Amandine is passionate about bringing concrete solutions for a more inclusive and sustainable world, and specifically for the benefice of forest preservation and restoration. She has been able to understand the stakes of commitment and transformation through very different worlds: business, social entrepreneurship and associations.
After a master’s degree in International Business in France and Australia, and a thesis on ethics in business, Amandine started her career at Danone in sales, negotiation and sales force management. With her knowledge of the company’s economic challenges, she was able to join the Danone Ecosystem Fund where she spent 7 years.
The objective of this 100 million Euros endowment fund is to invent inclusive models for the Danone value chain (producers, recyclers, street vendors and nutrition professionals). Amandine has been able to work with NGO-Company teams in fifteen different countries to accompany them in innovative projects:
creation of recycling social enterprises in France or Spain;
creation of professional midwives’ associations in Romania or Kenya;
structuring of agricultural cooperatives in Ukraine and Turkey;
deployment of integration training schools for young people in Tunisia or South Africa;
inclusion of street vendors in Togo or Brazil;
creation of day-care centers in shanty towns or disadvantaged rural areas in Thailand.
She has thus been able to put into practice and experience the complexity and richness of multi-stakeholder partnerships around social or environmental issues, alongside organizations such as Care, Heifer International, Amref, Ashoka or the Red Cross. Within the fund, Amandine participated in the structuring of social reporting, co-creation and co-management methods, the selection and financing process, and the measurement of scientific impact.
Amandine joined Planète Urgence, an association of the SOS Group in 2019, as Executive Director. The Planète Urgence association was born in 1992 in the middle of the Gulf War, where experience showed that sharing specific employee skills could be a real lever of success for solidarity actions. The association was thus created around the congé solidaire®, which facilitates this porosity between the corporate world and the world of international solidarity. Then in 2006, while Planète Urgence’s teams were concentrating on strengthening the capacities of communities on the island of Sumatra, Indonesia, it saw communities being decimated following the tsunami, the impact of which was aggravated by the disappearance of mangroves, and understood the urgency of having an integrated response between the strengthening of women and men and the preservation of natural spaces. 20 years later, Planète Urgence works with a hundred partners in 15 countries, has enabled more than 10,000 volunteers to become involved and accompanies local groups in Madagascar, Cameroon, Peru and Indonesia to strengthen their forest-based solutions in favor of the climate, biodiversity and territorial resilience.
Under the impetus of Amandine, the association Planète Urgence has grown significantly with a new strategic vision. Planete Urgence joined the Climate and Development Commission of Coordination Sud as well as the ENGO network for which it leads a group of NGO DGs on the subject of climate financing for Environmental NGOs. This initiative has led to the launch of a study, a forum, and a common NGO position. The NGO Planète Urgence is currently testing alternative climate financing via private partners. Amandine has since been invited to speak at various events or media to share her view on Forest Preservation, Climate and Solidarity.
In 2022, she was recognized in the Point-Giverny awards as one of the 50 French leaders in social and environmental transition.
