Henri Verdier, born in 1968, is the French Ambassador for Digital Affairs within the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. Since 2018, he leads and coordinates the French Digital Diplomacy. He previously was the inter-ministerial director for digital information and communications systems (DG DINUM) of France; and he was the director of Etalab, the French agency for public open data.Mr Verdier is also an entrepreneur: he was the co-founder and CEO of MFG Labs, an internet-based startup involved in social data mining, and chairman of the board of Cap Digital, the French-European Cluster for Digital Content and Services, located in Paris. He is member of the ARCEP strategic committee, member of the CNIL strategic committee and also served as member of the board of Paris-Sorbonne University. In addition, Mr Verdier was the founding director of Edition Odile Jacob Multimedia, a publishing company in the field of e-learning and executive adviser for innovation at Lagardère Group as well as director of foresight at Institut Telecom. He co-authored three books: in 2012, with Nicolas Colin, L'Age de la Multitude, Entreprendre et Gouverner Après la Révolution Numérique (The Age of Multitude, Entrepreneurship and Governance After the Digital Revolution), in 2017, with Pierre Pezziardi, Des Startup d’État à l’État plateforme ( From State Startups to the Platform State), and in 2022, with Jean-Louis Missika, Le Business de la haine : Internet, la démocratie et les réseaux sociaux ( The Business of Hate: Internet, Democracy and Social Networks ). Mr Verdier is a graduate of Ecole Normale Supérieure.