One of the most influential female CEOs in Europe leads a $49 billion company helping others adapt to climate change
Good morning! Tapestry and Capri cancel their merger, 1.25 million new users switch to Bluesky, and a CEO grows with them A $49 billion company. Have a peaceful weekend.
– Climate change. Estelle Brashlyanoff is one of the most influential female CEOs in Europe. Her $49 billion company, Veolia, is ranked No. 77 on Europe’s Fortune 500 (where only 6.2% of companies are headed by women) and No. 308 on the Global 500 (where the stats are even lower, at 5.6%). ). But it is difficult to explain to the general public what Veolia does. “We are quite unique, so we don’t have many points of comparison,” Brashlyanov says.
Brashlyanov joined Veolia nearly 20 years ago, so she had time to practice the elevator idea — but the business has changed dramatically in two decades. Today, Veolia provides solutions for the “ecological transition,” says Brashlyanov. This includes waste management, water supply, and energy, from wastewater collection and hazardous waste treatment to controlling heating and air conditioning throughout cities. In recent years, Veolia has shifted from a more traditional approach to these industries, to promoting itself as a company that can help others adapt to climate change. Most recently, Veolia Paris helped clean the Seine River so that athletes could swim in the famously dirty river during the Olympic Games.
During the two decades that Brashlyanov has been doing this work, she has witnessed the evolution of attitudes toward climate change. We have moved from the realization, which we now share, to what can we do about it? “I think this represents a very big shift,” she says.
Daniel Leal/AFP – Getty Images
Technology has also evolved. “Twenty years ago, we thought some things were completely impossible, and I’ve seen them happen. We thought we couldn’t recycle things, which we can now recycle.” Copper from a nuclear facility. “We are more efficient in many ways. We are even using new generation artificial intelligence to save energy in the water. Do you think this would be possible 20 years ago?”
Veolia is based in France, but Brashlyanov describes it as a global company, not a French one. Forty percent of its business is located outside Europe. Brashlyanov is familiar with state and municipal laws from California to Ohio, and can talk at length about the differences between working in a country with a centralized local government system (as she did in the United Kingdom) or a more distributed system.
The Paris Olympics were a start, but the CEO’s hope is that Veolia will become a company that people know alongside climate experts and local government officials. “(In 10 years) the general public will probably know us better,” she says. “We don’t have anything to sell to the general public, but here we are.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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Parting words
“I don’t identify with my brokenness. It’s not my identity.“
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