Culture and communication adviser to Emmanuel Macron since 2019, this 44-year-old woman is known to be methodical. She embodies a new generation, capable of changing the ministry.
Since December 2019, Rima Abdul Malak has held the position of culture and communication adviser at the Élysée, with efficiency and method. The one who was sometimes nicknamed the “minister bis” of Culture, as she had the ear of Emmanuel Macron, will take over from Roselyne Bachelot, rue de Valois. It is a challenge for a woman who has never run an institution and who has never been elected. Whatever, 44-year-old Rima Abdul Malak is the type to tackle difficulties with pragmatism and undeniable energy.
Franco-Lebanese, of Christian culture, she spent her childhood in Lebanon, before arriving in Lyon with her family. She first started a career in the humanitarian sector, before joining the town hall of Paris, under the era of Bertrand Delanoë. She will be for four years with Christophe Girard, deputy for Culture at the town hall. In 2014, the young adviser continued her career across the Atlantic and joined the cultural service of the French Embassy in New York, as a cultural attaché.
Endowed with a double culture, with eclectic tastes and an eye on the elsewhere, she should bring a breath of fresh air to the ministry, which is in the midst of an existential crisis. Even if she is not known for “turning the tables”, this woman of the new generation will accompany the transition to a new world, that of digital, cultural democratization or the reconquest of young audiences in theaters and museums. . As for the President of the Republic, who does not intend to let go of the cultural field, he will have an ally of choice rue de Valois.