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A tripolar globalization

Sébastien Jean, Professor of economics at Conservatoire National des Arts et métiers, (CNAM), Paris. Forum of European HRD Circle, Lisbon2022.

As an introduction to your conference on standards in a tripolar globalization,

I thought it could be useful to start from a couple of questions: What State is globalization currently in?

what are its prospects? How is competition structured between the three blocks?

Which rules, which standards prevail?

 

...Read more

…A tripolar globalization

On March 24, 2022, in a letter to his shareholders, Larry FINK wrote: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades.” Another end to globalization, one could say. I wouldn’t rush into such predictions. I’d rather take a step back and offer you a reading of the way the world works from an economic and geopolitical standpoint and its possible direction, precisely based on this tripolar logic that is taking shape.

To begin with, we could start by listening to Western governments, which helps realize how things have changed in a couple of decades – which is relatively small on the scale of History. In March 2000, Bill CLINTON, who was then waiting for a visit by the Chinese prime minister to negotiate what became the terms of the bilateral agreement on the accession of China to the WTO, described things as follows: “By joining the W.T.O., China is not simply agreeing to import more of our products; it is agreeing to import one of democracy’s most cherished values: economic freedom.” Another statement I find rather significant in this context, this time by Tony BLAIR in 2005, who said: “I hear people say we must stop and debate globalization. You might as well debate whether autumn should follow summer. They’re not debating it in China and India.” Also quite revealing and politically very important, on November 15, 2008, in the heart of the financial crisis’ storm, G20 heads of states and governments underscored “the critical importance of rejecting protectionism,” announcing efforts to “strive to reach agreement this year on modalities that leads to a successful conclusion to the WTO’s Doha Development Agenda […].”

Fast-forward: ten years almost to the day after this G20 Declaration, Donald TRUMP boasted on social media, calling himself “Tariff Man.” Emmanuel MACRON’s statement right before lockdown in March 2020, despite its much more civilized, less head-on tone, was also significant: “What this pandemic has shown is that some services, must remain outside of market law. Entrusting our food, our protection, our ability to provide care, our living environment in short, to others, is madness.” It is crystal clear that globalization has changed. A few days ago, China withdrew as AFC Asian Cup 2023 host. This means that, today, China believes that next year, three and a half years after the pandemic began, it still won’t be able to welcome foreigners in great numbers. Something has changed. Not only because of the war in Ukraine, and actually not a monolithic evolution.

To understand this breaking point, using a tripolar frame of reference is enlightening, not because these three poles are the most important part of the world, far from it since China, the European Union, and the United-States only account for 30 percent of the world population. Other areas are vital in other respects but, today, these three poles are structuring for the way the world and the economy operate. Let me try to show you why. In terms of size, these three blocs account for 53 percent of global GDP, which is funny because it is very close (1 percent) to their combined size in 1975. It is also almost exactly their share in manufacturing exports and in the filing of triadic patents worldwide. Most importantly though, in addition to their weight, they are structuring, which means that they are at the center of networks – the rest is organized around them. To try and show how interactions between these three poles have shaped the way the world economy works, we need to take a few steps back, especially to the 2007-09 economic and financial crisis. Indeed, this was really a breaking point, as a lot of graphs can show, and it reached a peak in terms of worldwide trade openness (which has not really gone down since). It was the end of what some call ultra-globalization: a period of accelerated globalization because of the extension and intensification of mutual economic dependence since the beginning of the 1990s, during which worldwide trade openness nearly doubled and the stock of foreign direct investments almost tripled in proportion to world GDP. In terms of politics, this was a time when western governments made commitments towards China, especially with its accession to the WTO in December 2001. This was also a strong era for the US, politically. Since then, things are not going exactly the same. Something has happened. What is it?

First, what has been done is done: value chains were set up, foreign investments were made, they could not be made again. Besides, China upgraded (and upped its prices!). No one gets paid $5 in China anymore, this trend sped up during that period and even kept going. So much so that, in 2016, minimum wage in Shanghai was over €300, that is the same amount as Hungary and twice as much as Bulgaria. Then, this Dantesque financial crisis endangered the financial system and had extremely deep trade and economic consequences across the globe. What did our nig players do? At that time, China had two major challenges: firstly, to maintain its growth. China was going through a period of ultra-growth at the time – how to avoid economic disruption that would question the country’s social stability? Secondly, China needed to restore a growth balance after realizing that it was too dependent on foreign countries, on exports and on the manufacturing sector. Enormous amounts were deployed: in 2009, China implemented a stimulus plan of nearly $600 billion. Some actually called 2009, “the year of the Chinese miracle.” In practice, it introduced a massive recovery policy and few people in the West realized how China lessened the economic depression that followed this crisis. What did China do? Credit, and massive infrastructural investments, which is very important. It is the State, with markets for Chinese companies. It could have done it differently, transferring wealth to families, but it didn’t.

It was a pivotal era. Comparing China’s GDP to the US-EU average, in 2007, China accounted for 48 percent. It has reached 75 percent in 2012. It is a pivot in terms of quantity but also of quality because the credit engine was massively lit, and China has not been able to stop it since. The desire was to restore balance but in practice it was a loss of balance. In terms of impact, looking at China’s account surplus, it is lower than before the crisis but when examining the trade surplus of the Chinese industry, compared with the world’s GDP, it amounted to 0.8 percent in 2007 and had doubled in 2015 to reach 1.6 percent.

What did the US do during and after this crisis? Obviously, the challenge was the devastating impact on the American economy and society. It revived wounds that were already deep in terms of industrial decline and inequalities. Like everyone else, they saw that China was changing categories and becoming a much more serious competitor. The US’ first reaction was macroeconomic: they put out all the stops to use their financial power and their status as world reserve currency, with which they can borrow without limit. Secondly, because of this new status for China, they put an end to their own engagement policy. Under Obama, this translated into what is called the Asia pivot, which means putting Asia in the center of military and strategic priorities, especially to contain China, considered as the main competitor. This strategy was essentially based on transpacific and transatlantic partnerships. The WTO also started actions, which the US had not done much before. Thirdly, at that point, it became clear that the US no longer wanted to pay for their global leadership. The main consequence was a geopolitical break.

In this context, how did the European union go through this phase? First, it was a time of economic weakening, which is a bit contradictory since it was an American crisis. But this is mostly because, financially speaking, Europe is not as central on the world stage. This crisis rubbed salt into the wound and showed how the dynamics in place since the eurozone was created was unsettling in Europe. It was based on a diverging mechanism rather than a converging system, and this crisis was very hard to manage for Europe. It revealed major divides and heterogeneity, with Germany doing much better than its neighbors, as well as an industrial focus and the size of the gaps between the countries, as well as the need for State intervention to change all this – in addition to fixing banking activities. It also revealed vision gaps, which have become even clearer over the years:

The main lesson to learn from this era in Europe was the time from 2007 to 2016 approximately when it was faced with the politicization of globalization – within Europe itself and in foreign affairs. Europe likes multilateral relations, it is its DNA, its principles, its interest, though realizing that rules are not enough, especially to manage competition with China. Public debate shifted, notably in Germany, in the summer of 2016 when China’s Midea bought Kuka, the world’s leading industrial robots manufacturer. Germany realized that a massive wave of Chinese purchases was taking over high-tech companies, which obviously was not the result of an economic strategy but the direct consequence of the “Made in China 2025” program implemented in 2015 – one of that era’s structuring facts.

This brought France and Germany closer in the way they looked at managing these external relations. Regarding the evolution of China, one of the main aspects over the period was Xi Jinping arriving to power, a turning point in Chinese policy, with a vigorous grip, a will to reduce foreign dependence and to bet on self-sufficiency in several sectors. In Europe, the politicization of globalization also materialized with the migrant crisis, which had a huge impact, with a greater concern for power balance. Since then, there have been three structuring crises: Trump, Covid and war in Ukraine. For Trump, the foundation is a change of US strategy regarding globalization in general and China in particular. It was one of his main campaign arguments: getting out of the WTO, going towards frontal confrontation, naming China a strategic competitor (2017), contesting globalization, which leads to an attempt to destroy the framework, with very few constructive initiatives. Some agreements tried to condition exchanges to the unionization of labor law, which can be a good thing, but which has so far played a minor part – the Biden administration is currently working on it. There have been more and more extraterritorial sanctions, as well as export restrictions. External relations became very political and contentious, especially with China, but there were no structured alternative proposals.

How did China react to this crisis? Mostly, it assumed its place, which was a real break from the previous administration. Realizing how unreliable America was came as a shock for Chinese leaders. The result was an acceleration of the ongoing recentering and political reassertion, hence the importance of having “independent, controllable” value chains. In practice, according to European businesses set up in China, what it means is that they often have to get their supplies in China. China wants to depend on the outside as little as possible and is implementing very clear economic and political efforts to that end. There was also an acceleration of investments into the military and artificial intelligence.

In Europe, the Trump “crisis” was mostly a trust shock, but it also raised awareness: many believed that Trump was not completely wrong and that, indeed, China was not “playing along.” Effectively, all our attempts to enforce international agreements in the past 15 years have been quite frustrating in their results. When Trump really started to implement its trade wars with China in the spring of 2018, Europe lodged a complaint with the WTO, aligned with the US, notably on issues of technology and protection of intellectual property rights. A tripartite (US, Japan, and Europe) working committee was actually set up on the way to develop rules on the WTO’s industrial subsidies. In 2017, during the Taormine G7 summit, Angela Merkel declared: “We Europeans really have to take our destiny into our own hands,” which is a good summary of the stunned assessment Europeans made of the US, to whom they had mostly subcontracted security, that they were not a very reliable partner.

As far as Covid is concerned, several interesting lessons can be learned. First, it is a globalization crisis, even in its physical sense. All value chain malfunctions that appeared revealed a certain weakness but also agility. Indeed, even though there were a lot of disruptions, the shock was extremely sudden and violent, but world trade followed and has even gone up since. Vaccines were found in record time, based on international cooperation. No country can say they could have done it alone. In Europe, what came out was how dependent we were, which strengthened a certain will to go towards strategic autonomy. For the US, at first there was a failure of soft power, with the dreadful image of their first answer to the pandemic. In political and economic terms, “Buy America” policies were strengthened, with local restrictions to government purchase spending, which have remained since. The macroeconomic response was massive: they used their unique central role in the global financial system. It even seems like they did too much. This is fundamental data to understand the way globalization works today. For China, it strengthened the belief that it needed to protect itself from the outside. It started with a sort of superiority complex regarding its governance system. Another significant element was the failure to enhance this initial good reaction in terms of soft power, which shows that they didn’t really understand the game, being too aggressive in their diplomatic approach. Strangely, isolation has had little economic impact so far, but it does not mean that it will not have deeper consequences on mutual links and comprehension skills. It has been nearly three years since China became physically isolated, which is setting a new deal. There is currently pressure, maintained by the Chinese government, to Sinicize the general staff of foreign businesses set up in China.

Third structuring shock: Ukraine, with the cruel realization, for those who believed it, that globalization did not guarantee peace. It was a rather brutal reminder that trade relations have political conditions. It also showed that, in this globalized context, repercussions are international. It is a deep shock, notably because, in addition to its political dimension, it is characterized by the fact that economic sanctions have reached a new dimension, at least since the second world war. Trade relations are increasingly politicized and, quite ironically, Europe is the first one to do it, even though it is rather ill-prepared to deal with the consequences. There are two keystones – a financial part and the real sanctions. In the interwar period, regarding economic sanctions, in the UK, there was talk about the Treasury’s vision – meaning draining target countries of their currency – and the Admiralty’s vision – focusing on draining material supplies. Today we do both, with an ultimate threat now clearly defined in both cases: freezing the Central Bank’s reserves and banning exports in general, especially sensitive technology. It is a new dimension of globalization, which is now going to have a central role: in addition to the macroeconomic shock, it is important, to think about the future, to understand how this changes behaviors. In this new context, all governments are going to give more weight to security, with four main objectives:

  1. Securing supplies, especially for products that are uneasily replaced, notably raw materials. In this respect, Europe is lagging behind.
  2. Guaranteeing strong value chains and critical infrastructures to better anticipate shocks.
  3. Trying to be “on the right side”: more and more networks are focusing a lot of power in their center, notably in the finance, digital or information sectors, which gives rise to major unevenness.
  4. Mastering critical technology, which has gained ground.

So, what does this all amount to? Has de-globalization happened? The answer is no: globalization may have slowed down a bit, the openness level has not increased but it remains high. Compared with the end of 2019, in volume, in February 2022, global trade was 8 percent higher. Global trade bounced back quite well. Even bilateral trade between the US and China has gone up again recently, in spite of their conflicts. Yet we should not have a monolithic vision. Analyzing the evolution of trade openness since 2008, it is a mixed picture: in China, the average of export and import of merchandise in proportion to GDP has gone from 27 percent in 2008 down to 15 percent in 2019, almost half, which is a real break. The US went from 11 percent in 2008 to 9 percent in 2009 – a downturn rather than a real decreases. Lastly, Europe went from 13 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2019 – intra-European trade excluded –, which is a sizeable increase.

Heterogeneous trends, growing geopolitical tensions, but the European Union remains important to think about all that, because it is the only historical industrial power that has really held its position. In the 1980s and 1990s, there were three superpowers: Japan, the United-States and Europe. When analyzing the evolution of their market shares between 1997 and 2020, there is a collapse for the US and Japan – minus 55 and 51 percent respectively, and only 12 percent for the eurozone. Economically speaking, it means that this polarization is not always a bad thing for Europe. The other fundamental aspect is the common challenges we are all facing.

To understand the coming period, I believe two observations are both new and possibly structuring. The first is the fact that we are in a situation of close economic interaction, with a lot of political tension, which has no historical precedent. The second is that the world has become small having regard to the common challenges we are facing. Let us start with the first – close economic interdependence under political tension. After World War two, globalization grew under American leadership, with no comparable tension, and the US’ superiority that followed the end of the cold war was not seriously contested. The current situation is new; is it viable? It remains an open question, we cannot look at history to find an answer. We are in a context when trade relations are going to be a political lever rather than a vector of softer habits, as Montesquieu believed. Are we headed towards a block logic? Even though China is traditionally closer to Russia, it is not openly its ally and would rather limit its support’s cost, so nothing is certain. Are we headed towards decoupling? The answer is not the same in all countries: the US is looking for it, at least partially. Other important point: American democracy is sick, with bad blood between political parties, which is a real problem. China’s self-sufficiency tendencies are currently getting stronger, which for businesses mostly means a kind of sorting: if you are bringing new technology that can be useful to China, you are welcome – you are even helped! If on the other hand you are in a sector where China believes it no longer needs the outside, you are at least facing obstacles, or even completely excluded from the market. In some sectors, you will be accepted as a competitor because you help prices go down, which is good for the Chinese power. Another consequence is a form of decoupling, not between blocs but rather within companies: many western companies are now realizing that they cannot have unified governance as the Chinese authorities are forcing them to apply different rules – on digital aspects for instance. Faced with this risk, the European Union is, for now, the only one that still believes in multilateral relations. However, security issues are being emphasized, strengthened by concerns about the dysfunctional nature of American democracy, which represents a real threat for us today.

All these political tensions are also running against the tide: leading technologies have reached such a level of sophistication that it is impossible to stay on top without a highly advanced division of labor at global level. You need the best in the world, and they are not all in the same country. It is obvious in the pharmaceutical or aviation industries. Also, the world is getting smaller, meaning that human society has become so large that it has become a problem, and this is new. The first challenge – but not the only one – is global warming: the loss of biodiversity is equally alarming. Health has also become a global problem, as was clear with all the Covid variants. Technology and research are international. Peace is also a global theme. Possible massive conflicts over resources are already taking shape, for instance with the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the Nile. These common challenges require us to make painful choices, to successfully control ourselves, collectively, because the planet is having an increasingly hard time coping with the human footprint. In today’s world, made smaller because of our means of communication and transportation, one can no longer remain isolated; withdrawal is not an option. We must manage what Asians call ‘connectivity’, but which has different models in the US, China, or Europe. China is struggling to be in the center, as seen with the Belt and Road Initiative. It can rely on its industry, on innovation in a few sectors but its political governance, its lack of alliance and its inability to reform are true weaknesses. The United-States want to maintain a global influence. In terms of means, they are still ahead in the military and finance, they master several networks, they have long-standing and extended alliances, powerful multinational corporations, but their industry is weak, and their deep internal malfunctions impairments result in a record level of inequalities, among other things. In Europe, objectives are structured around our liberal democracy, a sort of mission to defend human rights, and a depoliticized management of international relations. All of this is based on a social market economy, a system of exchanges open to international trade. Europe has significant strengths: its industrial and commercial power, its standardizing power – which is large – its democratic governance, its soft power – more and more so. However, it lacks hard power, and its US dependency is a weakness. Its true disadvantage is a lack of political cohesion, but it is the very nature of the European Union.

To conclude, I would like to highlight a typical feature of the EU: its standardizing power. Today, at least for technical standards, Europe <i> is </i> the standardizing power. In the 1970s, it was the California effect. California was a pioneer in ambitious standards, which then spread to the rest of the country and often to the rest of the world. California was the first state to ban fuel from gas, a standard that was later adopted in the rest of the US, then everywhere else. Today, that is what Europe does. Let us take for instance the regulation of electronic waste. Europe was the first to make choices that led to the removal of heavy metal from its composition, which was copied in California and then China a few years later. Indeed, Europe has a large market, which no global company can avoid; the highest standard for technical regulation; more ambition than the others. This all means that, for products where businesses do not want to bother with different standards, they all come together with the European standard.

I tried to share with you my understanding of the deep crises that have shaken us since the 2008- 09 financial crisis, which is not much from a historical perspective, and how they can be understood through tripolar relations between the European Union, the United-States and China. Simply put, my conclusion is this: we are in a small, troubled world, which means that interdependence cannot be avoided and that we must face the challenges ahead together. In this context, for many governments, security is becoming, if not an obsession, at least a compass.

Name
Company

Antoine Amiel

Gino Balderacchi

Yves Barou

Muriel Bolteau

Fabienne Bricaud

Xavier Broseta

Laetitia Brun

Isabelle Calvez

Wendy Cartwright

Christophe Carval

Florence Cauvet

Caroline Chanavas

Frédéric Clavière Schiele

François Curie

Laurence Dambrine

Clément De Villepin

Hélène Derrien

Stéphane Dubois

Hervé Dufoix

Hugues Fauville

Florence Gallois

Frédéric Ganet

Gilles Gateau

Caroline Gonin

Rainer Gröbel

Cornelia Hulla

Steve Jefferys

Mériadec JONVILLE

Jérôme Julia

Bruno Laforge

Denis Langlois

Valérie Le Boulanger

Baptiste Le Sech

Céline Lemercier

Jérôme Leparoux

Sylvain Lobry

Loïc Mahé

Betty Mangatal

Claude Mathieu

Paul Mayer

Xavier Moulins

Jérôme Nanty

Khatia Paulmier

Frédéric Petitbon

Romain Raquillet

Jean-Christophe Sciberras

Dirk Schneemann

Liliane Sebas

Delphine Segura Vaylet

Isabelle Seneterre

Fabien Siguier

Claire Silva

Tobias Söchtig

Véronique Subileau

Frédéric Thoral

Julia Tybura

Philippe Vivien

AG2R La Mondiale
APEC
Academy of Labour

Rainer Gröbel

Tobias Söchtig

Adisseo
Air France
Albioma
Alixio
Amundi
ArcelorMittal Canada
Ariane Group
BNP Paribas
CMA CGM
CNES
Canal Plus
Carrefour
Chanel
Daher
Danone
EDF
Euroapi
Europcar Mobility Group
FORVIA
Getlink
Group COLAS
Kea & Partners
KingFisher
Learn Assembly
London Metropolitan University
Meridiam
Mundi
Naval Group
Newbridges
Orano Group
PPG
PWC Consulting
Réseau 137
SEB
Safran
Sanofi
Société Générale
Strategy& (PwC)
TRANSDEV GROUP
Thales
UGI International
Veolia
WFS
Zenon Consuling

Antoine Amiel

Learn Assembly

Antoine is the founder of two companies: Learn Assembly, a strategy consulting firm dedicated to skills professionals, and Leaning Boost, a self-positioning platform helping assess employees’ skills and practices. Learn Assembly helps public and private organizations bring their strategy and their teams’ skills in sync. Antoine is also member of the Board of directors of “Acteurs de la Compétence” the professional organization for skills development professionals. In this context, he is in charge of working on the energy transition and skills.

Gino Balderacchi

KingFisher

Gino began his career at the Framatome Group in human resources where he spent nearly 7 years in various HR generalist positions.
He then joined the Vivendi group for 4 years as Human Resources Director at Telepiu, now Sky Italia, in Milan. After an experience in the CFAO Group as HRD of CFAO Technologies, Gino joined the Valeo Group where for nearly 14 years he held successively the positions of HRD of the Wiring Systems, HRD of the Lighting Systems, and from 2008 the position of Vice-President Human Resources, Business Group Visibility.
Gino joins the Kingfisher Group in March 2019 as HRD Kingfisher France.
He has a solid experience in industrial relations both in France and abroad, organizational developments as well as M&A operations, but above all he is passionate about human relations.

Yves Barou

European HRD Circle

Yves started his career as an economist at the Ministry of Finance between 1970 and 1984. In 1984, he joined the management of Rhone-Poulenc where he held operational positions in France and Africa and the position of group HR SVP based in the US. From 1998 to 2000, he was the Deputy Cabinet Director to Martine Aubry, French Minister of Employment and Solidarity, with responsibility for employment, integration and training.

Between 2000 and 2010, he was Senior Vice-President, Human Resources and Social Affairs at Thales. In this capacity, he introduced a new approach to management, promoted forward planning and negotiated two important European agreements introducing European standards for professional development and assessment.

He was Social Responsibility advisor in FSI (The French Sovereign Found, now BPI) from 2010 to 2013.

From 2012 and 2017, he has been Chairman of AFPA (the French agency for the vocational training of adults).
He created the European HRD Circle in 2010 and is still its chairman today.

Muriel Bolteau

Réseau 137

A graduate of Paris-Dauphine, Muriel Bolteau has worked for more than 30 years at the heart of Retail, Services and Supply Chain, notably within the Carrefour Group. She has successively been HRD, Talent Director and Transformation Director. She has supported teams and organisations through many instances of cultural and organisational change, and has in particular played a role in the creation of a national space for employment and partnerships, the acquisition of the Erteco chain of stores, and the implementation of talent and executive development practices. In 2019, she joined Alixio to found and lead Réseau137, the next-generation transitional executive firm. She is currently a member of the Alixio Executive Committee and General Manager of search & Talent executive practices for the Group.

Fabienne Bricaud

WFS

Fabienne is a highly experienced cross-cultural B2B HR Director. She started her career with Alcatel-Alsthom, in the telecoms & engineering sector, where she gained experience within its operating divisions, first in France and soon after internationally. In 2013, Fabienne became Group HR Director for Mobivia, Europe’s leading multi-brand provider of vehicle servicing & parts, which employs today 22,000 people. Since 2017, Fabienne has been Global Head of People at Worldwide Flight Services, a global airport logistics leader, which operates 168 airport stations in 20 countries with 32,000 employees around the world.

Xavier Broseta

Canal Plus

After different positions in the Ministry of Social Affairs on employment and healthcare issues, Xavier joined Thales in 2002. After being in charge for the Air Systems Division, he became SVP for International Human Resources in charge of South Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe and The Middle East at Thales). He became Executive Vice President for Human Resources and Labour Relations at Air France in 2012. In 2017, he joined Bolloré. as HR Director. He is now HR manager at Canal Plus – Vivendi Group.

Laetitia Brun

Getlink

Laetitia is Group Chief HR Officer at Getlink (Eurotunnel Group), member of the Executive Committee, based in the United Kingdom. She has nearly twenty years of professional experience in Human Resources. For fifteen years within Rhodia & Solvay Groups in chemical industry, she held various positions ranging from learning & development, career management, project management, HR and industrial relations management for industrial sites to HRD of European and International functions and businesses. In 2015, she was appointed as HRD for Energy & Sustainable Development Group Function. More recently, she was Group Chief HR Officer Winoa, private equity owned SME company, in metallurgy industry. She has mainly worked in Lyon, Grenoble, Paris (Fr), Brussels (Be) and now in Folkestone (UK).

Isabelle Calvez

Veolia

A graduate of the Institute d’Etudes Politiques in Paris, Isabelle began her career at THALES, where she held positions in both Human

Resources and Operations, before joining Canal+. In 2003, she was appointed as Accenture’s Human Resources VP for France and Benelux and Groupama’s Group Human Resources VP in 2007. In 2012, Isabelle Calvez became Human Resources VP at Carrefour France. On April 18, 2017, Isabelle became Group Chief Human Resources Officer at SUEZ. Since Veolia bought Suez last year, Isabelle is now HR Executive VP Group at Veolia.

Wendy Cartwright

Wendy has held senior HR and Corporate Services roles in both public and private sectors, and now has a portfolio of project and non-executive roles.  She is particularly interested in major projects, creating high-performing organisations, and helping senior leadership teams to navigate change effectively within complex and challenging environments. Her former roles include HR Director for the London 2012 Olympic Delivery Authority and for the Houses of Parliament Restoration and Renewal Programme.

Wendy has a keen interest in effective governance, organisational culture, EDI, and engagement and wellbeing. She has a Master’s degree in Employment Strategy and has been made a Chartered Companion of the CIPD, which is the highest level of membership awarded by the UK HR professional body.

Christophe Carval

EDF

Christophe joined the EDF group in 1982. He has held several management positions in Departmental, Regional and Inter-regional Units in the electricity and gas distribution sector. In 2007, he was appointed to head up the project to create and manage the new Shared Services Division of the EDF group. He was the Director of Human Resources, Health & Safety, and the Enedis Transformation project from 2014. Since July 2017, he holds the position of Group Senior Executive Vice-President, Human Resources Division.

Florence Cauvet

Sanofi

Florence Cauvet held various positions in Human Resources within three major French groups before joining Sanofi.
From 1995 to 2005, Florence was successively HR Manager at France Telecom Mobile Radiomessagerie, Yellow Pages and the R&D Division at Orange.
In 2005, she joined Areva Group where she hold operational positions as Director of Social Relations (La Hague), HR Director of the Chemistry and Enrichment BUs in Pierrelatte and Narbonne, and finally Director of Human Resources France in charge of Group social negotiations, employment in the territories, recruitment of engineers and the implementation of HR shared services centers.
From 2014 she supported the transformation of Altice Group (SFR and NextradioTV). After being Director of Social Affairs, she was since 2016 Director of Human Resources France, member of the Executive Committee.
Florence Cauvet joined Sanofi Group in 2020 as Director of Human Resources France (25,000 employees),
Florence holds a postgraduate degree in Human Resources Management from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas and a postgraduate degree in Labor Law from the University of Paris II Panthéon-Assas.

Caroline Chanavas

Naval Group

Naval Group
Caroline Chanavas est directrice des ressources humaines (DRH) de Naval Group depuis novembre 2017. Diplômée d’ingénierie multilingue de l’Inalco, EHESS et d’une maîtrise de Chinois, elle a rejoint Naval Group en 2014 en tant que directrice des achats de la direction des services.
Précédemment, Caroline Chanavas occupait la fonction de directrice de la Stratégie et du Marketing de la division airs opérations du groupe Thalès.

Frédéric Clavière Schiele

Société Générale

Frederic is Head of corporate Social Affairs at Société Générale, a company he joined in 2010 as deputy head of social affairs. Prior to that, he was HR Director for BUT for 2 years and head of Social and Legal Affairs at PSA Peugeot Citroën from September 2002 to July 2007.

François Curie

 François holds a masters degree in law. He started his career in 1986 as HR manager at Philips. He then moved to Alcan where he held various HR positions at plant, regional, business group and corporate levels based in France, Switzerland and Canada. His last position was Vice-president Human Resources Environment Health and Safety for Rio Tinto Alcan, the aluminum division of Rio Tinto, headquartered in Montreal, Canada. Francois has been Vallourec group HR VP from 2010 to 2022.

Laurence Dambrine

CMA CGM

Swiss, French with an Australian background, Laurence Dambrine started her career in the financial services as a business Leader prior to moving onto HR Leadership roles in 2009 across different industries.

From VP HR in Norsk Hydro, hired by Ferrero as SVP HR for leading the group’s transformation project onto Chief HR Officer of CMA CGM Group.

She’s also led HSE, internal communication and CSR (Ferrero & Norsk Hydro).

Laurence joined CMA CGM Group in January 2021 as Group Chief HR Officer to create the role and bring the function at the right level to enable the business’ exponential growth

Clément De Villepin

Thales

Clément de Villepin began his career in 1996 with the Valeo Group, where he served in a number of roles including head of human resources for industrial operations.

In 2001, he joined the Scottish & Newcastle Group and Brasseries Kronenbourg, where he was successively head of human resources for the industry and R&D activities; competitiveness project

lead; head of human resources for the on-trade market & retail departments and head of human resources for the sales, marketing and retail business.

From 2008 to 2016, at the Suez Group, he was human resources director and a member of the Executive Committee of the international division, having previously served as human resources director.

From 2016, Clément de Villepin served as Group Human Resources Director at Transdev, and supported the Group’s growth and competitiveness plans in France and internationally as a member of the Transdev Executive Committee.

He joined the Thales Group in April 2021 as Senior Executive Vice President,

Human Resources.

Hélène Derrien

Orano Group

Helene has been head of people and communications at Orano for almost 15 years. She started her career in 1990 at Alcatel-Lucent and held several positions at CFAO, a subsidiary of PPR, between January 2003 and March 2007.

Stéphane Dubois

Safran

After having held HR responsibilities within Pechiney, Rio Tinto and Société Générale, Stéphane became Human Resources Director of the Safran group in 2019.

Hervé Dufoix

Hervé joined Rhône Poulenc in 1983 where he held various positions in HR in France and in the US. He has served as HR Vice President for the pharmaceutical research and development in France, for Rh.ne Poulenc Rorer international operations as Senior Vice-President for the Nutrition Division of Aventis. He joined Thales Group in 2000 where he was successively Vice-President Human Resources Naval Division and Land and Joint Systems Division. He was appointed as Senior Vice-President for DCNS Group in 2007 and advisor to the CEO. He was the HR Director of the French continuous learning association, AFPA, for several years and national mediator until December 31, 2018.

Hugues Fauville

ArcelorMittal Canada

Senior Business leader with international Board Member experiences in Europe, North America, Morocco. Strong of over 30 years of significant worldwide expertise in Human Resources in Steel and Automotive industries, as well as in sales and consulting, Hugues owns diversified experiences in operational and corporate executive positions.

Since 2020, Hugues has been Board member of IMR (Integrated Metal recycling) the steel recycling champion in Quebec and Vice-President, Human Resources & Communication of ArcelorMittal Long Products Canada, based in Montreal.

Hugues started his career working as a sales engineer in automation, process and control solutions, before holding Sales and Human Resources positions at ABN AMRO-Lease plan, Société Générale-ALD Automotive, Faurecia and Valeo. He joined ArcelorMittal in 2007 leading the restructuring project at Gandrange industrial site in France.

Hugues Fauville graduated from the IFG-Institut Français de Gestion de Paris. He is certified in Institutional Transformation and a member of IFSI-FIIS (International Forum of Social innovation). Passionate about aviation, Hugues holds French and Canadian private pilot licenses.

Florence Gallois

Ariane Group

Florence has been HRD for the Ariane group since 2020, after having worked at Safran and Zodiac.

From 2000 to 2013, she was in charge of multiple generalist HR responsibilities both in France and in England.

Frédéric Ganet

Director of Human Resources, Communications & CSR

Gilles Gateau

APEC

Gilles exercised several responsibilities within the ANPE from 1986 then from 1994 to 1997 became Deputy General Manager. He was technical adviser to the Prime Minister from 1997 to 2001 before joining EDF where he was manager of employee shareholding and skills management. From 2012 to 2014 he was Director of the Cabinet of the Minister of Labor then in 2014-2015, Deputy Director of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister. From 2015 to 2019 he was HRD at AIR France. Since 2020, he has been Managing Director of APEC, the association for executive employment.

Caroline Gonin

TRANSDEV GROUP

Caroline Gonin has been appointed Transdev Group Chief Human Resources Officer on 2021 July 15.
She started her career in France in 1995 at Areva as Industrial Relations Manager at La Hague site. She then held several positions as HR Manager of business units, before becoming Director of Areva University in 2009. In 2012, based in New Delhi (India), she became Director of Alstom University. In 2015, she joined the Renault-Nissan Alliance, in France, and became Director of Learning and Development, in close relation with Japan. At the beginning of 2017, she joined Valeo as HR Director of the Transmission Systems product group and was promoted to VP Human Resources of Valeo Thermal Systems in March 2019.

 

Rainer Gröbel

Academy of Labour

Rainer has been head of the human resources department of the largest German trade union IG-Metall since 1998. He has also been responsible for the organizational department and coordinating executive tasks. He has experience from various supervisory boards in the industry for more than 30 years. He is currently a member of the supervisory boards of GEA Group in Düsseldorf and Schunk Group in Heuchelheim. He has also been an honorary judge at the federal labor court in Frankfurt/Main. Before joining the IG-Metall, he was an industrial clerk and studied economics and labor law at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University.

Cornelia Hulla

Mundi

Until 2014 Cornelia was the Global Head of HR at GEA Group AG, a leading manufacturing company. Prior, she was a member of the board of directors at Coca-Cola Erfrischungsgetränke AG, responsible among others for Human Resources. Before that, she held various executive positions in national as well as international HR Management with Coca-Cola as well as Deutsche Bank. She has a long track record in transformation projects such as Post-Merger-Integration and Business Transformations as well as substantial experience in restructuring and collective bargaining. She is a founding member of the German Federal Association of HR Managers (BPM) and is part of their Executive Committee. She was a member of the supervisory board of the HPV Hamburger Pensionsverwaltung e.G. and is part of the executive committee of the European HR Director’s Circle. She is now Director Human Resources Europe & International at Mundi.

Steve Jefferys

London Metropolitan University

After working in the car industry and as a journalist Steve wrote a PhD and book called Management and Managed: Fifty years of Cri- sis at Chrysler. After several years as a visiting professor at Grenoble University he became Professor of European Employment Studies at London Metropolitan University in 2000, the year he published Management, Work and Welfare in Western Europe. Three years later, then Director of Londonmet’s Working Lives Research Insti tute, he wrote Liberté, Egalité and Fraternité at Work: Changing French Employment Relations and Management. In the last three years he has published three jointly edited books: Globalizing Employment Relations, Globalization and Precarious Forms of Pro-duction and Employment, and Changing Work and Community Identities in European Regions.

Mériadec JONVILLE

Strategy& (PwC)

Mériadec is a Strategy& partner based in Paris. where he develops HR M&A capabilities.
Expert of People issues in deals and reorganizations, he supports Boards in their transformation projects from the business case to the social negotiation. He also advises more broadly on operational transaction services and restructuring projects, including turnaround.
He joined PwC in 2013 after 5 years in the Social Strategy team of a leading HR Consulting company and a 2 year CRO support to a Private Equity fund participation. He holds a Master in employment
law and a MBA from the IE Business School of Madrid.

Jérôme Julia

Kea & Partners

Jérôme is an Associate Director at Kea&Partners, a consulting firm specialized in strategy and management created 15 years ago, with 150 consultants in France and 450 in Europe. Before that, he worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers consulting and L’Oréal. He graduated from HEC and has a Master’s degree in law. Armed with 20 years’ corporate and consulting experience, J.r.me has one goal: to revitalize and develop French and European companies, investing into what makes them what they are and their fundamental differences.

Bruno Laforge

Euroapi

Bruno Laforge is Chief Human Resources and Corporate Affairs Officer. He has been with the Sanofi Group since 2011, joining with the group at Sanofi Pasteur. There, he worked in the vaccines Global Business Unit from 2015 to 2017 and later rose to become Vice President of Human Resources Research & Development. He was made Head of HR for Europe and France in August 2017. He also served as Business Partner HR for Sanofi Business Transformation.

Bruno’s career began at Johnson & Johnson, where he became Human Resources Director for France and Benelux in 1999. In 2001, he took over Human Resources at Guilbert, and then became Head of Human Resources for Europe at Office Depot. In 2007, he became Vice President of Human Resources at Geoservices, where he also served as head of Mergers & Acquisitions until 2010.

Bruno holds master’s degrees in Economics and History, a Higher Diploma in Human Resources from Sciences Po, and an MBA from HEC.

Bruno likes diverse cultures (he lived in several countries: US, Singapore and Netherlands) and is passionate about car races, golf, and modern paintings (street art, modern art).

Denis Langlois

Europcar Mobility Group

Denis Langlois has been the Human Resources Director of Europcar Mobility Group since 2017. From 1985 to 2002, Denis held various managerial roles in Human Resources within several international groups. He joined Technicolor in 2002 as Division Human Resources Director, and from 2005 to 2009 was Director of the Group’s Electronic Components and Consumer Activities Division. He returned to the Human Resources function in 2009, first at Lagard.re as Human Resources Director of Lagard.re Active then Director of Group Talent Management, then from 2013 as Human Resources Director of Idemia.

Valérie Le Boulanger


Valérie left Orange in 2022 where she served as Executive Director of Human Resources since 2018. In her past career she was Executive Director-Human Resources at Orange SA and Director-Employee Relations at Crédit du Nord SA. She received an undergraduate degree from Ecole de Management de Normandie.

Baptiste Le Sech

PPG

Baptiste started his career in 2006 as C&B manager France at GE Healthcare and then held various HR positions, in various GE Businesses (Real estate, Oil & Gas, Renewable Energy) at country, regional, & global level based in France and United Kingdom. Baptiste Joined PPG as HR Leader for AC EMEA South in July 2021.

Céline Lemercier

Group COLAS

Céline joined Group Colas as HRD of EMEA & Specialties since December 2022.

After 7 years spent as HR Manager in plants in Central Soya and Valeo, Céline was expatriated to the USA by Valeo and has then evolved to international HR Executive positions in Valeo, Hillebrand, Rexam, Compagnie des Alpes and Louvre Hotels (Jin Jiang Group). Her last position was with UGI Corporation, a 8+ billion company specialized in gas distribution, as Group Director HR for its European subsidiary which she contributed to structure.

Jérôme Leparoux

Daher

Jérôme began his career as a business manager with Altran. In 2004, he joined Areva Nuclear Cycle as

Deputy HR Director. In 2007, he was appointed HR Director of Areva Nuclear Measurement, then in 2010 of Areva Fuel, and Areva Renewable Energies in 2012, before taking on the post of Director of HRand Management Development of the Areva group in 2014.He joined Daher in October 2015, as Director of Human Resources and member of the Executive Committee.

Sylvain Lobry

Danone

Over nearly 20 years of HR practice at Danone, he played a number of different roles, from Organization Development to HRD roles, with a deep commitment in Labor Relations. More specifically, he has been HRD for Africa-Middle East, supporting the launch of Danone in some of the countries in the region, and more recently HRD Operations in the Essential Dairy and Plant-based Division of Danone, coordinating the adaptation of the teams to the changing needs of the market. In his current role, he leads Danone’s partnership with the IUF (International Union of Food Workers) which sets the pace for Social Dialogue in the company globally.

Loïc Mahé

Loïc started his career in 1980 in the Personnel and Social Affairs department, then Head of HR for an industrial facility and subsequently Head of Career Development for the Company’s Aeronautical Equipment branch. He became HR Director for the Telecommunication Division in 1988. from 1993 to 1998, he was HR Director at the Paris Chamber of Trade and Industry. He then joined PPR Group as HR and Communication Director for the office supplies company Guilbert before holding several positions at Thales in 2000-2013. his last HR position was that of VP HR Industrial Affairs at Sanofi. He is now a consultant.

Betty Mangatal

Meridiam

Betty joined Meridiam in September 2005 as Human Resources Manager. She previously worked for Egis Projects as Human Resources Manager.

Claude Mathieu

FORVIA

After working for Andersen Consulting in Paris and Chicago, Claude joined Usinor-Sacilor with different positions dealing with HR, industrial restructuring and early workforce planning. He joined the Group in 1994 with the creation/merger of Messier-Dowty, then in charge of HR development and industrial relations for the French subsidiary. He became HRD in 1997. In 2001, Claude was appointed as Group VP HR of Messier-Dowty International. He became VP of HR of Sagem Defense Security in 2007. He is also a Professor at Science-Po Paris. He is now Business Group HR VP at Forvia.

Paul Mayer

Albioma

Paul began his career at SNECMA in 1981 holding various HR positions. He joined Steelcase Strafor in 1992 as HRD France and then as Factory Director. He then joined Tetra Laval in 1998, holding successively positions of HRD for Tetra Pak France, VP HR for the Aseptic Business Unit in Sweden, EVP HR for the Sidel Group. From 2008 to 2017 he has been appointed to various senior HR positions for Tetra Pak in Europe and in the Middle East and lately was Cluster Leader HR Europe and Central Asia. He has been a tutor of the International track of CIFFOP since 2007. Paul joined Albioma in October 2018 as Group HR Director.

Xavier Moulins

Xavier has been HRD France and Central Europe at DXO Logistics since 2021 after having been HRD at Getlink from 2012 to 2020 and previously Director of Social Affairs at Vinci.

Jérôme Nanty

Carrefour

Jérôme began his career in 1986 at Société Générale before joining Crédit Lyonnais in 1989. In 1998, he joined the bank’s HR department as manager of employment policy and later labor relations. From 2001 to 2004, he served as Director of Labor and Social Relations for Crédit Lyonnais, then from 2003 onwards at Crédit Agricole. He was appointed as Director of HR at LCL in 2005 and Caisse des Dépôts in 2008. From 2013 to 2016, he was General Secretary of Transdev. In July 2016, he became General Secretary and Director of HR of Air France-KLM. In 2017, he joined Carrefour as Executive Director for Human Resources for the Group and France.

Khatia Paulmier

Chanel

Khatia has been Global Head of People and Organization – Parfums Beauty at Chanel since March 2021. Before that, she held various HR positions at Solvay for almost 8 years. She started her career at Peugeot in 1996 before joining BT where she stayed over 10 years. From 2011 to 2013, she was head of HR Europe at Redcats in Paris.

Frédéric Petitbon

PWC Consulting

Frédéric Petitbon (ESSEC, post graduate in organizational sociology at Sciences Po Paris) is a management consultant in PwC Advisory, after 25 years as a consultant in IDRH. He works as a consultant in change management issues, HR issues, upskilling challenges.

He teaches organization sociology and Change management at Paris Sorbonne IAE and at Sciences Po Paris.

He is the chairman of the academic awards for the best articles on management organized by the French consulting Syndicate Syntec.
He co-leads the « Entreprise full RSE » initiative, involving more than 100 companies, professional associations, academics, in order to shape each function, from finance to supply and HR, in a “full
sustainable world”.

Romain Raquillet

Air France

Former head of strategic practice and social dialogue at LHH Altedia, Romain became head of social affairs at Air France in 2019. this former Syndex consultant notably worked for the cabinets of Christophe Sirugue, François Rebsamen, Michel Sapin and Emmanuel Macron during François Hollande’s presidency.

Jean-Christophe Sciberras

Newbridges

Jean-Christophe is CEO and co-founder at Newbridges, an International Employee Relations consulting firm. Before starting this firm, he has had ample experience in the fields of HR and social relations in France and abroad, working for 35 years for multinational companies (auto industry, chemistry, insurance as well as the French administration).

Dirk Schneemann

Dirk started his professional growth in the company in 1995 and during the years held various positions, including HR Director and Retail Director in both France and Germany. Prior to his involvement in Total he worked in the Foreign Trade Department of GDR in Paris from 1987 to 1989 and then joined Bull- Group and Bull AG Deutschland, working in the sphere of Business Development, HR Development and Training Projects. As HR consultant, he manages the training center for small oil companies in Germany and created Euraccess GmbH.

Liliane Sebas

CNES

In 1997, Liliane joined the French Centre for Space Studies (CNES, Centre national d’études spatiales), where she held different HR positions: at the Guianese Space Center until 2004, as HR correspondent, in charge of training, then at the CNES headquarters from 2004 to 2017 as HR correspondent, in charge of social relations, head of the skills and careers service and then deputy HR development manager. In 2018, she took part in the Strategy 2025 working group and was then appointed head of change management. Liliane is now head of HR.

Delphine Segura Vaylet

SEB

Delphine started her career at Thales, where she held various HR Director positions in the 13 years she spent at the Group. She then moved to STMicroelectronics in 2007 to take on the role of Group HR Director in the Digital Consumer Division. For 4 years, she was also responsible for People Development and Performance Management of Organizations, and then in charge of Training at the Group level. In 2014, she joined Zodiac Aerospace as Group HR Director and COMEX member until it was sold to Safran. She then joined the TOTAL Group in 2017 as VP in charge of Group HR Strategy and Policy. Delphine joined Groupe SEB in January 2021 as Deputy Managing Director, HR.

Isabelle Seneterre

Amundi

Isabelle started her career at the Cr.dit Lyonnais in 1989, working in New York and Paris, mostly in corporate functions. In 1997, she went to Prague for 3 years and developed recruitment and social audit activities for Carrefour, which was settling in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Back in France, she went back to Crédit Lyonnais and kept working in HR. She joined Amundi in 2010 as deputy HR Director and became Senior HR manger one year later.

Fabien Siguier

Adisseo

Executive VP HRand Transformation, Fabien joined Adisseo in July 2018. He started his career in the dairy food industry, where he held the position of Director of Organization Projects and then Director of HR, in a context of internationalization and acquisitions. After a 3-year assignment in the French defense industry, he joined the Valeo group, where he worked for 10 years in various positions as Global Director of HR, in a context of transformation of the profession and development of the Chinese Market.

Claire Silva

AG2R La Mondiale

In 1998, Claire started her career as head of HR within Alstom Group and then in 2000 with Thales. In 2003, she becomes head of social and social-legal relations at Thales Air Defence. She joined McDonald’s France in April 2014 before being promoted Senior VP in charge of HR and joining the executive committee in March 2016. in 2018, she was appointed member of the Board of AG2R LA MONDIALE in charge of HR. She is now also head of social relations.

Tobias Söchtig

Academy of Labour

Tobias is executive assistant at the Academy of Labor, an institute for academic education of the German labor unions. After he completed his vocational education as an industrial clerk at Daimler AG in Braunschweig/Germany, he studied political sciences and economics in Bremen, Lüneburg and Brisbane with a focus on development and labor economics. During his career, he worked for the Head of HR at the German union IG Metall, for the DGB and other political organizations in Germany.

Véronique Subileau

UGI International

Véronique started her career as Head of HR Strategy & OrganizaFon at the Caisse des Dépôts in 2010, before she moved to Transdev in 2013 as CSR Group Director and then HR Group Director. She spent a year with Bolloré. As Group HR Development Director, 3 years as “Talent & Development” Deputy General Director with BPI group. She was appointed Vice-President Human Resources in February 2022.

Frédéric Thoral

BNP Paribas

Frédéric began his career in 1989 at Rank Xerox France, then joined the Bouygues group before working his way up through the SFR Cegetel group from 1995 to 2004, where he was promoted to Deputy HR Director. Furthermore, he was Chairman of UNETEL-RST, from 2001 to 2003. After a stint at the AREVA group from 2004 to 2007, where he was VP HR & Management Development, he moved to Oberthur Technologies as Group Senior VP HR and member of the group’s executive committee tasked with se}ng up an international HR team. Frédéric takes over as Head of HR for IRS in 2004. He joined BNP Paribas in 2008 as Head of HR in charge of HR development and is now head of HR.

Julia Tybura

Zenon Consuling

As a leader, board director, owner/manager and charity trustee with over 25 years’ experience in HR, OD and general management roles, Julia combines national policy level access and thinking with a deep understanding of specific culture issues and their solutions. Julia’s expertise lies in offering advice and support on board, leadership and organisational development, stakeholder engagement, strategy making and governance. Julia currently sits on two Boards of Trustees – Borough Market and the Healthcare People Management Association London Academy.

Philippe Vivien

Alixio

In 1985, Philippe began his career as Junior HR at FRAMATOME. In 1992, he was appointed HR Director for the Industrial Equipment department. In 1996, he became head of FRAMATOME’s HR Department, before becoming VP, HR at FCI and a member of the Executive Committee in 1999. In 2002, he was appointed VP for HR and Communication at FCI. Since January 2004, he was Senior Executive VP, HR for the group. In October 2005, he became member of the AREVA group’s Executive Committee. He joined Alixio in January 2013 as COO of the consulting activity. He was appointed Group Vice-president in 2020.