About René Préval
René Garcia Préval (French pronunciation: [ʁəne ɡaʁsja pʁeval]; 17 January 1943 – 3 March 2017) was a Haitian politician and agronomist who twice was President of Haiti, from early 1996 to early 2001, and again from mid-2006 to mid-2011. He was also Prime Minister from early to late 1991 under the presidency of Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In addition to being the first elected head of state since independence to serve a full term, the first to be elected to full terms of office without succeeding, the first to peacefully transfer power, and the first former prime minister to be elected president, Préval was also the first elected head of state in Haitian history to do so. Préval promoted privatization of government companies, agrarian reform, and investigations of human rights abuses. His presidencies were marked by domestic tumult and attempts at economic stabilization, with his latter term seeing the destruction brought by the 2010 Haiti earthquake. == Early life and career == Préval was born on 17 January 1943 in Port-au-Prince and was raised in his father's hometown of Marmelade, a village town in the Artibonite department. He studied agronomy at the College of Gembloux and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and also studied geothermal sciences at the University of Pisa in Pisa, Italy. He left Haiti with his family in 1963. His father Claude Préval, an agronomist also, had risen to the position of Minister of Agriculture in the government of Général Paul Magloire, the predecessor of Duvalier. Leaving Haiti because his political past presented him as a potential opponent, Claude found work with UN agencies in Africa.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.