My Journey to the Top

Anne Lauvergeon
CEO, the French energy conglomerate Areva

Both my parents are literary people, so I don't come from a scientific background. When I took the French baccalaureate, about half the students taking the scientific exam were women. But when I got to the Ecole des Mines [science and engineering university], we were only 10 percent women.

I studied science by accident. I hated physics and only got an 8 out of 20 on the physics portion of the baccalaureate. But I had an excellent physics professor who made the subject interesting and challenging and it made me want to study more. I don't feel I was judged for being a woman when I studied science because the grade said it all. It's a neutral scoring system.

I had the impression that the generation before me had fought very hard for women's status. I have two younger brothers and we were all raised equally, so I thought society was set up the same way. However, when I moved into the business world later, I learned that things were not what I thought. My first boss said to me at my job interview, "A woman's place is in the home." But he saw that I produced good results and even had good things to say about me. So at a meeting a few months later, I said, "Perhaps you've changed your opinion about a woman's place," and he said, "No. You are not a woman." That was 25 years ago. Today I don't think anyone would dare say such a thing. But saying and thinking are two different things.

I don't have an ambitious nature. My parents didn't challenge us. We were very loved and rather free. Growing up with love and freedom instills confidence in oneself but also teaches us to have confidence in others. If I got a bad grade at school, it was my problem. So I learned to assume responsibility and consequences at a young age.
When I was 25, I didn't see myself as a CEO at all. But I like challenges and I don't like to fail. When I do fail, I think it's very important to analyze what went wrong. We tend to try to forget our failures and want to sweep them under the rug. I do the opposite: I'm a big believer in doing an autopsy on our failures.

I try to be completely transparent within my company and to create collective energy and enthusiasm. I work in the energy business, so it's appropriate. I'm wary of places where people are clones of one another. I like to have a team with diverse backgrounds, ages and education … people who think differently, which make opinions rich. I never put two people on the same task and never encourage in-house battles. It serves no purpose. I don't believe in absolute consensus, either; it takes too long and there is too much to do. Decisions are made by executive committee. There are no hidden agendas.
My company is growing all the time and it's very international, so I travel a lot. In the last few weeks, I've been to Japan, New York, China, Finland … but it's important to be at the headquarters, too. I have two young children, so I try to limit my business trips to four days. If I have to be away longer, I try to take my family along by scheduling it during school vacation. I'm not from the school of having a nanny raise the children, so when I'm in Paris I try to get home early enough to have quality time with them.