Marie-France Pochna is an award-winning expert on style, fashion and the luxury market. She is also author of several landmark biographies and producer of the weekly TV series, "The Best of Europe".

Marie-France Pochna is an award-winning expert on style, fashion and the luxury market. She is also author of several landmark biographies and producer of the weekly TV series, "The Best of Europe".

A luxury industry watcher and authority on the power and influence that drives a multi-billion dollar industry, Marie-France has written definitive accounts of some of its leading exponents. Her first book, Bonjour Mr. Boussac (1980), dealt with the textile magnate Marcel Boussac, founder of the house of Christian Dior. It won Prix Louis Marin from the Academie Francaise. The vast empire of this reclusive Frenchman formed the basis of what is now Louis Vuitton-Moet Hennessy, the world's leading luxury conglomerate. This exploration stirred Marie-France's interest in the power and influence of fashion. Her other books include the biographies of Nina Ricci (1988), Christian Dior (1994), and Paul Ricard (1996), the founder of the liquor and soft beverages Group, Pernod-Ricard.

The 1996 publication of her Dior book in the United States brought Ms. Pochna international success, and she became a popular guest lecturer on luxury and fashion. In addition, she teaches an MBA course on luxury brands at the leading French business school, ESSEC.

Her latest project, a weekly TV series about European life-styles, airs on a channel called "Fine Living," launched by the Scripps group (current audience 62 million viewers) in March 2002. The series is divided into segments on fashion, style, house and architecture, gastronomy, gardening and unique spots to visit in Europe.

Born and educated in France, Ms. Pochna earned a law degree from Paris University and joined the international law firm, Coudert Brothers, working both in Paris and New York. Eventually, she gave up the law to follow her husband's career, which led the family to travel extensively throughout Europe and the Middle East. During that period she made enriching contacts that influenced her decision to become an investigative reporter. During two years spent in Italy she had the privilege, previously denied to others, of being granted personal access to Gianni Agnelli, former playboy and the most influential figure in Italian industry. As a result of her interviews, she wrote the biography, Agnelli, the Irresistible, which became a best seller in both Italy and France. "I write books about my times," she once said to Vogue magazine. "What interests me is the interaction between a given background, an enterprise, and the man behind it."