Jean-Marie Charpentier trained as an architect and urban planner. He graduated from the Beaux Arts School of Architecture in Paris in 1966 and taught architecture in Cambodia, before setting up his practice in Paris in 1969.

Over the past 35 years, the practice has developed to become one of the largest Architectural design companies in France. Jean-Marie Charpentier is a Member of the Board of the Union of International Architects, Vice-President of the Academy of Architecture and an Honorary Fellow of the Institute of American Architects.

He is frequently invited to take part in public debates concerning the architectural profession and the role of the architect in the future of urban design and development. As an expert for the United Nations he has undertaken many missions of assistance. Elected President of the Regional Board of Architects for the Ile-de-France region from 1990 to 1994. As a member of the Board of the Academy of Architecture and an active member within the Union of International Architects, he directs an international group reflecting on the prospect of the « Function of Architecture ». He has been elected Vice-President of the Franco-Chinese Committee of the Chamber of Commerce of Paris since 1997, and has been a member of the administrative board of the Association of International French Architects (AFEX) since 1998. In 2002, he was appointed Director of the Fine Art School of the American Art Schools of Fontainebleau. He takes part in the conservation and preservation of the Khmer culture and monuments through the Association of the Friends of Angkor of which he was President between 1997 and 2005. As a music lover, he is the President of the « Violon d’Ingres » Orchestra, founded by his father, in the memory of their ancestor, the French composer Gustave Charpentier.