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Today's Featured Biography

John Bennett

Born in the Hudson Valley town of Newburgh, NY, John began studying French in junior high school and
immediately fell in love with all things French. He went on to get his BS in French from the School of
Languages and Linguistics at Georgetown University, spending his junior year at the Faculté des Lettres in
Nice, France, where he was called: “Jean-François, plus français que les Français.”

At that time, his goal was to become ambassador to France, until he realized that his father couldn’t spare a
few extra million dollars to contribute to the presidential campaign fund, and so he needed to find a “real”
job. After a brief stint opening the Alouette Pastry Shop in Hartsdale, John spent his next twenty-eight years
with the Berlitz schools, starting as a management trainee in its flagship Rockefeller Center location in 1978
and culminating his career as Managing Director for North America, responsible for a $50m operation, 50
language centers and some 2,500 employees in the US, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Berlitz was acquired by a Japanese firm in 2001, and having survived many reorganizations, John was shown
the guillotine, fittingly, on Bastille Day 2006. He promised to show the same grace to his soon-to-be ex-boss
as had Marie Antoinette, who, after inadvertently stepping on the foot of her executioner, apologized
profusely.

Believing in reinvention, and through a referral from the French-American Chamber of Commerce, John
met the founder of MAYA press in Aix-en-Provence and agreed to form a New York partnership of its
marketing and communications company. Acquiring complete ownership in 2012, the firm became Alouette
Communications, producing print, web and video content.

A member of the Paris-American Club since 2007, John also belongs to the French-American Chamber of
Commerce, Non-profit Coordinating Committee of NY, Chefs de Cuisine Association of America, James
Beard Foundation, former president and member of the Minetta Block Association, and president of the
205 Bleecker Street Owners Cooperative, for 24 years.

John studied the history of graphic design at Parsons, the New School for Design, speaks French, some
Spanish and Italian, and loves to cook and entertain an eclectic group of friends at Château Village, his
apartment in Greenwich Village of 25 years. Ever the bon vivant, his motto is: “On ne vit qu’une fois!”

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