Yann Coatanlem, La Médaille d’Or de La Renaissance Française

Yann Coatanlem is an economist and a philanthropist. Managing Director at Citigroup in charge of the development of quantitative and econometric Models, he started his career on the Arbitrage Desk of Salomon Brothers in London. Yann is also the founder and president of Club Praxis, a French think tank based in New York that promotes Open Government, Collective Intelligence and Collective Decision. 

Recent projects include an ambitious micro-simulation of all tax and social benefit systems in France, in collaboration with the Institut des Politiques Publiques and the AXA Research Fund; and a report on the teaching of Economics with Olivier Blanchard, Thomas Philippon, Kevin H. O’Rourke, Salvador Barbera and Bernard Salanié. 

As a Foreign Trade Advisor to the French Government in New York, he has participated to the Creative France Campaign with Business France, and is also helping French startups expand in the United States. 

A graduate from HEC and ENSIMAG, Yann has contributed to many reports, papers and op-eds in Finance and Economics, and is the author of Le Gouvernment des Citoyens, published by PUF (2017), which has just been awarded the Special Prize of the French Académie des sciences morales et politiques. He is also a frequent speaker, lately at the Open Government Partnership conference and at the Institut de France, where he was invited to speak on Economics and Education. 

Yann supports many non-profit organizations: he is the Chairman of the Maison Française of New York University, President of the American Foundation for the Paris School of Economics, and serves on the board of trustees of the European-American Chamber of Commerce, French Heritage Society and Droit & Croissance. 

He is Chevalier in L’Ordre National du Mérite, and is listed in the Who’s Who France and in Le Guide du Pouvoir. 

David Reithoffer, La Médaille d’Or de Solidarité et Valeur

David Reithoffer started studying French in 8th grade hoping that it would open doors to wonderful things in the future. It did! The day after high school graduation he boarded a plane for France and spent 5 weeks discovering all things French, including French hospitality in the homes of old and young people and everything in between.

This kindled a desire to return, so upon entering Hiram College that September, plans to spend junior year abroad were already in the making. 

Caen 1974-75 became his junior year abroad. L’Université de Caen offers a comprehensive foreign student program. In addition to taking classes, he joined the University Choir (La Chorale Universitaire de Caen) which opened many doors into French homes and institutions. Being in Normandy, he began to understand one of the many aspects of French-American friendship – the gratitude of the French for USA’s involvement in WWII. This opened his eyes to historic Franco- American relations and his desire to further enhance those relations in any way he possibly could. 

After moving to Chicago in 1985 and seeing that there were plenty of French speakers around, he co-founded the Groupe Professionnel Francophone in 1990 to provide a friendly and pleasant place for French–speaking people to have a drink and chat, in French! The group’s motto is “C’est la langue française qui nous unit.” Whatever one’s nationality or native tongue doesn’t matter – if you’re comfortable on your feet in French, you’re encouraged to participate at these monthly cocktail gatherings. 

David has also been very active with the Paris Committee of Chicago Sister Cities International. 

He was decorated Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2012. 

Citizen diplomacy is his guiding light. When President Eisenhower created Sister Cities in the 1950’s, it was done to promote peace through mutual respect, understanding, and cooperation—one individual, one community at a time. This is Mr. Reithoffer’s quest.

Lance Donaldson-Evans, La Médaille d’Or des Valeurs Francophones

Lance Donaldson-Evans is Professor Emeritus of French language and literature at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught for 43 years until his retirement in 2011.

A native Australian, he completed his undergraduate degree at the University of New South Wales (Newcastle University College), and subsequently an MA in French at the University of Melbourne.

He completed a doctorate at the University of Geneva, specializing in French Renaissance literature and culture. His thesis, written under the direction of Jean Rousset, dealt with the poetry of Jean de La Ceppède.

He has served as Chair of the Department of Romance Languages at Penn and Chair of the Faculty Senate. In addition to his teaching and administrative tasks, he was also Co-Director of the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business, an innovative program combining degrees in business and arts and sciences, with a strong foreign language component.

He personally monitored those who had chosen French as a target language. The recipient of a Lindback Teaching Award, he has authored books and articles on various aspects of French Renaissance literature, as well as on the contemporary French spy novel. One of his publications, One Hundred Great French Books, a guide for the general reader to literary works in French from the Middle Ages to the present, was favorably reviewed by the Wall Street Journal in April, 2010. He was named Chevalier dans l’ordre des palmes académiques in 2008.

He currently lives in Media, Pennsylvania with his wife, Mary. When he’s not traveling and/or spending time with his three beautiful and brilliant grandchildren, he continues to do research on French poetry of the early 17th century.