A joint stock company in the general interest, CNR is administered by a Management Board and a Supervisory Board. Elisabeth Ayrault has been Chairwoman and CEO of CNR since 2013.
CNR’s Management Board: implementing the major directions
A collegial management body, the Management Board manages the company in conformity with statutory and legal provisions. It decides and implements CNR’s major strategic, commercial and technical orientations, and ensures their management. The Management Board is composed of three members:
- 1 Chairman/woman – appointed by decree issued by the President of France, for a mandate lasting 5 years, based on the proposal of the Supervisory Board. The company is currently chaired by Elisabeth Ayrault, appointed in 2013 and renewed in 2018.
- 2 Managing Directors – appointed by the Supervisory Board for a mandate of 5 years: the two Managing Directors are currently Julien Français and Didier Lhuillier.
CNR’s Supervisory Board
CNR’s Supervisory Board is the body that audits the accounts and monitors the good management of CNR. The Supervisory Board is composed of 18 members:
- 2 government representatives,
- 13 shareholders’ representatives,
- 3 representatives of CNR’s employees.
Chairwoman of CNR: Elisabeth Ayrault
Elisabeth Ayrault was appointed Chairwoman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of CNR by decree issued by the President of France, on 4 July 2013. She was renewed in the office in July 2018. Since 2013, Elisabeth Ayrault has worked to deploy a strategic plan that pursues several goals:
- develop the Rhone in view to reconciling uses and the re-appropriation of the river,
- speed up the development of renewable energies outside the Rhone Valley begun during the 2000s,
- reinforce CNR as an actor committed to transforming the world of energy.
Biography of Elisabeth Ayrault
Chairwoman of CNR, Elisabeth Ayrault holds two other offices:
- vice President of the Supervisory Board of the Grand Port Maritime de Marseille,
- and an administrator of GeoPost (Groupe La Poste).
Graduated as a chartered architect, Elisabeth Ayrault holds a diploma of the IAE, the public Management School of the University of Grenoble Alps. She holds an advanced studies degree in urban geography and a Specialised Postgraduate Degree (DSPU) from the Institut Agronomique Méditerranéen.
Elisabeth Ayrault began her professional career in 1980 by setting up an architecture and town planning practice in Perpignan. She joined DUMEZ Immobilier Promotion in 1991, then ELYO, a company specialised in energy efficiency, where she stayed 10 ans. Afterwards, she was Vice Managing Director of SITA France (subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT) from 2009 to 2013. Elisabeth Ayrault was made a Knight of the Légion d’honneur.
CNR: the main directions of work for the future
Elisabeth Ayrault will continue the work done since 2013, by fulfilling CNR’s ambitions according to several strategic orientations:
- Finalise the conditions for extending CNR’s concession contract;
- Continue the development of assets in renewable energies (wind power, solar power, hydroelectricity), selling aggregation services to producers of renewable energies generated from meteorological sources, and experimenting with new offers of direct and decentralised sales of renewable energy;
- Strengthen CNR’s international activity, via its engineering activities;
- Actively participate in research on new renewable energy production systems, and set up leading edge French industrial sectors in 4 main areas (storage and green hydrogen, new photovoltaic approaches (floating, agri-voltaic power, etc.), digital technology, sustainable and alternative mobility;
- Develop projects in relation with actors in innovation: CEA, IRSTEA, clusters, start-ups, etc.;
- Strengthen links with the agricultural world and assist it. The aim? To optimise water use in the context of lower discharges in the Rhone;
- Develop the company’s human capital to anticipate changes in its trades.