Born in on 7 October 1958, Tandonnet graduated from the
Institut d'études politiques de Bordeaux in 1979 and from the
École nationale d'administration in 1992. After his military service in the
French Navy, he was named as a secretary of foreign affairs at the Embassy of France in Sudan for two years. He then joined the directorate for French citizens abroad in North Africa and the Middle East. In 1992, the
Minister of the Interior named him
private secretary to Prefect of
Indre-et-Loire and subsequently to
Claude Érignac. In 2008, he was named a member of the . In 2007, Tandonnet became an advisor on immigration at the
Élysée Palace, a post he held until 2011. He then resumed his duties as an inspector-general for the Minister of the Interior. The press lauded him as
President Nicolas Sarkozy's main advisor on immigration, though he faced criticism for the proximity of his beliefs to those of the
National Front. In addition to his administrative career, he regularly contributed to
Le Figaro,
Atlantico,
Le Journal du Dimanche, He also became a guest instructor on immigration policy at
Paris-East Créteil University in 2011. Tandonnet died on 21 September 2024, ==Publications==