The new Strategic Orientation Commissions on Sustainable Food and Civic Art met for the first time on February 11. Made up of experts from a variety of backgrounds, their mission is to inform the Foundation’s strategic choices, in order to enhance the relevance and impact of its actions.

They are researchers, farmers, artists, elected representatives, structure directors, etc., and each is committed in his or her own way to meeting the challenges facing our society – be they environmental, social, economic or democratic. These 16 personalities from the worlds of research, foresight, business, the public sector and civil society have agreed to devote part of their time and expertise to our missions, by joining our newly redesigned Strategic Orientation Commissions (Cos).

A collective serving the diversity of projects

These commissions will meet twice a year to provide support for the work of the Foundation’s Strategic Committee, which will be set up in September 2025. The profiles of the Strategic Orientation Commissions reflect the diversity of the projects we support, in the service of a fairer, more sustainable society.

This plurality will feed our analyses and contribute to monitoring and developing our strategy and priorities for action in the fields of Sustainable Food and Art for Citizens. A strategy focused on impact, with the ambition of tackling the deep roots of societal issues, but also encouraging spaces for experimentation.

A living observatory to design solutions

The first meeting, which took place on February 11, augurs well for fertile exchanges between the disciplines. Over and above the Foundation’s priorities, which we will be discussing, these forums for exchange are sensitive and reciprocal places of learning for the personalities who make them up.

The projects submitted to us and the experiences of our members are an observatory of weak signals on a subject and a valuable barometer of how our fields of action are evolving.

A common course in a changing world

Bringing together the voices of the founding family, experts, partners and teams is at the heart of the Foundation’s operations. Convinced that a relevant strategy is based on exchange, we make continuous dialogue between vision and experience an essential condition of our action.

In Madrid, the first COS meeting was held at the same time, affirming our determination to make our missions part of a common approach between France and Spain, the two countries in which we operate. It’s a concrete way of strengthening synergies, sharing experience and circulating knowledge in the interests of shared action.

COS Sustainable Food members

• Nicolas Bricas / Chairman
  A food researcher and socio-economist, Nicolas Bricas works at CIRAD’s UMR MoISA and holds the UNESCO World Food Chair. He specializes in sustainable food systems and the role of cities in food policy.

• Amandine Lebreton-Garnier
  An agricultural engineer, she worked for 14 years at the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (FNH), first as Head of Agriculture/Food, then as Director of the Advocacy and Foresight Department. Since January 2023, she has been Director of the Pacte du pouvoir de vivre.

• Rémy Gerin
  A marketing lecturer at ESSEC business school in Paris, Rémy Gerin heads the Grande Consommation Chair, which specializes in the study and evolution of retailing practices, sustainability and corporate social responsibility in this sector. He is also a key player in retail media.

• Sarah Martin
  She is Head of the Agriculture, Forestry and Food Department at ADEME, within the Bioeconomy and Renewable Energies Division. Previously, she was in charge of climate change mitigation in agriculture at regional level, and then of sustainable food at ADEME.

• Emilie Rousselou
  Farmer, Émilie Rousselou grows spirulina on her organic farm in the Cévennes. Now Director and co-founder of EUfarms, the European Network of Certified Organic Agroecological Farms, she works to promote the agroecological transition through research, peer-to-peer learning and territorial design.

• Marion Schuppe
  A graduate of ESCP, Marion has been investing in high-impact companies for the past 10 years, particularly in the agri-food sector. She co-manages the makesense association’s funds, after working for 5 years at Quadia as Investment Director.

• Ugo Bessière
  A graduate of Sciences Po Grenoble and the College of Europe in Bruges, Ugo Bessière has developed an expertise in public policies for ecological transition and social support (Pays de la Loire/Nantes Métropole region). Elected Loire-Atlantique Departmental Councillor in 2021, he activates levers to protect agricultural land and promote healthy, sustainable food. He reoriented himself towards therapeutic support and trauma care, which he now practices in his Nantes office.

• Gilles Trystram
  Professor Emeritus Agroparistech, Managing Director of Genopole since 2022, he previously held the position of Director of AgroParisTech, Director of UMR Génial (food process engineering), member of the Conseil National de l’Alimentation. Author and co-author of 120 scientific publications in the field of food processing.

COS Art citoyen members

• Jérôme Villeneuve / President
  Doctor in “Engineering of Cognition, Interaction, Learning and Creation”, he worked in the fields of research (Cellule ANIS, within the GIPSA laboratory) and cultural action (ARCAN association and DNA festival), before taking over the management of L’Hexagone, Scène nationale, which hosts the EXPERIMENTA biennial and specializes in the relationship between Arts, Sciences and Territory.

• Marie-Christine Bordeaux
  University professor at Grenoble Alpes University, researcher at Gresec, she was a member of the Haut Conseil de l’éducation artistique et culturelle, co-chair of the Art+Université+Culture network and co-founder of the network of university science & society vice-presidents.

• Gwenola Drillet
  Cultural action officer, at Le Quartz in Brest, at the Rennes choreographic center, then dance mission officer for the Brittany Region, she joined the TNB where she was Deputy General Secretary before taking over general coordination of the Hôtel Pasteur, infinite venue for the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. Today, she is director of Maison des Squares, a popular education association that coordinates Polyblosne in Rennes.

• Dieynébou Fofana
  Lecturer in education and training at the Université Paris-Est Créteil, she co-directed the PEGASE research-evaluation project. Specializing in the field of dance, her work examines the links between artistic practices, youth, cultural institutions and territorial dynamics.

• Sylvain Gouraud
  A visual artist based in the Drôme region of France, Sylvain Gouraud’s collaborative practice unfolds in the territories he activates to build, with the people concerned, a fair and shared representation of the issues they face. Exhibited in various museums, his work is composed of photographic images and sound.

• Sarah Koné
  Deputy Director, General Coordination, Strategy and Public Relations at the Cité de la Musique – Philharmonie de Paris, she is also the Founder of the Maitrise Populaire de l’Opéra-Comique, a multi-disciplinary training program in the performing arts that relies on active recruitment to guarantee a social and geographic mix in its workforce.

• Aurélie de Lanlay
  Deputy Director of Les Rencontres d’Arles for almost 10 years, she has been developing the festival’s social and solidarity commitment, as well as its CSR orientation around the issues of transmission, initiation to image reading, eco-responsibility and mutualization, inclusion, accessibility and insertion for all audiences, and in particular vulnerable, fragile or isolated audiences.

• Thierry Seguin
  Director of the Centre national de création adaptée (CNCA) in Morlaix, he was also Director of the Théâtre de l’Entresort, alongside Madeleine Louarn and the Catalyse troupe, where he worked to promote the inclusion of disabled artists in the performing arts.