© Carole Chrétien

Carole ChrétienDirector of the Business Relations Department (DRE)

Carole Chrétien is the director of the CNRS Business Relations Department. Her role involves developing and managing relations with the economic sphere in France and internationally. Her expertise in supporting companies and their projects was acquired with the Arthur Andersen group, then in the field in the Hauts-de-France region. She served as a technical advisor to two Ministers before being appointed as director of the Ministry of Finance's general commission for the internationalisation of SMEs and SMBs. Between 2014 and 2018, she was the Secretary General and Deputy Director of the Medef (the largest employer federation in France bringing together 80 professional federations) and was also the vice-president of the Smart Global Privacy start-up working on strategic and institutional development issues.

Missions

The Business Relations Department (DRE) works in close collaboration with the CNRS Institutes and regional officers to organise and develop industrial partnerships between CNRS laboratories, large corporations and SMEs. It is also very present in the regional innovation ecosystem in France.