Régis Le Sommier

Biography

Régis Le Sommier is co-editor of Paris Match magazine. As a senior reporter and US Bureau Chief from 2003 to 2009 of the largest circulated French weekly publication and fifth most read in the world, Paris Match, he covered the most important events of the past decade.

In addition to being the only French journalist to have sat down in the White House with President George W. Bush for a one on one, he has also interviewed President Barack Obama, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Al Gore, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Gary Kasparov, Alan Greenspan, John McCain, General Petraeus in Bagdad and General McChrystal in Kabul. He has covered Katrina, Guantanamo, immigration and drug trails in Mexico and Central America, and the ravages of foreclosures in Cleveland.

In Central America, he has done stories in Guatemala and Venezuela, including one on El Sistema, the state run program that gives access to classical music to poor children from the Caracas barrios.

He has covered the 2004 and 2008 US presidential elections. Between 2006 and 2008 he has made three trips to Iraq, and two in 2010 to Afghanistan where he embedded with various units from the Army and the Marines. He also published several stories on wounded veterans.

Publications

He is the author of « Les Damnés du Prestige » (2003) over the oil spill in Spain and a second book on the Iraq war (« L’Irak n’existe plus », mars 2008, Ed. du Toucan). In addition, he also published the first biography in French of the former CIA director, David H. Petraeus (« David Petraeus, un beau jour dans la vallée du Tigre », 2012, Editions Erick Bonnier). More recently, he published an historical essay (« Les Mystères d’Oradour. Du temps du deuil à la quête de la vérité », 2014, Editions Michel Lafon)