Jean-Luc Bardet has been France Director since October 2017 and Deputy News Director since January 2019. A graduate in law and political science, he joined AFP after completing his training at the Centre de formation des journalistes (CFJ). After working as a regional reporter and later in the United States and on the political desk in Paris, he went on to hold senior roles in the economics department and the foreign desk, before becoming Brussels bureau chief and then France Editor-in-Chief.