Ambition. Unleashed.
Ep4. From Knowing to Curiously Learning - with Beatrice Bigois

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Host: Sara Moore

Ep4. From Knowing to Curiously Learning - with Beatrice Bigois

Ep 4. SHIFT THREE: Knower > Learner [with Beatrice Bigois]

In some ways what you know as a leader at work or in life has less significance than what you are willing to learn. In this episode of Ambition. Unleashed. our hosts Sara Moore and Wayne Alexander are joined by Beatrice Bigois of EDF Trading, a female Chief Executive in the male dominated wholesale energy sector who has made this belief core to her leadership philosophy to deliver phenomenally successful business turn arounds.


Together they explore why loosening the grip of “knowing” to endlessly cultivate “curiosity”, in yourself and if you are a leader of people in your teams, is critical to unleash ambition and be successful in bringing to life a seemingly impossible future, idea or innovation you may be dreaming of creating.

 

Beatrice Bigois Chief Executive EDF Trading Interview on Achieve Breakthrough Podcast Ambition Unleashed by Sara Moore and Wayne Alexander on Growth Mindset

Guest: Beatrice Bigois

Beatrice Bigois is former CEO of EDF Energy’s Customers division – where she delivered an extraordinary business turn around – and current CEO of EDF Trading – a wholesale energy specialist – where she is currently navigating volatility, uncertainty, and ambiguity on a unprecedented scale. Beatrice believes wholeheartedly in the power of learning, diversity, staying curious, and leading with decisive action - but not before being willing to say “I don’t know” first!

 

Background

  •  - Joined French state-owned electricity company EDF in 1994 and held a variety of roles in finance and risk management.
  •  - Moved to London in 1999 to take up a role at EDF Energy, initially to set up and run the risk management department. That same year, EDF Trading was born via a joint venture with Louis Dreyfus, to risk manage EDF Group’s global power generation assets. 
  •  - Four years later, EDF bought out Louis Dreyfus and EDF Trading became a wholly owned subsidiary of EDF Group, and in 2006 Bigois arrived, first as head of the Paris branch, then as Chief Financial Officer.
  •  - In 2014, Bigois was appointed Managing Director, Customers at EDF Energy, a role she held for six years only to return to EDF Trading at the start of 2020 as CEO. Today, the business is a prominent player across global energy markets, active throughout the value chain in electricity, natural gas, LPG, and environmental products as well as LNG and coal (through JERA Global Markets) and managing assets from production, shipping, transportation, and supply.
  •  - In her role as MD of Customers, Bigois picked up a loss-making business and turned it around, something she puts down to cost reduction but also a cultural shift. “Without the cultural shift we would have had good outcomes,” she says, “but the extraordinary outcomes came because of the cultural shift underpinning it. Part of that was around developing diversity and being a lot more open, not trying to reinvent things or do things we couldn’t do as well as others but knowing where our competitive edge was in the market.”

 

 

Transcript

Introducing the shift: "Knower" > "Learner"

[Sara] In this episode of Ambition Unleashed we’re going to explore why endlessly cultivating curiosity, in you...


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