Jacques de Larosière

Um, he's lived through the entire economic history of the Fifth Republic.

Jacques de Larosière joined the finance ministry in 1958.

By 1974, he was its top official, and in 1978, he headed to Washington to run the International Monetary Fund before returning to Paris a decade later to take over as governor of the central bank, and then to London to run the new European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

In November this year, he will turn 97, but he's still working, and he's still warning the French political class against the crisis that is coming unless they address the country's economic dysfunctions.