Robert Lion was born in 1934 in Paris. A student in Paris, he achieved his Baccalauréat in Law and graduated from the Institute of Political Studies of Paris before graduating from the high profile National School of Administration (ENA).

He started his career working as an "Inspecteur des Finances". He was Directeur de la Construction (Head of Housing Dept) in the French Government (1969-74), then head of Union des HLM (Union of Social Housing Corporations) - 1974-81 - and became Directeur de Cabinet (Head of Private office) to the Prime Minister Pierre Mauroy - PM in 1981-82.

After that, he spent 10 years as "Directeur Général" (President - CEO) of CDC (Caisse des dépôts), the largest financial institution in France, a period during which he was also Treasurer of the Fondation de France and Board member of many French and international companies.

As from 1994, he has been member of the Earth Council, President of Energy21, Senior Adviser to the Global Environmental Facility - GEF.

He is now Chairman of AFAA (Association française d'action artistique) and devotes most of his time to Agrisud International, a development NGO.

He published "L'Etat Passion" in 1992.

Robert Lion was the founder and President of Médecins du Monde France's Donors' Committee from 1991 to 1997.