Paris, November 10, 2016
The French Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Pasteur-Weizmann Council are announcing Robert Parienti's decision to retire. He will be succeeded by David Weizmann, who was appointed Director General on September 15, 2016.
For over 40 years, Dr Robert Parienti, Delegate General of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council, has done an extraordinary job, sparing neither time nor effort, in developing research projects between these two renowned institutions. A special tribute will be paid to him during a gala dinner organized in his honor next November 22 at the Palais Brongniart in Paris.
During Robert Parienti's tenure, Pasteur-Weizmann Council has been held up as an example for research cooperation the world over. It brings together researchers from Israel and France to conduct scientific and medical research, notably in the field of cancer, through the development of joint programs and the promotion of scientific research. This simple twinning of institutes has led to a great human adventure involving researchers, benefactors, sponsors and famous personalities from the worlds of science, healthcare, economics, the arts and politics.
Maurice Lévy, Chairman and CEO of Publicis Groupe, President of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council and of the French Committee of the Weizmann Institute, commented:
"After nearly forty years at the head of Conseil Pasteur-Weizmann, Robert Parienti's decision to step down is a very moving moment. Robert has endowed the Institute with unabated support without which essential research programs - that have proved decisive for science and medicine - could not have been carried out.
I need hardly remind you that, during a conversation with France's then Minister of Health, Simone Veil, Robert Parienti was the first person to bring to light the isolation in which Israeli researchers were working. That conversation led to the idea of officially associating Institut Pasteur and the Weizmann Institute of Science. Let me take this opportunity to pay tribute to the great courage of Madame Simone Veil in this undertaking, and to express my heartfelt gratitude to my friend Robert for his relentless work and unparalleled devotion to making the Pasteur-Weizmann Council the institutional reference it has become.
I am delighted to welcome David Weizmann as our new Director General, and am counting on him to ensure that both the French Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science and the Pasteur-Weizmann Council continue to be run smoothly. The Committee and I look forward to working with him to continue the Institute's endeavors, thereby promoting scientific research and cooperation between France and Israel. Our ambition is to continue the great work carried out by Robert while bringing cooperation to ever-greater heights."
David Weizmann is a diplomat and is in charge of patronage and partnerships at the French Institute. He is a political science graduate (post-graduate and doctoral thesis at France's Institut des Etudes Politiques) and has over twenty years' experience in institutional and cultural organizations as well as in media. He lectures in a number of universities on the sociology of culture, and in the field of management. In his new position, he will be entrusted with the reinforcing of international cooperation, with the promotion of scientific research and cooperation between France and Israel, in particular by attracting donations and through the development of specific programs.
Contacts
| Peggy Nahmany | + 33 (0)1 44 43 72 83 |
