Has sport always been part of your day-to-day life?

I’ve been practicing sport since I was a teenager! I played football for 20 years, then tennis for 6 years. Afterwards, I started running and took part in several half marathons. As a matter of fact, ten or so years ago I signed up for the Paris half marathon with my elder son, despite recurrent tendonitis in one knee. All my friends advised me against it but I nonetheless showed up for the start. Finally, without saying anything to anyone except my son, I gave my race bib to one of his friends who hadn’t been able to register. With my bib, he achieved a quite remarkable time, much better than I could have done. Result: my relations who looked up my time on the web were impressed and I received many – undeserved – congratulations! More seriously, for the past 10 years I have been doing 1h15 of sport, 4 times a week, mixing cardio and body-building workouts. I also walk 40 minutes per day to work and back. Then, on a less regular basis, I do hikes or cycling at weekends and during the holidays. I haven’t done any competitive sport for more than 10 years, so I now seek to make up for my desk job by maintaining a sustained and regular sporting activity to keep in shape.

And it seems to work!

At my age, I need to feel that my end-of-day tiredness is also due to physical effort. When I was younger, I believed that indoor sport was not worthwhile, but in the end, it’s thanks to indoor sport that I have learned to get to know my body better, target certain areas to build up my muscles, warm up and stretch better, etc. And thanks to the treadmill, I have learned to run better and adopt the right postures to avoid injuries. In fact, I’m more in touch with my own needs. When I exercise, I think of myself and do what’s good for me! I have the impression that I’m giving my body what it wants and this helps me to be more empathetic and attentive to others.

Do you feel the benefits of this regular exercise in your work?

I think that sport helps me to adapt more rapidly to changes in professional life. I regularly exercise to keep myself in good physical shape and this is also what I do in my work: I have always sought to maintain my competency level and develop a strong base so that I can keep moving forward. It’s a bit like a pianist who keeps on practicing his scales to maintain his skill. With sport, I feel more confident and develop a feeling of control which enables me to more efficiently manage the effects of change.

Have you already taken part in a sporting event organized by the Group?

A few years ago, I took part in the Raid and my team won! I was scout, in other words I took charge of logistics and assisted the team members. It was a top-level sporting occasion lasting several days and I remember very powerful moments of team effort. It was a very intense sporting and human challenge.

If you were…

An energy source?  “Diesel” is an expression used by sportsmen in the sense that it can be counted on with time and in all weathers, just like gas, which has an availability time close to 100 %, and unlike renewable energies, which are alternative and interdependent.

 A group activity? Salesman in the field, for contact with people and for getting around!

A famous personality? I greatly admire Marie Curie.

An innovation? Satellite-based geolocation; it reminds me of my first job as a surveyor/topographer.

A hashtag ? #AngersSCO: it’s the football team of Angers, where I was born. Despite their tight budget, they succeed in staying up in League 1.