Catherine MacGregor, the engineer who’s making Engie an electrical firm | Opinion | EUROtoday

It was October 2020, with the world plunged into the covid disaster, when the shock got here: the brand new CEO of Engie, the vitality big owned by the French State, was not going to be a daily in ministerial cupboards. It wasn’t going to be a person both: Catherine Fiamma MacGregor was chosen to interchange Isabelle Kocher, who in flip gave her the title of being the one girl on the head of an organization within the Cac 40, the most important French inventory index. More than 5 years later, the chief remains to be on the helm of the agency and leads an electrification course of whose nice symbolic milestone occurred in 2015, when it deserted its previous title, GDF (from Gas de France) Suez. The final step on this regard is the funding, for 15.8 billion kilos (about 18 billion euros) within the London electrical energy community UK Power Networks.

MacGregor’s path to the highest of an organization like Engie is much from what is common in France, particularly in a single owned 24% by the State, and is paying homage to instances akin to that of Ben Smith at Air France-KLM or Luca de Meo at Renault: he didn’t undergo ENA, the college the place senior executives are educated – and, on many events, future ministers and presidents of the Republic – nor was he half of a big physique of the Administration, nor did he advise any minister. She is, merely and purely, an trade skilled. A uncommon technical profile in companies the place authorities pursuits are protected with political appointments.

Born in Morocco, the chief studied Engineering at CentraleSupélec, a extremely prestigious faculty in France. As quickly as he completed his research, in 1995, he started a profession of greater than 20 years on the oilfield providers big Schlumberger. Shortly earlier than being appointed to guide Engie (she had already been nominated for the place on one other event), she had made the leap to the competitors, to TechnipFMC.

Forged in oil

Her first steps as a drilling engineer took her to the Congo, the place – from helicopter to helicopter – she labored on a number of oil platforms, in what constitutes the actual desert journey of somebody beginning out within the black gold sector. He then handed via Scotland, Malaysia, the United States and, lastly, Paris. At Schlumberger – Schlum, as these acquainted within the sector say – he did virtually every thing, besides occupying the most popular seat, a place for which he dreamed however by no means achieved it.

The 53-year-old supervisor has two daughters from a former marriage from which she nonetheless has the final title, MacGregor. “Direct, brave and effective, but with the ability to listen,” Thierry Pilenko, former TechnipFMC govt, mentioned of her to Le Figaro when she was appointed. To which one other chief of the sector added: “He is not the type of person who gives up a millimeter of his land, nor does he hesitate to separate those who he does not consider to be up to the task.”

In truth, even though the French State controls virtually a 3rd of the voting rights of the corporate he runs, MacGregor doesn’t hesitate to defend his private place towards his Government. In January 2023, after the worst of the vitality disaster, he defended in The Countrywithin the face of the recurring positions of the totally different inhabitants of the Elysée – and, extra lately, Emmanuel Macron – that nuclear vitality, “by itself, will not allow France to decarbonize.” “We are going to need renewables in the mix: it is not a matter of deciding between one technology and another, we need both, and we must add as many carbon-free gigawatts as possible,” he harassed.

At the time of her leap to Engie, it was questioned whether or not knowledgeable raised in oil can be answerable for making the renewable leap from what on the time was purely a fuel firm. She and the corporate she runs have remodeled, indirectly, hand in hand. Since the title change – a criterion that Moeve, the previous Cepsa, or Spanish Petroleum Company, has lately adopted in Spain – greater than a decade in the past, Engie is progressively transferring away from fossil fuels and searching for to maneuver from the fuel label to contemplating itself, for all intents and functions, an electrical energy firm. Recently requested which of those two definitions is extra true, MacGregor responded to The World: “Both, of course!” Although at all times insistent on the concept of ​​decarbonization, the businesswoman by no means misses the chance to spotlight the significance of fuel on this whole course of. It can be dedicated to the manufacturing of renewable gases.

For now, the group prefers to outline itself as a European and world chief within the manufacturing of “low carbon” electrical energy. As one of many largest electrical energy producers on the Old Continent, simply over half of its manufacturing already comes from renewable energies. The relaxation comes from its mixed cycle vegetation, fueled by fuel. In truth, Engie is the biggest fuel infrastructure operator on the continent. Its aim is to virtually double its renewable capability by 2030 and attain 95 gigawatts.

The electrical infrastructure was, exactly, one of many pending accounts of the vitality conglomerate. In truth, earlier than the announcement of the operation within the United Kingdom, the corporate led by Macgregor was the one giant European utilities agency that lacked electrical networks. These regulated belongings, analysts level out, are appreciated by buyers as a result of they signify recurring and pretty safe revenue. For this motive, Engie will spend a report quantity of 15.8 billion kilos on UK Power Networks, which manages 192,000 kilometers of high-voltage strains and eight.5 million clients. And thus it would grow to be rather less fuel and somewhat extra electrical. On the day of the announcement, the French big’s inventory soared greater than 7% on the inventory market.