The privatization club.

This article focuses on politicians, bankers, bureaucrats and academicians, who have had a decisive influence on the course of world privatization since 1980. Several British politicians and bankers have claims to being the architect of privatization in Great Britain. But in France, one man stands out as privatization's founding-father - Xavier Blandin. After attending the prestigious Ecole Nationale d'Administration, he joined the ministry of finance in 1978. After a spell as alternate executive director at the IMF and World Bank, he became a bank regulator. In 1986, French President Jacques Chirac made Edouard Balladur his minister of state with a brief to sell 50 large companies over five years. Edouard made Blandin his special adviser on privatization. The article also talks about Giles Henderson of law firm Slaughter & May, who first became involved with privatization in 1977 with the sale of British Petroleum Co. PLC, but made his mark with the British Gas PLC flotation in 19 INSET: The Rothschild mafia..