Brune Poirson


Brune Poirson is a French politician serving as Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition since 2017.

Early life and education

Born in Washington, D.C., her mother was a paintings conservator and her father a computer consultant; she grew up in Apt in Vaucluse, where she did part of her schooling from nursery school, in the public schools of the small rural town. Poirson studied at Sciences Po Aix in Aix-en-Provence, London School of Economics and Harvard Kennedy School of Government.

Professional career

Her professional career began in London, where she was a legislative assistant to a Labour MP and researcher at Nesta for about two years.
In London she met Sam Pitroda, then minister of the government of Manmohan Singh in India. She joined his cabinet in New Delhi in 2009. After that, she started working for the French Development Agency, where she coordinated projects for sustainable urban development and biodiversity conservation.
In 2012, she and her partner created the CITIX sustainable urban development working group, of which Hubert Védrine, Brice Lalonde and Sam Pitroda are stakeholders.
She was then recruited by Veolia as director of sustainable development and social responsibility of one of its subsidiaries, Veolia Water India, in New Delhi. In this role, she worked on drinking water distribution projects in the slums of large Indian megacities, particularly in Karnataka and Nagpur. Brune Poirson then continued her career in the United States, in Boston, until 2016, where she worked in a green technology incubator.
She is a member of the 2017 promotion of the "Young Leaders" program of the France China Foundation.
On 14 March 2020 Brune Poirson was the second French government official to test positive for COVID-19.

Political career

Member of the National Assembly

Brune Poirson returned to France in 2016 to engage in Emmanuel Macron's movement, En Marche!.
She was elected to the French National Assembly on 18 June 2017, representing the Vaucluse's 3rd constituency, against the FN's candidate.

Member of the Government

On 21 June 2017 she was appointed Secretary of State to the Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Nicolas Hulot, in the Second Philippe government, and left her seat as a member of the National Assembly to her substitute Adrien Morenas.
Upon taking office, Nicolas Hulot announced that she will be in charge of the sea, biodiversity and oceans and delegates to her the European subjects. She attended the vast majority of the Councils of Energy and Environment Ministers, covering topics as diverse as the circular economy, the reform of the European electricity market, the governance of Energy union and climate, or the carbon emission trading.