In 2001, Jean-Pierre Sicard founded Novethic, the leading center in France for research in sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and socially responsible investment. Since 2004, he has also served as head of sustainable development for the CDC (Caisse des Dépôts).
Jean-Pierre Sicard has written a number of articles and surveys on socially responsible investment. He played a very active role in the development of the Principles for Responsible Investment, under the auspices of the UN, and is co-chair of the Property Working Group, a task force on SRI in real estate, which was launched in 2006 by the Finance Initiative of the UNEP.
Previously, he held a number of positions in the CDC corporate secretarial office, primarily in human resources and executive education. Jean-Pierre Sicard created the position of strategic watch, reporting to the head of Strategy and Finance for the Group, a post he held from 1998 to 2001.
Jean-Pierre Sicard has also worked as a consultant, department head and member of the executive committee of the Bipe, a consulting and economic survey research firm. He also founded and directed an audio-visual production company.
In 2001, Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore developed the sustainable development website novethic.fr, a French-speaking resource created to raise awareness of the issues surrounding sustainable development. In this capacity, she defines the editorial slant and ensures that the site content is of consistently high quality.
In 2006, Anne-Catherine Husson-Traore was appointed CEO of Novethic.
Prior to that, she worked for the French television channel M6 (1987-2000), where she was a reporter, an editor-in-chief and then director of a regional office, before being appointed editor of the M6.fr site. Before joining M6, Ms. Husson-Traoré held a variety of positions in print and radio, and began to focus specifically on the Internet in 1998.
Anne-Catherine Husson-Traoré has a degree in Journalism from the CFJ (Centre de Formation des Journalistes) and a master's degree in Public Law.
Hassen Ahlamine has been Novethic's technical manager since 2001. In this capacity, he is in charge of web development for the novethic.fr website and for the management of projects with an IT dimension.
An expert in Java and n-Tiers environment, Hassen Ahlamine specialized in web application platforms, such as Websphere, until 2001. As such, he was able to contribute to the development of the website, particularly its technical enhancements.
He has an associate of arts degree in Computer Science, and majored in Java/XML/.NET. He is also an expert in Java, C++, XML and SQL.
Since 2002, Garance Bertrand has been in charge of external communications for Novethic. She manages media relations, events, public relations and partnerships.
Before joining Novethic, Garance worked for the holding companies of subsidiaries of the AXA Group, Veolia and Sodexho, where she was involved in both internal and external communications.
Garance Bertrand has a master's degree in Foreign Languages applied to Economics and a Master's degree in Corporate and Business Communications.
Dominique Blanc was appointed head of SRI research in early 2008. His position involves overseeing the various surveys and studies on this subject that are produced by Novethic. The aim of this research is to analyze the SRI market from a quantitative perspective (funds, mandates, assets under management, etc.) as well as a qualitative one, since Novethic also analyzes and assesses the quality of SRI processes set up by asset management firms.
Co-founder of EthiFinance in 2004, he was an SRI analyst until the end of last year. He was in charge of methodological developments (rating benchmarks, databases) pertaining to the analysis of businesses. He monitored the SRI integration process of asset management firms that are clients of EthiFinance. He also spearheaded developments in the area of governance and processes for the assessment of small and mid-cap companies in connection with ratings based on stakeholders dialogue. Moreover, Dominique contributed to the development of partnerships linking EthiFinance to extra-financial rating global players such as EIRiS, FTSE4Good and SiRi Company. This prior experience, both theoretical and practical, gives him solid expertise in SRI. Dominique Blanc holds a Master's of Science in mechanical and industrial engineering from the ENSAM (Paris).
An executive assistant at Novethic since its inception in 2001, Pascale Chapron has been head of administration and management for the company since late 2004.
Today, she is responsible for administrative management ], budget tracking, management control and reporting tools, logistics and legal matters.
Pascale has degrees in Secretarial and Business Stenography, and a degree in Business English. Before joining Novethic, she worked as an executive assistant for the head of regional directors at Caisse des Dépôts and for ADEME. She also worked in the human resources department at France Telecom, where she was responsible for producing and moderating a forum and served as project manager for the rollout of the online employee magazine.
Caroline Estimé is Novethic's Head of Research and Development since early 2008. In this role, she manages the development and marketing of our research studies and related events.
Caroline Estimé began her career in the United States as a Change Management Analyst at Accenture. Following Accenture, she worked at AccountAbility, where she helped to manage the development of the AA1000 series of standards that provide the basis for improving the sustainability performance of organisations. She also assisted in the provision of technical and strategic advice to organisations seeking to build effective approaches to stakeholder engagement.
Prior to AccountAbility, she worked at Ethical Corporation where she produced business conferences on topics related to corporate social responsibility.
Caroline has a Bachelors degree in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia (USA) and a Masters degree in International Development and Globalisation from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Rouba Naaman joined Novethic in September 2007. A staff journalist, she is primarily involved in drafting content for the novethic.fr website.
Rouba Naaman received a master's degree in Cellular Biology with a dual focus on Reproduction and Nutrition. After completing her scientific studies, she turned to journalism, and in 2007 received a "Journalist and Scientist" degree from ESJ (Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille) in the French city of Lille.
During her studies, she completed internships in the economics department of the daily newspaper Le Parisien - Aujourd'hui en France, as well as with the weekly magazine L'Expansion. Her last internship before graduating was with Novethic, where she is currently an editor.
Emmanuel Rochette joined Novethic in 2001. He manages the unit in charge of gathering information on socially responsible investment, responsible finance, shareholder activism and sustainable real estate (principally at the global level).
Recruited as a journalist, and a graduate in Political Science (3rd Cycle), Emmanuel previously worked as an economic and financial journalist for several major web portals. He also worked in the communications department of a large industrial group and for various agencies specialized in corporate communications.
Thomas Sanchez is responsible for managing Novethic's CSR studies and the CSR sections of the website (Enjeux Sectoriels, Repčres). He specializes in sustainable real estate, a subject he covers in a market watch newsletter. He also carries out special assignments for Caisse des Dépôts (CDC) on the group's real estate issues and manages the CDC's extra-financial reporting program.
A graduate of ESIM (Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs de Marseille), Thomas Sanchez has a general background in engineering, combined with expertise in IT and Communications Technologies.
After completing an internship on the issue of mobility, he decided to return to school to pursue a Master's degree in Sustainable Development Management at HEC. His pre-graduation internship was with Caisse des Dépôts, after which he joined the team at Novethic in early 2006.
A journalist at Novethic since 2001, Véronique Smée is currently editor-in-chief of the novethic.fr website and of the Lettre de l'Economie Responsable, a monthly newsletter for sustainable development professionals.
A graduate in Political Science (3rd Cycle), she worked for several years for the French Senate as a parliamentary assistant and specialist in social issues. In parallel, she gained experience in the field of print journalism by working for various publications, before being appointed editor-in-chief of a business publication. A specialist in the area of sustainable development for six years, her subjects of expertise are global warming and climate change, GMOs, NGO campaigns, and corporate social responsibility.