Jean-Claude Trichet (born December 20, 1942) is a French civil servant who was born in Lyon, France and educated at the École des Mines de Nancy. He later trained at the Institut d'etudes politiques de Paris (best known as Sciences Po) and the Ecole nationale d'administration, two French higher education institutions in the field of political science and state administration.

In 1993 he was appointed governor of Banque de France. On November 1, 2003 he took Wim Duisenberg's place as president of the European Central Bank. Wim Duisenberg had in a compromise agreed to step down from his office after four yearsblank">http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/euro/stories/troubled.infancy/(although this is publicly denied by all parties), in order to satisfy the French president, _Jacques Chirac, who wanted a French candidate.