Jean-Pierre Raffarin was born in 1948 in Poitiers. A graduate of the Paris Business School (ESCP), he served as a lecturer at Sciences Po Paris. Since 2007, he has been a professor at ESCP Business School, Peking University, and the China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai.
After beginning his career in the private sector (Jacques Vabre, Bernard Krief, etc.), he entered politics in 1973. In 1988, he became the youngest regional president in France, leading the executive of the Poitou-Charentes region for 18 years. He also served as a Member of the European Parliament (1989–1995), Quaestor of the Assembly, and President of the Association of French Regions.
From 1995 to 1997, he was Minister for Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce, and Crafts. He was appointed Prime Minister by President Jacques Chirac, serving from May 2002 to May 2005. Elected Senator for Vienne from 1995 to 2017, he served as Vice-President of the Senate from March 2011 to September 2014, and then as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Armed Forces Committee from October 2014 to July 2017. Raffarin is the founding Chairman of Leaders for Peace, a Member of the Board of Directors of the Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts and an International advisor and Chairman of the
French Committee for the Praemium Imperiale – Tokyo, amongst others.
In 2010, he co-authored What China Has Taught Us in Chinese with Anne-Marie Raffarin. This was followed by I Will Always Follow the Heart (2012). His book, China, the Great Paradox, was published in 2019. In recent years, he published Choosing a Leader (2021), Let Us Not Walk Away from History (2023), and Leadership for All (2023), all with Michel Lafon.