Lionel Zinsou

Co-founder and Managing Partner of SouthBridge, Lionel Zinsou is former Prime Minister of the Republic of Benin (2015-2016).

Previously, he was an Executive Director for Danone where he held several positions, General Partner at Rothschild & Cie and President of PAI Partners, one of the major private equity funds in Europe.

His professional career began as an academic before joining the office of the Minister of Industry (1980 – 1984) and Prime Minister (1983 – 1986), Laurent Fabius.

Mr Zinsou is currently a member of the Board of several institutions and companies, including Terra Nova (president), Danone, PAI Partners and Attijariwafa Bank.

He studied at Ecole Normale Superieure as well as Paris IV and Paris VII universities (history of economics). He also graduated from Sciences Po Paris and was a research member of the London School of Economics.