“Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier,” Liahona, May 2023.
Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier
General Authority Seventy
Entering adulthood, Elder Christophe G. Giraud-Carrier had grand plans—start a rigorous college path, obtain an educational deferment to serve a full-time mission, marry his teenage sweetheart, and then begin family life and his profession as an engineer in his native France.
While the mission and marriage went as planned, other expectations did not. The deferment did not happen, but a transfer to Brigham Young University (BYU) did, followed by a desire to teach on the university level. University jobs in France were scarce for one educated outside the country, so raising a family, having a different career, and serving in the Church came in different countries and on the Lord’s timetable.
“The mere fact that very few things have happened in the way that we planned allowed us both to realize that if we let the Lord do His thing and take us places, then that’s where He wants us to be and that’s where we can serve,” said Elder Giraud-Carrier. “It has helped us to learn to trust Him, to trust that He can make of our lives more than we otherwise could.”
Christophe Gérard Giraud-Carrier was born on January 21, 1966, in Lyon, France, to Gérard Giraud-Carrier and Annie Giraud-Carrier. Following his full-time missionary service in the Canada Montreal Mission, he married Isabelle Sophie Mauclair in July 1988 in Cholet, France. They were sealed three days later in the Bern Switzerland Temple. They are the parents of eight children.
After receiving bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in computer science from BYU, Elder Giraud-Carrier worked as a senior lecturer for England’s University of Bristol and as a senior manager for Switzerland’s ELCA Informatique before spending 19 years as a computer science professor at BYU.
At the time of his call as a General Authority Seventy, Elder Giraud-Carrier was serving as stake president of the Provo Utah YSA 16th Stake. Previous Church callings include service as president of the France Lyon Mission, high councilor, and bishop.