Yazid Sabeg

Born in Guelma, Algeria to a docker father, he moved to what was then metropolitan France in 1952, and did his studies at Faidherbe Secondary School in Lille and then at the University of Paris I where he obtained a PhD in economic and social sciences.

In 1990, after an experience in Spie Batignolles, he founded a financial firm thanks to which he took control of the Compagnie des Signaux, known as CS Communication et Systèmes.

[2][3] He has been nominated as the "commissaire à l'égalité des chances" in François Fillon government by French president Nicolas Sarkozy on 17 December 2008.

"Today we are creating a rift that is leading straight to apartheid", said Sabeg when named commissioner for diversity and equal opportunities.

"We cannot allow France to become an apartheid state", he said in an interview to several French media as Barack Obama, the first black American to serve as US president, began his first full day in office.