Laurent BONNAUD

Laurent Bonnaud is the manager and founder of Sponte sua srl, a strategy and communication consultancy based in Brussels. Among its recent achievements, Sponte sua srl has coordinated the international research programme "Twenty Years under the Channel, and beyond", an initiative by Rails et histoire, the railway history agency. The programme has been labeled European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

An economic historian with expertise in European transport infrastructure, railways and aerospace, Laurent Bonnaud was educated at the University of Paris-Sorbonne where he received his Ph.D. summa cum laude (1992). He also earned a MBA at ESSEC business school (1989). Laurent Bonnaud was the recipient of a Franco-British Council Fellowship to study as a Senior Associate Member at St Antonys College, Oxford University.

From 1993 to 2003, Laurent Bonnaud was a Research associate in Economic history at Centre Roland Mousnier, University of Paris-Sorbonne and took part to numerous international research programs. From 2002 to 2007, he joined Sciences-Po Paris to lecture on Europe and Globalization, 19th-20th centuries, and CELSA, Neuilly sur Seine, to teach on Economic environment analysis.

In parallel to his academic and research activities, Laurent Bonnaud held responsibilities in the banking sector in France, Germany and Belgium, with focus on corporate banking, credit decision, risk and process management. From 2000 to 2004 he was successively Senior industry analyst, Global airlines and Equity analyst sell-side, European Aerospace and Defence for BNP Paribas Group.

He is the author of "Le Tunnel sous la Manche. Deux siècles de passion" (Hachette, 1994) and edited "France-Angleterre : un siècle d'Entente cordiale, 1904-2004" (L'Harmattan, 2004) which includes essays by Francois Crouzet, Charles Hargrove and Jean Lacouture. He published articles on the Channel tunnel, railways, transport networks, airports and a short biography of engineer Aimé Thomé de Gamond (Horne, Alistair, ed., "Telling lives", Macmillan, 2000).

Laurent Bonnaud is a native French-speaker and fluent in English, German, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese.