Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe

Who is Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe?

Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe is a French politician.

Vanlerenberghe was born in Bully-les-Mines, Pas-de-Calais. He served as mayor of Arras from June 1995 to February 2011, and was elected UDF senator from the Pas-de-Calais at the elections of 2001.

A centrist, Vanlerenberghe joined the MoDem of François Bayrou in 2007, and now sits with a sizeable MoDem contingent at the Palais du Luxembourg.

Vanlerenberghe is an engineer by training, having studied at the Institut Catholique d'Arts et Métiers in Lille and holding a degree from the Centre des Hautes Études de la Construction. He worked in Arras for the Public Works Commission, also holding jobs from 1964 to 1974 at Rhone-Poulenc-textile and the Centre d'Études Supérieurs Industrielles.

From 1981 to 1986, he led the Fédération Nationale du Crédit Mutuel Agricole et Rural in Paris; from 1990 to 1993, he directed the Conseil en Développement d'Entreprises et Ressources Humaines.

Having won reelection as mayor in 2008 with broad cross-party support, he left his post in February 2011 in favor of his successor, fellow Mouvement démocrate politician Frédéric Leturque.