and liberal political party in France. The party was founded on 6 April 2016.

Mrs. Astrid Panosyan has been Chairwoman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer at Societe de Tayninh SA since September 1, 2015. Mrs. Panosyan has been the Chief Resources Officer and Member of the Management Board at Unibail-Rodamco SE since September 1, 2015 and serves as its Chief Executive Officer in charge of Central Operations.

She served as an Advisor and Member of the Cabinet of French Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, where she was in charge of economic attractiveness and international investments.

She served as the Secretary of the Board of Groupama S.A. until September 22, 2014 and General Secretary since 2011. She joined Groupama S.A. in 2002, where she held various senior positions in the international department, the department of strategy and the department of finance.

Previously, she joined AXA’s strategy department in 1998. She served as Head Officer of Strategy and Head Officer of Business Support & Development Asia-Pacific at AXA. She began her career at the AT Kearney. She serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Unibail-Rodamco Participations SAS and U&R Management BV.

She served as a Director of Cegid Group SA from December 20, 2011 to November 27, 2014. She was a member of the Board of Directors at CEDID Group S.A. Mrs. Panosyan graduated from HEC Paris, IEP Paris, Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales de Montreal and Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University.

Source: https://en.armradio.am/2020/09/08/french-armenian-astrid-panosyan-named-knight-of-the-national-order-of-merit/

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Macron ally charms Europe’s liberals

Astrid Panosyan urged liberals to enter the ‘battle of ideas.’

November 10, 2018 6:04 pm CET By Maïa de La Baume

Astrid Panosyan was the star of the show at the annual gathering of Europe’s liberals in Madrid.

The 47-year-old businesswoman, who is a close political ally of Emmanuel Macron and a co-founder of his En Marche political movement, earned a standing ovation when she formalized the party’s call for a coalition with Europe’s liberals.

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), the fourth largest party grouping in the Parliament, hopes that the alliance with the French president’s La République En Marche will help them to break the conservatives’ dominance over EU politics.

In particular, delegates gathered in Madrid — where they voted on a party manifesto for the European election in May — want to disrupt a system for choosing the next European Commission president. They argue it is rigged in favor of the center-right European People’s Party.

Panosyan earned her ovation with a forceful speech that committed La République En Marche to join ALDE in “a common front, a platform of self-evident policies pertaining to democratic institutions, climate change, social inclusion and collective security.” She added that her party’s goal would be to work toward a common campaign and, ultimately, a new group in the European Parliament.

“We need to break the good old habits of conservatives and socialists in the way they have been running things in Brussels,” Panosyan said, adding that liberals, democrats and progressives must return to the “battle of ideas.”

She buttered up her audience by thanking the members of ALDE who had “entrusted us with your support” and added that “En Marche would have not been possible without you.”

Her call to arms struck a chord with many liberals in the room.

“It was capital to hear that we are going to be together,” said Javier Nart, a member of the Spanish center-right Ciudadanos, which is a member of ALDE. He praised Panosyan for her ability to “ring the bells” on the rise of populists in Europe. “We have been sleeping for too long,” he added.

Sophie In ’t Veld, a Dutch liberal MEP, said she didn’t know Panosyan well personally but was impressed with the speech. “It’s the speech we were looking for on values, and on self-confidence about being pro-European,” she said.

An ALDE official said few people in the group knew Panosyan but her “speaking talent, and perfect command of English were impressive.” The official was even more caught off guard when he heard Panosyan — whose mother is Norwegian — speak in Swedish to Annie Lööf, the new rising star of the liberal Center Party in Sweden.

Though she is little-known in France and Brussels, Panosyan is not a newcomer in politics and business. A senior En Marche official even said she was interested in running for the EU election, and some officials in Madrid joked that she could make a good addition to ALDE’s slate of candidates for EU top jobs.

As a member of Macron’s cabinet when he was France’s economy minister, Panosyan advised him on international investments and the attractiveness of France’s economy. In 2016, she co-founded the En Marche movement and was later part of a trio who led the movement for several months before Christophe Castaner took its reigns.

As the movement’s current head of international relations, she is part of a team of people at En Marche who have conducted En Marche’s mission to build a progressive force in and outside the Parliament. She was recently in Vienna and Hungary to meet with liberal parties there.

Besides politics, Panosyan’s business CV is impressive. She graduated from Paris at the well-regarded Sciences-Po school and Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government. Later, she took up senior positions at two of the main insurance groups in France, AXA and Groupama.

But even as Panosyan’s effort to build the new alliance moves forward, there are still differences.

Danish MEP Morten Løkkegaard said that Panosyan’s speech had made a good impression with ALDE delegates, but that many still want Macron and his party to embrace the “liberal” label — something he has resisted.

“We recognize the situation in France and how the term ‘liberal’ is interpreted,” Løkkegaard said. “But we insist on them accepting the term ‘liberal.’”

Source: https://www.politico.eu/article/astrid-panosyan-macron-ally-charms-europes-liberals-alde-en-marche-macron-alliance/

=Citizen Care

Reimagining French politics with Astrid Panosyan

Astrid Panosyan has never conceived of success through the narrow confines of personal career advancement, but rather measures impact by how well she can serve the wider public. “I have always been interested in public service. That is just who I am,” she says. “Whether it has been as part of non-governmental organizations or within the private sector, I have always sought to create a culture of social responsibility because working toward the greater public good is something I have always felt very strongly about.”

A multi-talented and dynamic businesswoman who has held senior executive roles at some of the country’s largest commercial real estate and global insurance companies, Panosyan says it was that mission that led her into national politics four years ago as a member of Cabinet and Economic Advisor to President Emmanuel Macron when he was still Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs. Together with other members who worked closely with the President, Panosyan co-founded En Marche, an unprecedented citizen’s movement that helped sweep Macron to power in May 2017. Conceived as a national conversation with French citizens about their concerns, communities, and hopes for their country, the movement resonated with voters who felt they were being given a genuine voice in the new political model. Unaffiliated with any existing political party and open to anyone who wanted to join, En Marche transformed French politics, and today boasts 400,000 members, more than the other two political parties combined.

In her role as adviser, Panosyan brought business sector and management experience to the Ministry, helping France attract greater international investment and raise its global business profile. She was part of a collective effort to reform France’s notoriously strict labor and business laws, allowing for shops to open on Sundays to the benefit of both tourists and the economy.

Panosyan is also part of a generational wave helping transform the face of French politics in which women were long underrepresented, having only won the right to vote in 1944. In large part due to the efforts of president Macron who actively pushed for more women to run for political office, the current French parliament comprises the most women it has ever had, with 224 women elected out of 577 seats.

Politics is not the only domain where Panosyan has made a significant impact as a highly-skilled manager. She is Chief Resources Officer of Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, a premier global developer and operator of flagship shopping destinations and airports. Throughout her career in the private sector, she was also active in a number of charitable causes, serving as Chairwoman of the French NGO Proxite, that provides educational and professional mentorship to 1200 people aged from 12 to 25 living in the disenfranchised suburbs of Paris, Lille, Toulouse, Nice and Rennes.

She remains deeply committed to En Marche, where Panosyan is responsible for international affairs and French members abroad, helping mobilize 28,000 of those living outside France and establish key relationships between the movement and other progressive political parties. Amidst the rise of populism and the extreme far-right in Europe, Trumpism, and Brexit, Panosyan worries about the dangers of increasing political polarization, rising inequality, and the erosion of the traditional social contract. “We are living in a very uncertain global political climate. As individuals and concerned citizens living in democracies we all have to face up to the responsibility before us. France and the European Union are at a critical juncture in history and that is why I entered politics because I felt I had to do something for my country.”

That activist outlook on the world—defined by a determination to never take anything for granted—is rooted in her Armenian heritage. Born to an Armenian father and Norwegian mother, Panosyan did not have a traditional Armenian upbringing attending church and Sunday school. Still she remembers every year joining the march with her father on April 24th, demonstrating in recognition of the Genocide. “It was more about a feeling that I am part of a community that has suffered immensely, people who have worked hard to build for themselves and their families better lives in other countries that eventually became their own. I am grateful to France, the United States, Canada, Australia, Syria, Lebanon and many other countries that welcomed survivors. That was very important to me,” she adds. “I think what I retained is a very strong approach to those who are most vulnerable and a sense of compassion for refugees fleeing war zones and massacres. One of the reasons I felt so strongly we had to do something to help mitigate the refugee crisis as early as 2014 with civilian populations fleeing ISIS in Easter Syria was directly linked to my Armenian heritage.”

Her Armenian roots have always been close to her heart, just as the community has been there for her. After graduating with a Master’s degree from the HEC Paris international business school and a degree in political science from Sciences-Po Paris, Panosyan was selected as a Fulbright scholar to study Public Administration at the renowned Kennedy School at Harvard University. She is particularly grateful to AGBU for the scholarship support the organization also provided to cover the costs of living in Cambridge. “AGBU is such an important organization all around the world, and in particular in the United States and France,” she says, “and I am very fortunate they supported me in my academic endeavors.”

Making her mark in both the private and public sector ever since, Panosyan says government taught her how to drive progress when working with large public organizations and stakeholders resistant to change. “The challenge was being able to listen and respond to stakeholders while maintaining the political vision and momentum which was constantly at risk of being halted by the inertia inherent to many larger organizations.”

She cautions not to get overwhelmed with the small emergencies that inevitably occur, but instead “strive to maintain the proper balance between what is really important while not losing sight of the momentum and agenda on which you have been elected.”

Above any one skill in particular, to succeed in politics Panosyan insists upon having the right motivation as a foundation. “You must be sure you truly want to serve the public good. If you are not in it for the right reasons, it will not be worth it because people are looking for genuine leadership not personal opportunism.”

If more Armenians aspire to careers in elected office throughout the diaspora, she adds they must do so “as full citizens of their country capable of serving a diverse constituent base, as opposed to representatives of any one community.”

As for her own future, Panosyan is as determined as ever to continue to lead by example in politics and business, fulfilling her mission to make a positive impact for her country and in the lives of her fellow citizens.

Source: https://agbu.org/public-service-issue/citizen-care

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