Mustapha Bakkoury (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: مصطفى البكوري; born 20 December 1964,

Mohammedia Mohammedia ( ar, المحمدية, al-muḥammadiyya; ber, ⴼⴹⴰⵍⴰ, Fḍala), known until 1960 as Fedala, is a port city on the west coast of Morocco between Casablanca and Rabat in the region of Casablanca-Settat. It hosts the most imp ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

) is a Moroccan businessman, engineer and politician. He is chairman of the board of the Moroccan Solar Energy Agency and the council president of the

Casablanca-Settat Casablanca-Settat ( ar, الدار البيضاء - سطات, ad-dār al-bayḍāʾ - siṭṭāt; ber, ⴰⵏⴼⴰ - ⵙⵟⵟⴰⵜ, anfa - sṭṭat) is one of the twelve administrative regions of Morocco. It covers an area of 20,166 km² ...

region. He was born in Mohammedia, but is a native of

Taounate :''This article refers to the city of Taounate; for the province see Taounate Province.'' ar, تاونات , nickname = , settlement_type = , motto = , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

Origins and studies

Bakkoury is an engineer who graduated from the

École des ponts ParisTech École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Savoi ...

in 1990 and holds a DESS in banking and finance.

Professional career

From 1989 to 1991, he was the head of junior projects at

BNP Paribas BNP Paribas is a French international banking group, founded in 2000 from the merger between Banque Nationale de Paris (BNP, "National Bank of Paris") and Paribas, formerly known as the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The full name of the grou ...

in the department of large international projects. He was also senior project manager at the BNP Intercontinentale in the department of Financial Engineering. By the end of 1991, he was responsible for their financial activities, and then from 1993 to 1995, was responsible for the clientele of large companies within the

BMCI BMCI (french: link=no, Banque marocaine pour le commerce et l'industrie, "Morocco Bank of Commerce and Industry") is a bank based in Morocco. It is a majority-owned subsidiary of the French financial group BNP Paribas. History At the end of t ...

, a subsidiary of BNP Paribas. From 1995 to 1998, he was responsible for the development and financing of the activities of the National Society for Municipal Planning (SONADAC), a mixed company, he was responsible for major development projects in the metropolis of

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

. From 1998 to 2001, he was in charge of the business banking division at BMCI. From 2001 to 13 June 2009, he was appointed by the king of Morocco

Mohammed VI Muhammad VI may refer to: * Muhammad Imaaduddeen VI (1868–1932), sultan of the Maldives from 1893 to 1902 * Mehmed VI (1861–1926), sultan of Ottoman Empire, from 1918 to 1922 * Mohammed VI of Morocco Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس ...

to be the General Manager of the

Caisse de dépôt et de gestion The Caisse de dépot et de gestion (French for Deposit and Management Fund, shortened as CDG) is a state-owned financial institution which manages long-term savings in Morocco. Given its substantial assets it also acts as a large investor in the c ...

. On 30 December 2009, King Mohammed VI appointed him as chairman of the board of the

Moroccan Agency for Sustainable Energy Masen, the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy, is a privately owned Moroccan company with public funding. It was created in 2010 to lead the Moroccan solar project to generate electricity from solar power by installing a minimum capacity of 2,000 ...

(MASEN). He was instrumental in MASEN's biggest achievement so far, the completion of the 582 MW

Ouarzazate Solar Power Station Ouarzazate Solar Power Station (OSPS), also called Noor Power Station (نور, Arabic for light) is a solar power complex and auxiliary diesel fuel system located in the Drâa-Tafilalet region in Morocco, from Ouarzazate town, in Ghessat rural ...

Bakkoury organized the Moroccan pavilion at the

Expo 2020 Expo 2020 ( ar, إكسبو 2020) was a World Expo hosted by Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. Originally scheduled for 20 October 2020 to 10 April 2021, it was postponed due to the COVID-19 ...

in Dubai.

Political career

Bakkoury's first steps into politics came in 2007 when he joined the Movement of All Democrats founded by

Fouad Ali El Himma Fouad Ali El Himma ( ar, فؤاد عالي الهمة; born 6 December 1962, in Ben Guerir, Morocco) is a Moroccan politician and senior advisor for Mohammed VI of whom he is said to be a very close friend. Since he became Secretary of State in th ...

, which later became the

Authenticity and Modernity Party The Authenticity and Modernity Party ( ar, حزب الأصالة والمعاصرة, translit=ḥizb al-ʾaṣāla wa-l-muʿāṣira; zgh, ⴰⵎⵓⵍⵍⵉ ⵏ ⵜⴰⵥⵖⵓⵕⵜ ⴷ ⵜⴰⵎⵜⵔⴰⵔⵜ, translit=amulli n taẓɣoṛt ...

. On 19 February 2012, he was elected Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party. During the communal and regional elections of 2015, he presented himself in Mohammedia and his party won 8 out of 47 seats. On 14 September 2015, he was elected council president of the

region with the support of the elected RNI.

MASEN Scandal

In the context of the

2021 Moroccan general election General elections were held in Morocco on 8 September 2021 to elect 395 members of the House of Representatives. The National Rally of Independents led by Aziz Akhannouch won the most seats (102), a gain of 65 seats from the prior election. The ...

there was potentially politically motivated inquiry into Bakkoury's management of MASEN and especially the technology choice of

Concentrated solar power Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when ...

. Because of the investigation he was replaced as the General Commissioner of the Moroccan pavilion at the Dubai Universal Exhibition 2021, but remains the head of MASEN as of 2022.

Professional Affiliations

* President of the Moroccan Federation of Insurance and Reinsurance Companies. * Member of the Board of Directors of the Mohammed V Foundation * Member of the Steering Committee of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Education.

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bakkoury, Mustapha 1964 births Living people French engineers Moroccan engineers Moroccan businesspeople Moroccan politicians Advisors of Mohammed VI of Morocco École des Ponts ParisTech alumni