Jean-Louis Billon
Jean-Louis Billon, Ivory Coast’s former Minister of Commerce, is a prominent business figure in the country. He was ranked as Marcopolis’ #3 leader.
March 2017 update
Jean-Louis Billon, Ivory Coast’s former Minister of Commerce, is a prominent business figure in the country. He was ranked as Marcopolis’ #3 leader.
While many politicians in Ivory Coast are older, mostly in their seventies, Jean-Louis Billon is considered a relatively young prominent leader in his home country. At 52, he has already been Minister of Commerce, as well as President of Ivory Coast’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Billon got his start in economics when he joined the family cocoa exporting business, SIFCA. His father, Pierre Billon, was a business tycoon and a close confidant of Ivory Coast’s founding father Félix Houphouët-Boigny.
Two damaging military conflicts and nearly 20 years of political and civil instability wrenched the economy. So when in 2012 Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara summoned Billon to take over the Ministry of Commerce, Craft and SME Promotion, the burden to turn around the economy was big. But after 4 years, following the ministerial reshuffle of January 2017, Jean-Louis Billon passed the torch of the Ministry of Commerce to its successor, Souleymane Diarrassouba.