Pascal Irénée Koupaki (born May 1951) is a Beninese politician who has been Prime Minister of Benin since May 2011. Koupaki worked as an official at the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and he was Director of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister from 1996 to 1998. Under President Yayi Boni, Koupaki was Minister of Finance from 2006 to 2007 and then Minister of State for the Exploration, Development, and Evaluation of Public Policy from 2007 to 2011.
Career
Koupaki worked in Dakar at the BCEAO from September 1979 to December 1990, holding a series of high-level posts. Beginning in December 1990, he worked as Deputy Director of the Cabinet of Alassane Ouattara, the Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire. After Ouattara left office, Koupaki took a position at the IMF in September 1994; he then served as Director of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister of Benin, Adrien Houngbedji, from April 1996 to May 1998.
Following Houngbedji's resignation in May 1998, Koupaki worked at the BCEAO again; he was Director of the Research Department at the BCEAO and then Special Adviser to the Governor, as well as Director of the Department of Research and the Mint. He left the BCEAO when Yayi Boni took office as President of Benin and appointed Koupaki to the government as Minister of Finance in April 2006. A year later, Koupaki was moved to the post of Minister of State for the Exploration, Development, and Evaluation of Public Policy on 17 June 2007; he remained in the latter post until his appointment as Prime Minister on 28 May 2011. Having already been ranked second in protocol, after Boni, it was observed that Koupaki had already effectively been a prime minister and that the appointment merely formalized the situation.
From : www.wikipedia.org
