I work at Ceebios, the french equivalent of Biomimicry 3.8 / The Biomimicry Institute. We carry out R&D projects and provide project management assistance to private companies and local authorities wishing to invent responsible innovations through biomimicry, from the scale of materials to the scale of territories. In this context, we work on bio-inspired urban projects, involving buildings, blocks and neighbourhoods and their communities. We have carried out research in the field of regenerative planning, notably by supporting Eduardo Blanco's thesis (https://hal.science/tel-03895111) and by participating in the European COST Restore project (www.eurestore.eu). Alongside the Institut des Futurs Souhaitables (www.futurs-souhaitables.org), we are also a principal partner of the Territory Lab (https://territory-lab.com), a research-action-transmission collective set up by Olivier Massicot to transform the Drôme Valley (Biovallée de la Drôme) using a bio-inspired approach to territories - now replicating the approach to other territories.

As head of strategic development, governance and shareholder relations, my work at Ceebios consists essentially of support functions for the smooth running and development of the company. With a background in management, administration and strategy, I set up and ran companies in the internet start-up sector until 2009, when I gave up this career after a near death-experience, during which I remembered that I had always dreamed of studying and practicing ecological architecture. So I went back to studying architecture and design, with a focus on ecological and bio-inspired architecture and urban planning. This enabled me to work for 5 years in an architecture firm (XTU Architects) as R&D Director, where I was able to develop bio-inspired innovations: 'biofacades' (photobioreactors of microalgae integrated into building facades), 'wild on wall' (systems of vegetated walls in vertical meadows), urban agriculture, etc. My initial skills quickly caught up with me, however, and I was headhunted to take over the management of an Institute for the Energy Transition of Buildings, taking me further away from what really thrilled me: designing urban projects reconnected to the genius loci and natural ecosystems. My discussions with Bill Reed in 2019 and 2020 revealed to me the full potential of Regenerative Design & Dev, and I hope to be able to find my way back to it.

I've never felt so much intellectual excitement as when I worked on landscaping projects during my architectural studies. Because of my generalist background and my studies in strategy, I naturally applied a holistic approach to projects: soil and ecological elements, latent ecosystem services, history of the place and its neighborhood, local culture, social fabric, and so on. The project then seemed to emerge naturally from the optimal resolution of these multiple variables into a synthesis of a new place of energy, which then translated into an adapted form. However, I've been able to experiment with completely opposite approaches in architectural practice, where form took precedence and the resulting building was like a design object artificially placed in its environment. From my discussions with Bill Reed, I immediately understood that RD&D's frames of reference were perfectly suited to a holistic approach, and even more so. My aim is to master them sufficiently to be able to start working on real projects.

I've been interested in agroforestry for the past 4 years, and in particular forest gardens (multi-storey orchards, edible forests, etc.), and was able to take a training course last autumn with a French expert (Mathieu Foudral). My wife and I have acquired 20 hectares of forest and meadow, which we intend to transform into a biodiversity reserve (free evolution zone, forest garden, reforestation, extension of the riparian zone, etc.). I'd like to be able to turn this area into an acupuncture point that can eventually irrigate the local territory with social and ecosystem benefits. A rather crazy project, for which I don't really have the means, and for which I'm looking for the most appropriate set-up.

In 2020 and 2021, I trained in Shared Governance (sociocracy, holacracy, etc.), which I introduced at Ceebios and which we have been practicing since 2022 throughout the organization. I was able to witness the power of collective intelligence tools, but above all the profound change in personal posture required to use these tools effectively: reconnecting with one's emotions and listening to those of others ("heart, body, mind"), welcoming tensions as gifts, as opportunities for improvement, taking care of the collective path, rather than individual performance ("alone we go faster, but together we go further"), and taking a reflective approach to individual and collective approaches. Despite 2 years of training and more than 2 years of practice of shared governance, I still feel like a "young Padawan", as the reflexes of decades of school education, parental education, and professional training are so difficult to clear. However, I see in it the heart of the possible evolution of humanity towards an essential maturity to manage the countless current challenges. And I wish to be able to play a part in it through Regenerative Design & Development and Shared Governance.

In addition to having resumed architecture and design studies at the age of 40, I followed numerous training courses in parallel with my professional activity: ecological building design (1 year program), efficient energy renovation (MOOC sustainable building) , responsible rehabilitation of old buildings (MOOC sustainable building), Designing your forest-garden (Mathieu Foudral), introduction to shared governance (Université du Nous), and read numerous books and online resources on these subjects. I have also already read the TRP training reference book and numerous articles and documents sent to me by Bill Reed in 2019.

- Philosophy of language (Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Michel Foucault,...)
- Complexity (Gilles Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Steven Johnson, Manuel DeLanda, James Lovelock,...)
- Collective Intelligence and cognitive sciences (Pierre Lévy, John Medina, Boris Cyrulnik,...)
- Shared Governance (Frédéric Laloux, Université du Nous, Giles Hutchins,...)
- Urban sociology (Richard Florida, Jane Jacobs,...)
- Ecology (Rachel Carlson, Bruno Latour, Dominique Bourg, Olivier Hamant, Baptiste Morizot, Marc-André Selosse, Peter Wohlleben, Hans Jonas, Derrick Jensen,...)
- Agro-ecology and Permaculture (Pierre Rabhi, Mathieu Foudral, Fabrice Desjours, Antoine Talin, Martin Crawford, David Holmgren, Damien Dekarz,...)
- Biomimicry (Janine Benyus, Henry Dicks, Gauthier Chapelle, Maibritt Pedersen Zari,...)
- Regenerative cities and communities (Herbert Girardet, Pamela Mang, Ben Haggard, Bill Reed, Daniel Wahl, Toby Hemenway,...)
- Economy and degrowth (Nicholas Georgescu-Roegen, Serge Latouche, Donella and Dennis Meadows, )
- Regenerative Economy (Paul Polman / Andrew Winston, Michael Shuman, Tim Jackson, Paul Hawken, Isabelle Delannoy, Emmanuel Delannoy,...)
- Economy and lobbying (Jean-Marc Gancille, Marie-Monique Robin, Fabrice Nicolino, Stéphane Foucart, Naomi Klein,...)
- Climate Science (Jean-Marc Jancovici, Jean Jouzel, Valérie Masson-Delmotte,...)
- Collapse (Jared Diamond, Pablo Servigne, Raphaël Stevens, Fabian Scheidler, Marc Elsberg, Julien Wosnitza, ...)

I am an earthling, deeply connected to our living earth ("gaïa"), meaning all living organisms and there ecosystems: our biosphere - or symbiosphere as Joël de Rosnay defines it. Considering the disastrous situation we're in because of our fossile, extractivist, productivist, and consumerist economy, and its strong organized resistance to change, I feel more and more misanthropic. I see in permaculture, biomimicry and regenerative design and development great areas of hope for our living earth.