François Grosse

I am a manager & an entrepreneur with a strong experience both in utilities & digital startup. Now CEO at Symbiose, a next generation, circular and low-carbon waste-to-energy project in Monaco, subsidiary of SMEG (Société Monégasque de l'Electricité et du Gaz). Symbiose should be precursor of a new approach in waste-to-energy, based on fossil decarbonation and high energy efficiency comparable to biomass energy plants. We designed the project since January 2021, my colleague Frank Tabariès and myself, supported by SMEG and our growing team, in order to solve the critical disadvantages of traditional waste-to-energy plants, so as to make waste a "normal" resource, even for energy production.Before joining SMEG, I was the Chief Executive Officer of ForCity, a startup company I founded with my partner Thomas Lagier in January, 2014. ForCity sold a SaaS, subscription based simulation software to governments and private sector to help them with planning and optimizing their future in urban areas. Prior to founding ForCity, I was educated as an engineer and started my career at Gaz de France (now Engie), first in the R&D department, and then at GDF headquarters as nationwide NGV project manager (natural gas vehicles). Then I joined Veolia in 1993 and held managerial positions as CEO and COO of subsidiaries in France (Nantes, Lyon) and Germany (Hamburg), employing 600 to 3,000 people. Finally, I joined in Paris the Group headquarters as a Senior Vice-President, Digital Services. I left Veolia in 2013 to found ForCity.Beside my positions as entrepreneur and manager, I am also engaged in academic work on economic growth and circular economy. My skills and interest are particularly focused on executive management and transformation, at the crossing between “material world” and new technologies and business models. Along my career, I built special performance by continuously mixing pragmatic decision-making with boldness and with medium to long term vision and engagement. There, sustainability is key, both from a medium-term point-of-view of business efficiency, and at a global and long-term scale of our whole human society.