Accor has appointed France’s former Secretary of State for the Ecological Transition as its new chief sustainability officer.
Brune Poirson will report directly to CEO Sébastien Bazin and join the company’s executive committee.
Accor said her role would “define, drive and monitor the commitments, the strategy and the roll-out” of its action plans for sustainable development.
Poirson entered politics on the back of Emmanuel Macron’s election victory and was elected to the French National Assembly in June 2017 before quitting earlier this month.
“For more than 25 years, Accor has been at the forefront of efforts to address the environmental and human challenges related to the development of travel and tourism,” Bazin said.
“With Brune Poirson’s appointment, I want us to scale up our commitments in terms of environmental protection, give fresh impetus to our efforts to support our local communities and uphold, wherever we operate, our strong beliefs and our actions.”
Poirson began her career in London, within NESTA, the UK-based Innovation Foundation, before moving to the French Development Agency, and the Veolia group in India. She then worked in a green start-up incubator in Boston.