Romain Guizard was appointed on 1 October 2022 as the new Country Director for Business France in Egypt and Commercial Counsellor of the French Embassy in Egypt.
In his new role, Guizard will primarily be heading the expansion of French companies in Egypt through an export development strategy as well as implementing a new action plan for the upcoming years with regards to supporting Egypt-based investors on their way to France.
To head the expansion of French commercial presence in Egypt, Romain Guizard will be backed by a local team of experts dedicated to identifying and introduce high-end French solutions to the Egyptian market in four main universes: health and lifestyle, agrotech (agricultural machinery, agricultural materials, animal production), industry and cleantech (oil and gas, aerospace, energy transition, sustainable city, and security), tech and services (e-gov, edtech, telecom, broadcast, fintech, cybersecurity, retail tech & franchise).
Romain Guizard will also promote France as a top destination for foreign investments and leading customized support to Egypt-based investors willing to explore the French market.
Based in Cairo, Romain Guizard will be covering Egypt, but also Jordan & Lebanon. Furthermore, he will coordinate the export activity run by Business France in the Middle East on behalf of French companies exporting healthcare and lifestyle products and solutions including medtech, cosmetics, sports, entertainment and decoration.
He will run his mission under the supervision of Axel Baroux who has been appointed since September 1st 2022 as the new French Trade and Invest Commissioner to the United Arab Emirates and the Regional Director of Business France in the Middle East covering 12 countries including GCC, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon.
A Country Director that brings more than 20 years of experience in the development of French trade and international investment
Romain Guizard started his career as Trade Attaché at the French Embassy in Romania (from 2022 to 2004). He then served as Food Security Officer in South Sudan within the French NGO Action against Hunger and USAID (2005). Romain also worked for the France-based local economic development agency Choose Paris Region (from 2006 to 2011) by supporting international financial companies in their setting-up project in France. He then joined the French asset management association (AFG) by connecting French funds to international investors such as pension funds and family offices (from 2011 to 2016). Romain joined Business France’s headquarter in Paris in January 2017. He served first as Head of Financial Investments Department (from 2017 to 2021) at the Invest Division by assisting international investors looking for investment opportunities in France. Thereafter, he joined the Export Division as Head of Industry Department by supporting exports of French SMEs specialized in aerospace and security, as well as in digitalization of the industry (from 2021 to 2022). Romain Guizard graduated from Sciences Po Paris. He is married with three children.
Business France is the national agency supporting the international development of the French economy, responsible for fostering export growth by French businesses, as well as promoting and facilitating international investment in France.
It promotes France’s companies, business image and nationwide attractiveness as an investment location, and also runs the VIE international internship programme.
Founded on 1 January 2015 through a merger between UBIFRANCE and the Invest in France Agency, Business France has 1,500 personnel, in France and 55 other countries across the world, who work with a network of public- and private-sector partners.
