THIERRY TARANTO was born in 1960. His father was a political refugee from communist Bulgaria who arrived in France in 1948. His mother was born in Paris, but her mother emigrated from Poland in 1920. So Thierry is a second-generation Frenchman.

He received his high school degree from a posh high school—the École Active Bilingue de Paris—where half the schooling was done in English. He then attended the very prestigious Sciences Po Paris and graduated in 1985 from a university attended by certain former French presidents including Giscard d’Estaing, Chirac, Hollande and the current president, Emmanuel Macron.

He has worked his whole career in international advertising agencies like J. Walter Thompson, McCann Erickson, BBDO and he has been with the French automotive group Peugeot PSA for the last 20 years.

He and his family live in the suburbs near Paris.