Francois-Xavier de Donnea was born in Belgium in 1941.

He studied Economics and Business Administration at the Universities of Louvain, of California at Berkeley (MBA) and at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam (Ph.D. in economics). He was Professor of Economics and Management at the University of Louvain before starting a political career in Belgium.

He was Member of Parliament for 32 years.

He was Minister of Development Cooperation, Minister of Defense and Minister—President of the Brussels-Capital Region. He was also mayor of the City of Brussels.

He is since 2008 a Trustee of the Virunga Foundation (UK) which runs the Virunga National Park in North Kivu (DR Congo).

From 2009 until 2018 he was President of the Sahel and West Africa Club of the OECD. During 2018-19 he was, on behalf of the Belgian Government, Facilitator of the Congo Basin Forests Partneship.

He is presently Chairman of the Federal Council for Sustainable Development of Belgium and Chairman of the Royal Institute for International Relations.

Since 2016 he chairs Board of African Parks Congo, the Charity running the Garamba National Park in the Haut Uele Province in the DR Congo.