Marion Guillou

Dr Marion Guillou, a French national, is an independent director of Boards.She is also in 2024 the Chairperson of the French Academy of Agriculture, and member of the French Academy of Technology. She chairs an NGO, Care-France. She is a member of the French High Council on climate.

She was previously the President and CEO of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) for 8 years (2004-2012) and CEO for 4 years (2000-2004). She was responsible for 8,500 employees and a total budget of 830 million Euros. She also has 16 years’ experience with complex national and international partnerships. 

Marion was a member of the High-Level Panel of Experts that is the science-policy interface of the UN Committee on World Food Security (2013-2016); she co-created and then chaired (2010-2013) the Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change (FACCE) that involved 21 countries. 

From 2008 to 2013, she was the Chair of the Board of the prestigious École Polytechnique. From 2000 to 2012, in INRA she prioritized research on agriculture, food, and environment. She widened the scope of research topics towards global matters. 

From 1996 to 2000, she was responsible for the food safety directorate in France and during this time proposed the new French food safety organization (1999 law on food safety).  

Marion holds a Doctorate in Food Sciences and is a Chartered Engineer. She completed her engineering training at École Polytechnique (promotion X1973), then specialized in water engineering in a school now known as AgroParisTech, and holds a doctorate from the University of Nantes. 

She has written many scientific articles and chapters of books on food safety, agro-ecological dynamics, and global food and nutrition security, such as ‘The World’s Challenge: Feeding 9 Billion people’ (Ed Springer).