European Young Leaders (#EYL40)

Anne-Solène is Director of Heritage and Collections at the  Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. She previously headed the department of museums at the French Ministry of Culture. A fierce advocate for history and heritage, she has shaped her career around showcasing the societal benefits of cultural conservation. As a curator of heritage, she has held leading positions at the prestigious French National Museum of Immigration History. Anne-Solène has also been director of research and collections at the Louvre Museum, where she oversaw the acquisition and lending of the museum’s artwork. She played an instrumental role in increasing the availability of the world’s finest art to a greater number of people.

A serial entrepreneur, Lara is the Founder and CEO of Levia.ai, a unique virtual vender which creates highly-personalised, one-to-one shopping experiences through the use of AI technologies. She is also the Founder of Selectionnist, a mobile app which seeks to bridge the gap between offline content and the online experience by allowing users to find any item featured in French fashion magazines. Working with top magazines in France, including Elle and Marie Claire, Selectionnist has become a high-performance analytics tool for brands, retailers, advertisers and publishers. Her first entrepreneurial venture was Dealissime, a website that provides buyer groups with daily offers related to products and services for women, which was acquired by LivingSocial, a part of the Amazon group. Lara is also a member of the French Digital Council and part of the French Movement for a Benevolent Economy (MEB).

Aziz is a young French entrepreneur, Founder and President of Alliance Transport et Accompagnement, a ‘collective taxi’ company for the region of Paris, and Founder and President of Business Angel des Cités, a social investment fund for the development of Parisian suburban areas. Aziz has published two books in France, the first on the ‘social glass ceiling’ entitled L’ascenseur social est en panne… j’ai pris l’escalier (The social elevator is broken, I took the stairs), and the second, Monte ton BIZ (Create your own business: 10 commandments of the entrepreneur coming from suburbs) on how to become a successful entrepreneur when coming from a under-privileged neighbourhood. He has received several awards from the French government including the Médaille de l’Assemblée nationale (the National Assembly Medal).

Heïdi Sevestre is a French glaciologist, specialising in glacier dynamics, tropical glaciers and ice shelves in Antarctica. She aims to make scientific knowledge more accessible and motivate concrete, effective climate action. Sevestre is the Deputy Secretary of AMAP, an Arctic Council working group that coordinates research on climate, pollutants, contaminants, and human and ecosystem health in the Arctic. Her research on glacier surges, which was featured in Science magazine, strengthened our understanding of climate change’s impact on glaciers. Sevestre regularly leads scientific expeditions to polar and high mountain regions and was notably awarded the inaugural Shackleton Medal for the Protection of Polar Regions.

Shahin is Senior Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations. He is also affiliated with the European Institute of the London School of Economics and is a member of the euro50 group, a group of senior current and former European policymakers in Europe. Prior to this Shahin was a Senior Economist at Soros Fund Management and he was also the Economic Advisor to the French Economy Minister until April 2015. Shahin has also been the Economic Advisor to the President of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy. In this capacity, he worked in particular on issues pertaining to European economic policy, the architecture of the euro area and the consequences of the economic and financial crisis.

Mathieu is Chief Executive Officer of Société Générale Private Banking France, prior to which he was Deputy CEO at the company’s Swiss branch. Before taking on these positions, he was Chief of Staff to the CEO of Société Générale, one of the major banking services companies in Europe. He joined the company in 2001, after having worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 3 years, and quickly climbed the professional ladder within the company. He was selected for the company’s Executive Programme for the top performing employees. He is a sponsor of the 2010-2012 HEC Entrepreneur Diversity Programme and is a Member of the Executive Committee of the Fondation Croissance Responsable (Responsible Growth Foundation).

Charles Edouard is Founder and Head of Emmaüs Défi, a branch of Emmaüs France, which functions as a non-discriminating company providing jobs to all those who cannot find work in today’s market. He has an atypical background having previously worked in the IT sector at companies such as Netscape, Escalate and SAP France. Only later did he decide to dedicate his career to social entrepreneurship. Charles Edouard also teaches a Social Business and Poverty Entrepreneurship class at the HEC School in Paris. He has attended several universities such as Ecole Polytechnique, ParisTech and Stanford, from which he received a Master’s degree in Engineering Management.