Ambassador of France, President of the Board of Directors of the IHEDN since January 2020

Sylvie Bermann was successively Ambassador of France in China (2011-2014) in the United Kingdom (2014-2017) and in Russia (2017-2019).

Sylvie joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1979. She was stationed at the General Consulate of France in Hong Kong (1979-1980), at the French Embassy in Beijing (1980-1982) then at the French Embassy in Moscow. (1986-1989). In addition to her focus on bilateral issues, such as at the central administration (Asia Directorate), she had a career focused around multilateral European issues (head of the CFSP service at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 1996-2000, Ambassador to the Political and Security Committee of the European Union in Brussels, 2002-2005), and the UN (permanent French representative for the United Nations in New York 1992-1996 and Director of the United Nations, International Organisations, droits de l’homme et de la francophonie at the Quai d’Orsay).

Sylvie Bermann has been chairman of the IHEDN board of directors since January 2020. She is the author of “La Chine en eaux profondes (China in deep waters)” (2017), covering forty years of experience in China, and of “Goodbye Britannia, le Royaume-Uni au défit du Brexit (Goodbye Britannia, the United Kingdom in the face of Brexit)”(2021).

Sylvie Bermann is an Officer of the ordre national du mérite and of the Légion d’honneur.