ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I do not want to close this book without thanking those who have helped me on my nearly 30-year voyage in finance. 

I think about my different bosses, and the first of them, Philippe Sala, who gave me confidence, as well as teams that I worked with at BFI, the Ministry of Finance, Lazard, Élysée Palace, Crédit Agricole, Société Générale, the World Bank, and Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital. I am also reminded of the Semaines sociales de France: my thanks to Michel Camdessus. 

Thanks to President Emmanuel Macron, with whom I had the privilege and pleasure to discuss in real time most of the topics addressed in this book and who agreed to introduce the English version of this book. 

Thanks to Prime Minister Gordon Brown, one of the major architects of the 2008–2009 economic rescue, and a postcrisis thinker who also provided a foreword to the book. 

Thanks to my colleagues in the Eau (water), Nouvelles contributions financières internationales (New international financial contributions), and Le sursaut (The wake-up call) groups, who confirmed for me the value of good faith, goodwill, and the spirit of deliberation to tackle complex problems and find agreement. 

Thanks to everyone working in NGOs; directors of international organizations and development institutions, central banks, and business leaders; and the men and women working for the common good who have helped to form my thoughts in recent years, with particular gratitude for Steve Howard and the Global Foundation, with whom I have interacted extensively over the past few years. I have called on the ideas of a number of them in the pages of the book. Thank you for this shared wisdom. 

Thanks to all the people who welcomed me into their countries, who helped me to understand the complexity of what we call development, the immensity of the needs, and the infinite possibilities. To these everyday architects of a better world: bravo! 

Thanks to Professor Klaus Schwab and the teams at the World Economic Forum, who entrusted me with the position of Cochair of the Global Future Council on International Governance, Public-Private Cooperation and Sustainable Development, and Honorary Chair of the Sustainable Development Investment Partnership. These discussion venues have had a considerable influence on the book.

Thanks to Adam Posen and Olivier Blanchard, who have hosted me at the Peterson Institute for International Economics over several months and pushed me to write down my thoughts. Without them, this book never would have been written. The environment of openness and friendly curiosity that I found with them, at a time that called for good judgment, was an amazing stroke of luck. 

Thanks to all who have invested in Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital with the idea that finance can improve the world, and not just the bottom line.

Thanks to the Blue like an Orange Sustainable Capital team who help me walk the talk of this book. Particular thanks to Amer Baig for his patience and support throughout the editing and review of the English version of the manuscript.

I am also particularly grateful to Jean Guyot, Jean Boissonnat, and Michel Albert, with whom I discussed the questions raised in this book over and over again. They are always at my side.

Finally, I would like to express my appreciation to Emmanuel and Pierre, two uncles I lost too soon, who introduced me to the mysteries of finance and guided my first steps.