Haitian President. He served as the President of Haiti for two separate terms form February 7, 1996 to February 7, 2001 and May 14, 2006 to May 14, 2011. He preceded by Boniface Alexandre. He served as Prime Minister of Haiti from February 13, 1991 to October 11, 1991. He left Haiti in 1963 to study agronomy in Belgium. He earned his degree in this field from Gembloux Agricultural University and then went to the University of Pisa to further his education with work in geothermal sciences. He moved to Brooklyn, New York in 1970, where he worked as a messenger and waiter. He returned to Haiti in 1975 and took a position at the National Institute for Mineral Resources. He later opened a bakery in Port-au-Prince in 1988 that provided bread to poor children. While there, he became acquainted with Jean-Bertrand Aristide, an energetic priest who was working in the slums. In 1991 he became prime minister after Aristide was elected president the previous year. Both he and Aristide were forced into exile after a military coup later that same year. They returned to Haiti in 1994 after the coup leaders were forced to step down by threat of United States invasion. He was elected president in 1995 and served from 1996 to 2001. Even though he was perceived as a honest leader, he could not overcome the dominant presence of Aristide. After leaving office in 2001, he went back to his family farm in the village of Marmelade. In 2005 he decided to run again for the presidency after seeing his country in political turmoil. He won the election that year and served from 2006 to 2011. His second term saw him face many challenges, with the largest being a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit southwest of Port-au-Prince in 2010. He spent the remainder of his term trying to bring back order to the country. He died suddenly and had a state funeral. He was succeeded by Michel Martelly.