Daniel Rouzier


Daniel Gérard Rouzier is a Haitian tycoon. Rouzier runs several companies in different sectors in Haiti, including car dealers, and an electric power company; and is member of the executive board of PromoCapital; a Haitian bank. Rouzier is member of the Haitian-American Chamber of Commerce.

Biography

Born into an elite mulatto family, Rouzier was alumnus of Institution Saint-Louis de Gonzague, one of the most prestigious schools in Haiti. His father, Gérard Rouzier, was a jurist, president of the Haitian Football Federation, Vice President of CONCACAF, and Minister of Sports and Youth in the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier in the 1970s. One of his siblings is the renowned pianist Fabrice Rouzier.
Rouzier graduated from the management and accounting at Dartmouth College and Georgetown University in the United States. He is an avid football player and a bibliophile. Rouzier, who has authored three books, owns one of the most complete libraries of Haiti, and serves as a regular contributor to Haitian daily newspapers. Rouzier is a philanthropist, vice-president of the Haitian chapter of Food for the Poor and has provided food, housing, medical services, education to poor families within Haiti.

Politics

Rouzier was a supporter of the 2004 coup d’etat that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide for the second time, and accused him to be “one of the most violent rulers Haiti ever had,” and argued that Aristide’s “only intent seems to have only been to replace the dictators that preceded him rather than to promote real change in Haiti.” In 2010, he was appointed as Honorary Consul from Jamaica to Haiti. On 15 May 2011, he was appointed Prime Minister by President Michel Martelly the day after his inauguration, but the Chamber of Deputies of Haiti, dominated by the Opposition, rejected his nomination on 21 June 2011 for allegedly paying only $600 in taxes during a five-year span while earning hundreds of millions of dollars. President Martelly has expressed disappointment with the deputies, but he accepted it.

Personal life

Rouzier married Karine Abraham and had three children. In 2005, his wife was kidnapped and held for more than ten days; Abraham was released after the payment of a ransom and has lived abroad since then, in order to undergo therapy because of psychological problems due to this event.

Publications