Diane Binder, mother, social entrepreneur and ecosystem builder on a mission to regenerate our societies and our planet

Diane is an experienced business executive and social entrepreneur with 20 years of international experience in corporate environments, development organizations and NGOs, mostly in the Mediterranean region and Africa. She has always been guided by her deeply rooted conviction that a system change was needed to prioritize social justice and planetary well-being, and that it could only be achieved by breaking the silos between governments, civil society and the corporate world. To do so, she has worked in various environments and countries across 4 continents to develop public-private alliances fostering solutions promoting urban and community resilience, climate adaptation and mitigation, and the preservation of natural capital. More recently, she found an echo as well as strong economic and science-based foundations in the concept of regenerative economy.

In 2021, she therefore founded Regenopolis, as an international and collaborative initiative supporting local solutions developed by SMEs and entrepreneurs at the intersection of climate action, nature regeneration and social well-being. Regenopolis had initially developed 3 main programs: 1) supporting nature-positive solutions for urban development in Africa; 2) supporting the development of regenerative and commercially viable value chains, more specifically along the Sahel Great Green Wall; and 3) offering advisory services to corporates and international organizations to shift towards regenerative business models.

In 2023, she co-founded 700’000 heures Impact, a pioneer in regenerative travel, built on the back of trailblazing micro-hospitality initiative 700’000 heures, a luxury and exclusive wandering hotel offering pop-ups in remote areas while working with local communities. 700’000 heures Impact harnesses hospitality to catalyze projects that sustainably regenerate local communities and surrounding natural ecosystems through the emergence of local bio-businesses while preserving cultural heritage.

Before setting up her own ventures, Diane spent 10 years at SUEZ, a global leader providing water and waste management services to populations and industries, successively as Senior Vice-President for International Development in charge of Africa, and Senior Vice-President for International Relations.

Prior to this, Diane worked with a number of Development Financial Institutions and other international organizations such as the European Investment Bank, and as consultant for the French Development Agency, the World Bank, the OECD, etc.

Diane is a member of the French Presidential Council for Africa since 2017. She is President and co-founder of Action Emploi Réfugiés (AERé), the French leading service accompanying refugees into jobs.

Diane is member of the Advisory Board of a few social impact ventures: SOS Group International (Europe biggest social enterprise), OpenESG (the first open, democratic and credibly neutral ESG rating utility) and Ubuntu Tribe (an ecosystem of digital investment backed by real assets).

Diane has been honored as a « Young Global Leader » of the World Economic Forum (2019), a « European Young Leader » of the leading think-tank Friends of Europe (2018), is amongst the Choiseul 200 « Economic Leaders for Tomorrow » (2017) and a Rising Talent of the Women’s Forum (2014).

She is a graduate from E.M. Lyon with a MSc in Management (2002), from Georgetown University with a MSc in Foreign Service and an Honour Certificate in International Business Diplomacy (2008) and has been awarded a Certificate of Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century Program from Harvard University (2021) and a Certificate in Artificial Intelligence from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (2023).