Why Gérard Foundation.

“There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family.”

The Gérard Foundation was born from a simple conviction: each of us inherits, in our own way, a debt to those who helped us grow. My life was shaped early on by the chance to meet people who opened doors for me, teachers, mentors, institutions. This non-profit organization is our way of giving back what we have received.

From a young age, art taught me to see the world differently. Drawing, painting, sculpture at the Beaux-Arts. Piano at the conservatoire. It was not a curriculum, it was a way of being. I understood later that this immersion in culture is not given to everyone. And that this inequality is just as serious as the others.

My career then took me far, at the intersection of business and innovation, across countries and very different contexts. These travels taught me one essential thing: poverty, environmental destruction, health inequalities are not inevitable. They are the consequences of collective choices. And collective choices can be changed.

We act across five pillars, education, art & culture, environment, health, and the fight against poverty, because none of these battles makes sense in isolation. A child who learns is biodiversity preserved. An ocean protected is better health for all. A person lifted out of precarity is an entire community regaining momentum.

I now lead mentoring programs at Sciences Po Paris and CentraleSupélec. What I observe there every year reinforces my conviction: younger generations are infinitely more clear-eyed, more committed, and more creative than they are often given credit for. Our role is not to guide them, it is to give them the means to go where they want to go.

We believe in measurable impact over intention. In duration over spectacle. In solid partnerships over announcements. What matters is what we will build together, with you, with our partners, with the communities we accompany.

The Gérard Foundation is not an answer. It is a question asked collectively: what do we do, concretely, with the world we have inherited?