Romain de Vries

After business school, Romain traveled abroad and then served as an officer in a paratrooper regiment. He subsequently worked in tourism in Colombia and in the medical sector in Malaysia. In 2002, he joined Cargill Cocoa in Ivory Coast as Purchasing Director, before being transferred in 2006 to the Netherlands to work as a futures trader. It was during these years that he developed a passion for Africa. In 2008, he worked in journalism and humanitarian aid in Myanmar, Alaska, and Madagascar, before joining the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), where he worked in the West Bank, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Afghanistan. He returned to Paris in 2015 to head the International Emergencies department of Caritas France, a position that led him to travel extensively in Africa and the Middle East. The upheaval in North/South relations observed on the ground led him to approach global economic challenges with greater pragmatism. In 2022, he left humanitarian work and became a consultant in international risk management, while also teaching at Sciences Po on countries in conflict. In 2023, he joined  Elzéar  , where he assists a diverse clientele in their complex search for intercultural managers and executives for their operations in Africa, the Middle East, and the French overseas departments and territories.

Romain enjoys outdoor sports and literature, especially the novels of Joseph Kessel.