Yassine Brahim ( ar, ياسين إبراهيم; born 20 February 1966 in

Mahdia Mahdia ( ar, المهدية ') is a Tunisian coastal city with 62,189 inhabitants, south of Monastir and southeast of Sousse. Mahdia is a provincial centre north of Sfax. It is important for the associated fish-processing industry, as well as w ...

, Tunisia) is a

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

n engineer, manager and politician. Leader of the secular liberal

Afek Tounes Afek Tounes ( ar, آفاق تونس, "Tunisian Aspiration(s)" or "Horizons of Tunisia") is a centre-right political party in Tunisia. Its program is liberal, focusing on secularism and civil liberties. The party mainly appealed to intellectuals a ...

party, he was appointed Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation in February 2015.

Early life and education

Born 1966 in Mahdia, Brahim was raised in Bizerte by

Tunisian Air Force The Tunisian Air Force ( ar, جيش الطيران, french: Armée de l'Air) is one of the branches of the Tunisian Armed Forces. History The Tunisian Air Force was established in 1959, three years after Tunisia regained its independence from ...

officer Mahfoudh Brahim and his mother, a teacher and daughter of revolutionary Abdelaziz Mastouri. When he was ten years old, they moved to

Carthage Carthage was the capital city of Ancient Carthage, on the eastern side of the Lake of Tunis in what is now Tunisia. Carthage was one of the most important trading hubs of the Ancient Mediterranean and one of the most affluent cities of the cla ...

where Brahim visited secondary school. With a

stipend A stipend is a regular fixed sum of money paid for services or to defray expenses, such as for scholarship, internship, or apprenticeship. It is often distinct from an income or a salary because it does not necessarily represent payment for work p ...

of the Tunisian government, he left Tunisia in 1983 for a preparatory course in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Pa ...

, France. In 1989 he received his diploma in

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...

École Centrale Paris École Centrale Paris (ECP; also known as École Centrale or Centrale) was a French grande école in engineering and science. It was also known by its official name ''École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures''. In 2015, École Centrale Paris mer ...

Professional career

Brahim subsequently worked for

Cap Gemini Capgemini SE is a multinational information technology (IT) services and consulting company, headquartered in Paris, France. History Capgemini was founded by Serge Kampf in 1967 as an enterprise management and data processing company. The compa ...

. A job with French bank

Société Générale Société Générale S.A. (), colloquially known in English as SocGen (), is a French-based multinational financial services company founded in 1864, registered in downtown Paris and headquartered nearby in La Défense. Société Générale ...

led him back to Tunisia, where in 2000 he founded his own information services company ''2ic'' which in 2004 he sold to French company ''Teamlog''. He joined financial software company ''Ubitrade'' and when his company was sold to

GL Trade GL Trade was a French provider of financial order management and trading systems that covered front office, middle office and back office used by international financial institutions. Its main products were real-time market data and trading syste ...

in 2006, he moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

being appointed general director of the new company, which he led into the following acquisition by U.S. based SunGard.

Political career

In 2010 he turned back to Tunisia, just before the

Tunisian Revolution The Tunisian Revolution, also called the Jasmine Revolution, was an intensive 28-day campaign of civil resistance. It included a series of street demonstrations which took place in Tunisia, and led to the ousting of longtime president Zine El ...

would lead to his appointment as

Minister of Transport A ministry of transport or transportation is a ministry responsible for transportation within a country. It usually is administered by the ''minister for transport''. The term is also sometimes applied to the departments or other government a ...

and Equipment in the short-lived second Ghannouchi cabinet and the subsequent Essebsi cabinet. He resigned on 17 June 2011 to become general secretary of the newly founded

party which he led into a merger with

Ahmed Najib Chebbi Ahmed Najib Chebbi ( ar, أحمد نجيب الشابي, french: Ahmed Néjib Chebbi) or simply Najib Chebbi (born 30 July 1944) is a Tunisian attorney and politician. Chebbi is a prominent figure of the Tunisian opposition movement; in 1983, he ...

's Progressive Democratic Party, the Republican Party ''Al Joumhouri''. On 28 August 2013, Brahim however announced the cession from the Republican Party reestablishing Afek Tounes as an independent liberal party. In the 2014 legislative election, Afek Tounes won 8 seats and Brahim himself was elected to represent the Mahdia constituency at the

Assembly of the Representatives of the People The Assembly of the People's Representatives ( ar, مجلس نواب الشعب ', french: Assemblée des représentants du peuple; ARP) is Tunisia's legislative branch of government. The unicameral Assembly replaced the Constituent Assembly and ...

. In February 2015, Afek Tounes agreed in a

unity government A national unity government, government of national unity (GNU), or national union government is a broad coalition government consisting of all parties (or all major parties) in the legislature, usually formed during a time of war or other nat ...

with

Nidaa Tounes Nidaa Tounes ( ar, حركة نداء تونس ', french: Appel de la Tunisie; usually translated as "Call of Tunisia", "Call for Tunisia", or "Tunisia's Call") is a big tent secularist political party in Tunisia. After being founded in 2012 ...

and rival UPL. In prime minister Habib Essid's cabinet, he became Minister of Development, Investment and International Cooperation.

References

External links

* * 1966 births People from Mahdia Living people École Centrale Paris alumni Tunisian engineers People of the Tunisian Revolution Afek Tounes politicians Members of the Assembly of the Representatives of the People Government ministers of Tunisia {{Tunisia-politician-stub

Early life and education

Professional career

Political career

References

Further reading

External links