Jean-David Levitte is a French diplomat born in the south of France. He earned a law degree and graduated from the Paris Institute for Political Science (Sciences Po) and the National School of Oriental Languages, where he studied Chinese and Indonesian. He passed the French Foreign Service exam in 1970 and was posted to Hong Kong and Beijing in the early 1970s. In 1974, he joined the staff of President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Levitte served as a diplomatic advisor and sherpa on the staff of three French presidents: Giscard d'Estaing, Jacques Chirac, and Nicolas Sarkozy. He also served as Ambassador to the United States. In post-government roles, he is Senior Policy Advisor, emeritus, at Rock Creek Global Advisors, focusing on European policy issues and foreign relations, advising multinational companies and financial institutions. He is President of the Foundation Council at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP), an Associate Fellow in the Global Fellowship Initiative, a Distinguished Fellow in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, a Member of the Institut de France, and Diplomatic Counsellor as the President's Personal Representative for the Summit, France (World Economic Forum).