Opening of the 2010 Young Leaders Selection Process

The French-American Foundation and the French-American Foundation-France opened the 2010 Young Leaders selection process on December 11, 2009. The Young Leaders Program, a flagship program of the French-American Foundation, was created in 1981 to foster a new network of trans-Atlantic leaders. The Young Leaders selection process is highly competitive and regularly results in significantly more candidacies than can be accommodated in a given year.

Since its inception, the program has taken small groups of carefully selected up-and-coming leaders in government, business, media, the military and the non-profit sector and provided them with the opportunity to spend five days together two years in a row, once in France and once in the United States. During the annual meetings, Young Leaders spend time discussing policy issues of critical contemporary concern and, more importantly, getting to know their French-American Young Leader counterparts.

Young Leaders are selected by committees in France and the United States in a process coordinated by both Foundations. Candidates are identified in several ways: through recommendations from past participants, from board members and committee members of the two Foundations as well as from other interested observers and from media reports about rising young personalities. The Foundations cover the travel and lodging expenses of selected Young Leaders during the two annual meetings.

For more information on the 2010 Young Leaders selection process, please click here.