Isabelle Kocher
| Isabelle Kocher | |
|---|---|
| Born |
9 December 1966 Neuilly-sur-Seine, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Education | Lycée Janson-de-Sailly |
| Alma mater |
École normale supérieure Mines ParisTech |
| Occupation | CEO of Engie |
| Children | 3 |
Isabelle Kocher (born 9 December 1966) is a French businesswoman. She is the chief executive officer of Engie (previously GDF Suez).
Biography
Early life
Isabelle Kocher graduated from the École normale supérieure in Paris in 1987 and Mines ParisTech engineering school. She also holds a master's degree in quantum optics and a postgraduate certificate in physics.
Career
From 1997 to 1999, Kocher was director of the postal and telecommunication budgets, followed by the defense budget at the French Budget Department. Between 1999 and 2002, she worked as industrial affairs advisor at the office of French prime minister Lionel Jospin.
She joined the Suez company in 2002 and held functional and operational positions. She was running its French water operations when it became GDF Suez in 2008. Kocher was then elevated to finance director and operations director.[1]
She was appointed in 2011 as chief financial officer of GDF Suez. Between October 2014 and April 2016, she served as deputy CEO and chief operating officer. On May 3, 2016, she was appointed CEO of Engie, replacing Gérard Mestrallet.[2][3][4] She became the only woman CEO in the CAC 40 index.[5]
Head of Engie
Since assuming her position as CEO, Kocher has clarified and redefined Engie's strategy, and undertook major transformations to position Engie as "a forerunner" and "a major player" on the energy market for the decades to come.[6][1] Kocher stated that as a world leading energy player, Engie had to "take its responsibility" against climate change and consider it not as a threat, but as a lever for radical change. She believes the sector must face a revolution in order to meet the challenge and move towards a world that is decarbonised, partly decentralised and digitalised [1] and where energy is available to all, including developing countries.[7]
To align the company with her vision, Kocher undertook the following initiatives:
- restructuring the group and reducing layers of management to make Engie more agile, and its staff more autonomous. To ensure this goal, Engie also invested €300 million into a transformation plan to improve employee training.[6][1]
- selling 20% of the company's assets worth 15 billion euros, especially in coal power; and reinvesting the proceeds into renewable energy, such as wind and solar, and expanding into decentralised power, including localised renewable power plants.[1]
- by planning to invest €1.5 billion in digital and various innovative technologies by the end of 2018.[6]
Open-innovation and digital technologies are vital to Engie's transition, as digitization must enable the management of local renewable energy stocks through intelligent networks.[8]
To further encourage the focus of diversification at Engie, Isabelle Kocher made a priority of increasing the diversity of its personnel teams. She is making Engie more international in its makeup, and set a target of ensuring at least a quarter of Engie executives were women and 35% of high-potential staff were female.[6][1]
Other positions
She is member of the board of Suez, Axa and International Power. She is chairman of Terrawatt Initiative, a global non profit-organization designed to implement a new global energy mix along 3 axes:
- deploying modern technologies to replace the old power grids, incapable of handling a significant increase in renewable energy
- providing for the world’s needs in energy in developing countries, by deploying new renewable assets
- withdrawing from fossil energy in developed countries, by replacing old assets with clean and renewable energy.[9]
Terrawatt's goal is to present ready-to-implement propositions at COP 23.[7]
Awards
Kocher is a knight of the Legion of Honor and a knight of the French National Order of Merit.
In September 2017, she was ranked third in Fortune's international list of most powerful women.[10]
Personal life
Isabelle Kocher has five children.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 French power broker charges into Britain, John Collingridge, The Sunday Times, April 30, 2017. Retrieved Octobre 5, 2017
- ↑ Isabelle Kocher to Head Engie, Inti Laundauro, Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 14, 2016
- ↑ ENGIE’s Shareholders’ Meeting of May 3rd, 2016, Engie news release. Retrieved May 3, 2016
- ↑ Isabelle Kocher, a new kind of power, Financial Times. Retrieved May 15, 2016
- ↑ French Energy Titan Makes Kocher Only Woman CEO in CAC40, Bloomberg. Retrieved May 2, 2016
- 1 2 3 4 BUNDLE OF ENERGY, Tom Burges Watson, Monocle, September 2017. Retrieved Octobre 5, 2017
- 1 2 Global Leaders on the Economics of Climate Change , Bloomberg.com, September 20, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2017
- ↑ Isabelle Kocher La transition énergique, Les Echos, September 9, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2017
- ↑ 2017 programs, Terrawatt Initiative, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2017
- ↑ Most Powerful Women International, Fortune, September 2017. Retrieved October 5, 2017
| Business positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Gérard Mestrallet |
CEO of Engie 2016–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |