Jean Peyrelevade (born 24 October 1939 in Marseille), is a French civil servant, politician and business leader.

Biography 

He always presented himself as a man of center-left.

Appointed in 1981 deputy chief of staff of Pierre Mauroy and economic advisor of Prime Minister, he manages nationalization, while professing his skepticism about their interest.

Long time economics teacher at the École Polytechnique, he has written books about the evolution of contemporary capitalism, including Le capitalism total published through the think tank of La République des idées in 2005. Denouncing in this book an extreme form of capitalism, he proposes to ban stock options as part of executive compensation to avoid conflicts of interest and offer better dividends to existing shareholders to limit the round- speculative return.

He argues Francois Bayrou at the French presidential election of 2007, and joined his campaign team, particularly to address the economic program. In 2008, at the municipal elections, he led the MoDem list in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, which collects 8.64% of votes in the first round, ranking fourth. Only elected on its list, he is borough councilor. June 13, 2008, he was appointed vice president of the MoDem for economic issues. He resigned from the board of the  16th arrondissement of Paris the 6th of January 2009 and of all his functions within the MoDem at the same time. He no longer has any ties partisan but an active participant of Terra Nova (think tank), the think tank of the left.

In an opinion published in Le Figaro, he advocated a separation between bank deposit and investment bank to regulate the financial system to prevent another financial crisis. He said the bank is a real public service, which must be managed as such.

On 7 September 2011, he says support the candidacy of François Hollande to the French Socialist Party presidential primary, 2011. During summer schools of MoDem the 17th of September 2011 and during radio interviews, Jean Peyrelevade said he would vote for Manuel Valls in the first round and - probably - for Francois Hollande in the second round. Jean Peyrelevade recognizes to Manuel Valls the quality of being politically incorrect when he speaks about "35 hours" as a major error on which we must return. On January 5, 2012, he states that he changed his mind "Bayrou's speech is more consistent, clearer". He is a member of the campaign strategy of François Bayrou and says that we need a period of wage moderation to revive French competitiveness.

Training 

 École Polytechnique (1958)
 École nationale de l'aviation civile (1961)
 University of Paris-Sorbonne (1963)
 Institut d'études politiques de Paris (1963)

Bibliography 

 Pour un capitalisme intelligent, ed. Grasset, 1993
 La république silencieuse, (with Denis Jeambar), ed. Plon, 2002
 Le capitalisme total, ed. Seuil, 2005, 
 Seul face à la justice américaine, ed. Plon, 2007
 Sarkozy : l'erreur historique, ed. Plon, 2008
 France, état critique, ed. Plon, 2011

References 

Living people
1939 births
Alumni of the École nationale de l'aviation civile
French businesspeople
French politicians
People from Marseille
Civil servants
Alumni of the École Polytechnique
Alumni of the Institut d'études politiques de Paris