Philippe Villin

Philippe Villin    (editor, banker, lobbyist, hotelier)
Born	23 October 1954
Nationality	French
Alma mater	Sciences-Po Paris, ENA
Partner	Tiery Bourquin
French Bilderberger editor and banker, and confidant of president Nicolas Sarkozy.  Editor-in-chief In office 1984 - July 1994 Employer le Figaro

Philippe Villin is a French editor turned investment banker and lobbyist. He is also a linchpin in the Paris business and political scene, connecting people he feels need connecting. Former chief of the centre-right daily Le Figaro, he is an art collector, ballet lover and confidant of former president Nicolas Sarkozy." He has also worked at Barclays bank and Lehman Brothers in France, and is a clear part of Paris’s tight-knit metropolitan elite. He owns five hotels in Paris.

He attended three Bilderberg meetings, in 1990, 1992 and 2003.

Education

In 1975, he graduated from Sciences-Po Paris, then went to ENA, after which he became a finance inspector. He left public administration in 1984.

Career

He became editor and manager of Le Figaro in 1984. 'At Figaro he did make business and political contacts, which became the basis for his future career. One of these was Sarkozy, a young politician who would become president from 2007 to 2012. 'Back then [in the 1980s] he was a young politician just starting his career,' says Villin. The pair became close in the 1990s and 2000s, with Villin helping Sarkozy in 2007 to 'understand and seduce the gay people' with progressive politics and later, after he lost the 2012 presidential election, to raise money. Villin later became a key policy adviser and advocate.

In 1995 he became a banker at the Barclays investment bank Zoete Wedd (BZW).

He particularly despised Emmanuel Macron since he became an aide to François Hollande in 2012. Macron ran and won the 2016 presidential election. Villin commented that "The only programme of Macron for the presidential election is him to be elected without disclosing the content of what he wants to do,” says Villin, adding that Macron is a “danger to democracy” with his “catch-all” political rhetoric.

Villin is against the euro in its current form, saying that Germany and northern Europe cannot have the same currency as France and the south. “I was against the euro from the beginning,” he says. “With the euro, as expected, France has suffered a disaster, especially compared to Germany in terms of manufacturing jobs. When I was in my thirties French people could not afford German cars. Now everyone is driving a German car and French industry has been destroyed.”

Personal life

"It is clear from Villin’s apartment that he lives alone. The style — at once alpha male, organised and perfectionist — is single-minded and without compromise. His long-term partner, the writer and artist Tiery Bourquin, lives in another apartment upstairs. Villin’s philosophy on love, he tells me as we are served a breakfast of coffee and fruit in his dining room by his butler, Razika, is that a healthy relationship should not get in the way of having sex with other people — in fact, he says, sex is the only sport he does. 'Tiery and I speak every day. I could not live without him, we see each other all the time,' says Villin. “Being in a couple is very important to me, but monogamy in sex is for the religious . . . We are in a very open relationship.” Many of his lovers end up as part of his wider 'family' whom he helps support. 'For many of the younger ones, they start as just lovers, become friends, and then some of them become almost like children, in the sense that I help them out and sometimes develop some projects with them.'"

 

Events Participated in

Event	Start	End	Location(s)	Description
Bilderberg/1990	10 May 1990	13 May 1990	New York US Glen Cove	38th Bilderberg meeting, 119 guests
Bilderberg/1992	21 May 1992	24 May 1992	France Royal Club Evian Evian-les-Bains	The 40th Bilderberg. It had 121 participants.
Bilderberg/2003	15 May 2003	18 May 2003	France Versailles	The 51st Bilderberg, in Versailles, France

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