A graduate of the European Business School Paris, with a Master’s degree in Corporate Law from Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from Paris IV – Sorbonne, Xavier Boutin started his career in 1978 in the international cereal trade with Louis Dreyfus.

After working as a philosophy teacher, he became committed to training young people and took over the direction of a community education association in 1982 and, in 1988, founded the Institut européen de coopération et de développement (IECD) of which he is the Director till 2017.

Alongside his activities at the IECD, Xavier Boutin was the treasurer of the board of directors of Coordination Sud from 1997 to 2011 and, since June 2013, he chairs the Coordination Humanitaire et Développement (CHD) alongside Alain Boinet.

Xavier Boutin also teaches in the Master’s II course on “Management of development projects” by IRCOM and speaks on development themes in many symposiums and seminars.