Philippe Miquel, a 1989 UTC grad­u­ate who majored in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing (now Process Engi­neer­ing), has nev­er been known to fol­low a straight path. His career is a series of suc­cess­ful trans­for­ma­tions. After defend­ing a spe­cial­ized the­sis at Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty in Bal­ti­more, USA., then head­ing Engie’s Africa divi­sion Engie, he has turned every step into a spring­board. Here is a por­trait of a man who has explored every facet of the com­pa­ny, from qui­et lab­o­ra­to­ries to devel­op­ments in Africa, via the strat­e­gy department.

So, why did you choose UTC-Com­pieg­ne? “Because I refused to be cat­e­gorised. At Ville­momble High School, I had no clear idea of my path, but I knew what I didn’t want: the prepara­to­ry class, which was too aca­d­e­m­ic for my taste,” he con­fides. He then sought out a gen­er­al­ist school capa­ble of keep­ing his options open. UTC stood out clear­ly as the obvi­ous choice.

What set it apart from oth­er engi­neer­ing schools? “Open-mind­ed­ness”, he says. At UTC, an aca­d­e­m­ic record isn’t lim­it­ed to a report card or exam scores, he explains. Philippe Miquel is a pas­sion­ate ath­lete, par­tic­u­lar­ly in fencing—a sport in which he will be com­pet­ing in the French championships—but he is also inter­est­ed in the­atre and event plan­ning. In his view, the uni­ver­si­ty val­ues this diver­si­ty: “I coached the UTC fenc­ing team for a semes­ter. The expe­ri­ence even count­ed as a course cred­it!” he adds enthusiastically.

Beyond sci­en­tif­ic rigour, he draws on an insa­tiable curios­i­ty, even tak­ing a course on art his­to­ry. “UTC val­ues open minds over crammed ones. Above all, it teach­es you how to learn and dis­cov­er things on your own, far from the ‘rote mem­o­riza­tion’ empha­sized by the tra­di­tion­al French edu­ca­tion sys­tem.” This valu­able auton­o­my would take him all the way to Bal­ti­more, in the Unit­ed States, to Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty, for a Master’s degree and then defend­ing a PhD the­sis on nanoparticles.

Back in France, he joined the research depart­ment at Gaz de France (GDF). But, after four years in R&D, the desire to see oth­er facets of the com­pa­ny began to itch. He then made his first major career shift: head­ing into sales and mar­ket­ing. The tim­ing was cru­cial for the com­pa­ny: it was the era of the merg­er with SUEZ (to become GDF SUEZ) and the open­ing of Euro­pean ener­gy mar­kets. Philippe Miquel found him­self man­ag­ing the group’s major clients, notably the giants of the steel and auto­mo­tive sectors.

His ver­sa­til­i­ty was a major asset. He rose to head the Group’s Strat­e­gy Plan­ning Depart­ment before being sin­gled out by the deputy CEO. As his chief of staff, he spent three years div­ing head­first into the world of ener­gy diplo­ma­cy. Rus­sia, Alge­ria, the Nether­lands, the Unit­ed King­dom, Nige­ria: he criss­crossed sup­pli­er coun­tries and mas­tered the intri­ca­cies of inter­na­tion­al negotiations.

After three years, a new direc­tion tran­spired: Africa. A con­ti­nent where 44% of the pop­u­la­tion still lacks access to elec­tric­i­ty. After lead­ing a gas liq­ue­fac­tion project in Cameroon, he set­tled in Abid­jan, Côte d’Ivoire Coast. As Region­al Direc­tor for West and Cen­tral Africa at Engie (the new name for GDF SUEZ), his mis­sion took on a soci­etal dimen­sion. “The goal was clear: to facil­i­tate access to ener­gy for indi­vid­u­als and busi­ness­es by focus­ing on renew­ables,” he explains. Gone are the tra­di­tion­al mod­els. He devel­ops agile solu­tions: grid-con­nect­ed solar pow­er plants, mini-grids to sup­ply iso­lat­ed com­mu­ni­ties, or rooftop instal­la­tions for indus­tri­al clients and the ter­tiary sec­tor (schools, hos­pi­tals, etc.). “We even sold indi­vid­ual solar kits for pri­vate homes.”

Through these diverse expe­ri­ences, a new ener­gy land­scape is tak­ing shape before his eyes: decen­tral­ized, sus­tain­able, and respon­sive to peo­ples’ needs. A vision that Philippe Miquel has cham­pi­oned and helped devel­op through­out his career.

Bio-notes

• 1990–1996: PhD. in Chem­i­cal Engi­neer­ing at Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­si­ty in Bal­ti­more (USA)
• 1996: Joined the research depart­ment at Gaz de France
• 2010: Chief of Staff at GDF SUEZ
• 2016: Direc­tor for West and Cen­tral Africa at Engie

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