The American Numismatic Society (ANS) is pleased to announce that Dr. Gilles Bransbourg has been named Executive Director. He replaces Dr. Ute Wartenberg, who is stepping down as Executive Director after two decades leading the Society; she will remain at the ANS in the new position of Research Curator. “I am very pleased to hand over the reigns to Gilles, whose experience in academia and the financial world is perfect for an institution such as the ANS,” Dr. Wartenberg said.
Dr. Bransbourg joined the Society in 2011 as an Adjunct Curator, then served as Associate Curator before assuming the role of Deputy Director in 2018. Among his many other contributions to the Society during that period, he supervised the NEH-funded Online Coins of the Roman Empire (OCRE) project and curated the exhibition “Signs of Inflation,” at The Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Prior to joining the ANS, in 2009, Dr. Bransbourg was a Visiting Research Scholar at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, where he retains a Research Associate affiliation.
In 1982, at the age of 17, Dr. Bransbourg won the French Concours Général award in History. He then went on to study Economics, Mathematics and Statistics in Paris at Lycée Louis-Le-Grand, École Polytechnique, Sciences Po and École Nationale de la Statistique et de l’Administration Économique. Subsequently he became a market economist, then specializing in financial derivatives, and held executive roles in the banking sector in Paris, Riyadh and London. He stepped down from his last position in 2005, in order to engage fully with his lifelong passion, history. By 2010, he had completed a Ph.D. in History at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.
Dr. Bransbourg’s research deals with comparative economic and monetary history. He has published extensively in a range of academic journals, conference proceedings, and books, and he provided chapters or sections to “La Politique Monétaire de l’Euro” (2009), “Fiscal Regimes and the Political Economy of Premodern States” (2015), “Le Gouvernement des Citoyens” (2017), and “Debasement: Manipulation of Coin Standards in Pre-Modern Monetary Systems” (2020). Among numerous contributions to economic history, he has published “Rome and the Economic Integration of Empire” as ISAW Papers 3 (2012), “Capital in the Sixth Century: the Dynamic of Tax and Estate in Egypt” in Journal of Late Antiquity (2016), which addresses the question of fiscal fairness across the social spectrum in Late Antiquity, and coauthored with Roger Bagnall, as ISAW Papers 14 (2019), “The Constantian Monetary Revolution.”
In addition, he is a frequent guest speaker in academic colloquiums and venues. Dr. Bransbourg lectured in Economics at Sciences Po between 1990 and 1994, at the Executive Master of Finance of Sciences Po between 2007 and 2015, at New York University in 2016, and has been offering a graduate seminar at ISAW since 2018.
Dr. Bransbourg was made a knight in the French Order of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques in 2014. As a financial consultant and as one committed to philanthropic endeavors, he serves on several boards and financial committees and advises or helps a range of institutions, foundations, and corporations in Europe and the US. He has contributed to the establishment of an English-French dual language curriculum in New York public schools.
“I am honored that the Board of Trustees has given me this opportunity to continue the work of Dr. Wartenberg, secure the financial well-being of the Society, and seek ways to expand its role further. I am also most grateful to Ute, who has provided continuous mentoring and support during this transition period,” Dr. Bransbourg said. “I relish as well the challenge of enhancing the leadership role the ANS has assumed in the numismatic world and ensuring that it remains a vital institution for future generations of professional and amateur enthusiasts. At the same time, the ANS’ ability to associate numismatics more closely with economic, cultural, and art history offers exciting prospects.” ANS President, Sydney Martin, stated that the Board had voted unanimously to appoint Dr. Bransbourg. “We are so pleased to have found such an accomplished and talented individual as Gilles Bransbourg to lead the Society.”
The American Numismatic Society, organized in 1858 and incorporated in 1865 in New York State, operates as a research museum under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is recognized as a publicly supported organization under section 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) as confirmed on November 1, 1970.