Gérald Jean Caussé (born 20 May 1963) has been the Presiding Bishop of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a nontrinitarian Christian church that considers itself to be the restoration of the original church founded by Jesus Christ. The ch ...

(LDS Church) since 9 October 2015. He is the fifteenth man to serve in this position. He has been a general authority of the LDS Church since 2008 and was the first person from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

appointed as a general authority. Caussé, who was born in

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefect ...

, was raised as a Latter-day Saint: his parents joined the church when he was six months old, having recently moved to France from Algeria."Brief biographies of new leaders called to LDS Church hierarchy"
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'', 2008-04-05. Caussé became the Sunday School president in his

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when he was 16. Caussé served for a year in the French Air Force. He has a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in business from

École supérieure des sciences économiques et commerciales The École Supérieure des Sciences Economiques et Commerciales (more commonly ESSEC Business School or ESSEC) is a major French business and management school, with non-profit association status (French association law of 1901) founded in 1907 ...

(ESSEC Business School). Prior to his call as a general authority, Caussé worked for a strategy consulting firm in Paris and London. He later returned to Paris to work for the Carrefour Retail Group. And finally, he was the general manager and a member of the board of Pomona, France's largest food distributor.

LDS Church service

Caussé was

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of the LDS Church's

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

France Stake from 2001 to 2007. In April 2007, he became an

area seventy Seventy is a priesthood office in the Melchizedek priesthood of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). Traditionally, a church member holding this priesthood office is a "traveling minister" and an "especial witness" of Je ...

in the church's Europe West

Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

. On 5 April 2008, Caussé became a member of the church's First Quorum of the Seventy. For most of his four years as a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy Caussé served in the presidency of the church's Europe Area. On 31 March 2012, he was called to serve as the first counselor to Gary E. Stevenson in the Presiding Bishopric. When Stevenson was called to the

Quorum of the Twelve Apostles A quorum is the minimum number of members of a deliberative assembly (a body that uses parliamentary procedure, such as a legislature) necessary to conduct the business of that group. According to ''Robert's Rules of Order Newly Revised'', the ...

in October 2015, Caussé succeeded him as the church's Presiding Bishop. Under the direction of the

First Presidency Among many churches in the Latter Day Saint movement, the First Presidency (also known as the Quorum of the Presidency of the Church) is the highest presiding or governing body. Present-day denominations of the movement led by a First Presidency ...

, the Presiding Bishopric is tasked with general oversight of many of the church's day-to-day operations.Lovett, Ian; Levy, Rachael
"The Mormon Church Amassed $100 Billion. It Was the Best-Kept Secret in the Investment World."
''

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'', Salt Lake City, 8 February 2020. Retrieved on 17 February 2020. Among other areas of management, this includes the construction and maintenance of church meetinghouse facilities around the world. As of August 2017, Caussé serves on the Church Board of Education and Boards of Trustees. Humanitarian aid and charitable giving increased under Caussé's leadership reaching nearly $1 billion per year.Watch, Tad
"Church finances: Presiding Bishopric offers unique look inside financial operations of growing faith"
'' Deseret News'', Utah, 14 February 2020. Retrieved on 17 February 2020.Pierce, Scott D.
"Mormon church to up its food donations by 20 million pounds a year"
'' The Salt Lake Tribune'', Utah, 27 September 2018. Retrieved on 17 February 2020. In 2020 Caussé addressed the controversy surrounding the LDS Church's investments, managed by Ensign Peak Advisors, "It is a church. It’s not a financial institution...and because it is a church, the funds that are managed within the church are contributed by the members of the church and are really sacred. We really consider those funds as belonging to the Lord."

Music

Gérald Caussé is an accomplished pianist. In 2019, he released an album entitled "Joyful: Piano Duets of Gérald Caussé and Nicolas Giusti" consisting of piano Duo arrangements of popular church hymns. Nicolas Giusti is an acclaimed Italian composer and opera conductor from Rome. This was followed in 2020 with the release of "Noël," a recording of piano Duo arrangements of popular Christmas hymns, again with Nicholas Giusti.

Personal life

Caussé married Valérie Lucienne Babin on 5 August 1986 in the Bern Switzerland Temple. They are the parents of five children.

References

External links

Gérald Caussé Official profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Causse, Gerald 1963 births French general authorities (LDS Church) Members of the First Quorum of the Seventy (LDS Church) ESSEC Business School alumni Clergy from Bordeaux Area seventies (LDS Church) Living people Counselors in the Presiding Bishopric (LDS Church) Presiding Bishops (LDS Church)