Our Leadership

A graduate of the École des Hautes Études Commerciales in Jouy-en-Josas, France, Frédéric Van Heems began his career in 1986 at the French newspaper Le Figaro, before joining the Lagardère Group in 1994 where he was Chairman and CEO, first for Lapker in Hungary and then for Zendis in France.

In 2002, he joined Areva, as Director of the uranium enrichment program. Three years later, he was appointed President and CEO of Canberra as worldwide leader in radioactivity measurement systems and solutions, where he was based in New York.

In 2009, he was named CEO of Cegelec Group. In 2011, he created his consulting company, and in 2013, he became CEO of Alstom Power Automation and Control.

Frédéric Van Heems joined Veolia in 2014 as General Manager of its subsidiary Siram in Italy. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer for Veolia Water France in 2016, before becoming Chief Executive Officer of Veolia North America in 2021.

Veronique has worked for more than 16 years at Veolia, the global leader in water, waste and energy management solutions which contribute to the sustainable development of cities and industries. 

Over the years, she has held a wide variety of technical and business development positions. She first started her career at Veolia in Paris, including seven years in the Technical Department as Material and Corrosion Expert and as a Process Engineer.

In 2013, she moved to the United States where she joined Veolia Water Technologies in Chicago as Strategic Business Development Manager in charge of the development and expansion of key new markets.

In 2016, she became a part of the management team of Veolia Water Technologies Americas (North and South) as the Digital Business Development Director managing the launch and deployment of the company's digital services and three years later, in addition to this role, she also served as the Chemical Business Development Director.

In 2020, she was appointed Senior Director and then Vice President, Development, Strategy and Innovation, at Veolia North America where she led digital transformation, market intelligence and marketing, strategic growth and key account program, sustainability initiatives such as biodiversity plan.

Veronique is currently the Executive Vice President of Development, Strategy and Innovation and Chief Growth Officer, where she works closely with business leaders and a commercial community of over 200 to set, drive and execute VNA's growth strategy. 

She received her Masters and PhD in Process Engineering from the Ecole des Mines in France and is a Harvard alumni.

In 1991, Bob joined Veolia Environmental Services as the Director of Regulatory Affairs for the company's hazardous waste management operations and resided in Flanders, NJ. In 1996, he moved to New England to become the General Manager for the branch operations in that area, and in 2008, he became the Vice President of Service Operations for the Eastern region of the company. In 2012, Bob assumed responsibility for Veolia's operations in the Western Region. In 2014, he became the Senior Vice President for the Environmental Solutions and Services (ESS) business of Veolia's Industrial business line. In 2015, his scope of responsibility expanded to include Veolia's environmental business lines in Canada. In 2016, he was named Chief Operating Officer ESS business.

Bob started his environmental career in 1987 as an Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Engineer for the General Electric (GE) Company in Somerville, NJ. In 1989, he became the EHS Manager for GE’s semiconductor manufacturing operations in the United States and Europe. While in this role, he experienced first-hand the falling of the Berlin Wall and the massive San Francisco earthquake and the environmental issues that ensued.

Bob is a proud graduate of the University of Michigan and has completed extensive graduate studies in toxicology at Michigan and environmental health at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Most importantly, Bob is the proud dad of a son, Dominick. Bob is also an avid marathon runner (120+).

Denis Chesseron was appointed Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administrative Officer of Veolia North America (VNA) in September 2020. In this role, he leads VNA’s Finance organization, including transformation initiatives, in addition to Procurement and Information and Systems Technology. As a strong believer in Veolia's purpose and resourcing the world, he views his role as a catalyst and changemaker for all of its business lines. He reports to the President and CEO of VNA as well as the Veolia group's Chief Financial Officer. In addition, Denis spends time traveling to different businesses within Veolia to better understand the Group’s operations and culture. 

Denis joined Veolia group's Water division in 2005, became the Group's Financial Controller in 2012 and then served as Group Deputy Chief Financial Officer until 2020. He was also a member of the Group’s management committee, relying on team spirit to break down barriers that may exist in a large organization.

Denis holds a Master of Finance from the University of Orléans in France. 

He is married and is the proud father of a son and two daughters. He is also an opera lover and enjoys walking, playing tennis and visiting contemporary art exhibitions.

Brian Clarke is Chief Impact Officer at Veolia North America (VNA). He is responsible for Veolia's water and wastewater operations and maintenance services, both contracted and regulated, across the United States and Canada. 

From September 2019 to June 2021, he served as interim president and CEO leading the water, energy, waste and resource recovery activities of Veolia's North American zone.

Beginning in 2018, Brian led strategy and corporate development activities for Veolia North America, working to evaluate new business opportunities including acquisitions, joint ventures and complex bids and contracts. He was also responsible for developing VNA’s growth strategy working in close cooperation with our business line leaders.

Brian joined Veolia in 1999 in the legal department of Veolia Water North America, holding a number of positions with VWNA, including chief financial officer and general counsel. Brian has also been executive vice president of corporate development and strategy for Aegion Corporation, a partner at the Chicago law firm of Seyfarth Shaw and a member of the legal department of Waste Management, Inc, including general counsel of the company's hazardous waste subsidiary, Chemical Waste Management, Inc.

He received his Doctor of Law degree from the University of Illinois College of Law and earned a Bachelor of Arts, also from the University of Illinois. He is a licensed attorney in the State of Illinois.

Christina DeLago serves as Program Management Officer to the CEO. Based in Boston, she is responsible for managing critical strategic initiatives that drive Veolia North America’s strategy on behalf of the zone’s CEO and Executive Committee. Previously, she was a senior analyst on VNA’s Performance team, where she played a key role in preparing for Veolia’s integration with Suez ahead of their merger in 2022.

From 2014 to 2018, Christina was a consultant with CS Technology, now part of Accenture. At CS Technology, she provided data analytics and project management expertise to Fortune 500 clients in the  IT & Financial Services sector.

Christina holds a Master of Science of Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering and Public Policy from Stevens Institute of Technology.

Marc Demougeot is the Chief Digital Officer for Veolia North America. With more than 20 years of technology experience, Marc leads the transformation of Veolia North America’s Information Systems and Technologies (IS&T) function.

Marc joined Veolia North America from Veolia Water France where he served as the Chief Information Officer from 2019 to 2021, having previously held a number of roles across Veolia’s IS&T function since 2006. Prior to joining Veolia, he was a consultant with Aubay, a technology consulting firm based in France.

He graduated from the Aix-Marseille Graduate School of Management.

Carrie Griffiths was appointed Executive Vice President of Communications and Chief Communications Officer of Veolia North America (VNA) in February 2022. She leads VNA's communications team to promote, enhance and protect VNA's brand.

Through media relations, digital and social media, crisis communications management, employee engagement and executive communications, she communicates the company's mission with various external and internal stakeholders.

Carrie joined VNA in 2018 as vice president of communications where she works with the leadership team to recognize internal and external communications opportunities and define appropriate strategies to capitalize on them. She was promoted to senior vice president of communications in October 2019 and to executive vice president and chief communications officer in 2022.

She brings more than 25 years' corporate communications experience in global Fortune 150 environmental services, waste, energy and manufacturing corporations.

Prior to joining VNA, she was director of global communications for InterGen, an independent power producer. She has held roles of increasing responsibility in corporate communications at Waste Management, Wheelabrator Technologies and Tyco International.

Graduating with honors from the University of New Hampshire, Carrie has a Bachelor of Arts in communications.

Andrianne Payson serves as Executive Vice President Legal and General Counsel of Veolia North America. In this role, she serves as legal advisor to the executive management team and oversees the company’s legal, insurance and governance functions. Previously, Andrianne was the Senior Vice President and General Counsel of SUEZ North America, and served as secretary of its board of directors and Chief Ethics Officer.
 
Prior to joining Suez, Andrianne was a partner and the United States Co-Chair for DLA Piper’s Energy-Power Sector. In this role, she represented energy industry clients, including utilities, project developers and equity investors, on a variety of infrastructure projects and M&A transactions in the U.S., Africa and the Caribbean.
 
In addition to her legal experience, Andrianne is a Certified Public Accountant and was previously an auditor at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where she audited investor-owned utilities in New York and Connecticut.
 
In 2021, Andrianne was recognized by Public Utilities Fortnightly in its publication “Women Leading Utilities: The Pioneers and Path to Today and Tomorrow.”  She was also named an “Energy and Environmental Law Trailblazer” by the National Law Journal in 2017 and recognized by The Legal 500 United States in the area of finance: project finance in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
 
Andrianne serves on Cornell Law School’s Advisory Council and is a member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women.
 
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in public accounting from City University of New York and a Juris Doctor degree from Cornell Law School.

Karine Rougé serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Veolia North America’s Municipal Water services. Previously, she was a director for First Sentier Investors, a leading global infrastructure investor. 

For 11 years, Karine worked for Suez and has extensive experience in the water industry both in North America and Europe, where she led various strategic transformations in the digital, municipal and industrial water sectors to build cutting-edge teams, solutions and services aimed at solving global water treatment challenges. Karine joined Suez in 2010 as Chief of Staff, working for the Group Senior Vice President of Finance in Paris where she managed several organizational and acquisitions projects. In 2013, Karine moved into the role of Senior Vice President in charge of sales for the Smart Building division, achieving double digit growth in the smart monitoring of water and energy consumption in commercial and residential buildings. In 2015, Karine joined Suez in North America as President for Treatment Solutions which was integrated into Suez Water Technologies and Solutions (“Suez WTS”) after the acquisition of GE Water by Suez in 2017. She was then CEO of the Global Services business, where she led a profound strategic and cultural transformation, achieving double digit growth globally as well as a significant expansion of offerings and market positioning. In 2020, she was also appointed Chief Transformation Officer of Suez WTS.

Prior to joining Suez, Karine worked at Goldman Sachs in the investment banking division in London, Paris and Johannesburg, where she worked on various acquisition and financing projects.

Karine holds an M.S. in management from HEC Paris and an M.S. in economics from the Paris School of Economics.

Patrick Schultz was appointed President and CEO, Sustainable Industries and Buildings (SIB) for Veolia North America in June 2023. SIB helps industrial and commercial customers operate more reliably while reducing their environmental footprint.
 
SIB enables companies to achieve their net zero carbon and other ESG goals by integrating Veolia’s expertise in water and energy operations, decarbonization and energy efficiency, enterprise- and site-level energy management, and circular economy solutions for heavy industries.
 
Patrick joined Veolia North America (VNA) in 2011 and has held multiple operational, commercial and corporate roles. Most recently, he served as Chief Growth Officer with responsibility for sales, business development, marketing, mergers and acquisitions and innovation across VNA. He also served as Transformation Leader for the merger with Suez North America, preparing the integration of over $1 billion in municipal water activity and over 3,000 employees into VNA’s portfolio.
 
Prior to joining the company, Patrick worked at McKinsey & Co. where he consulted on performance transformation and strategy for a wide range of clients across numerous industries, including water utilities, chemicals, oil and gas and semiconductor manufacturing.
 
Patrick received a PhD in geosciences from Princeton University for his research on the impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems. He also holds an MSc in environmental engineering from Michigan Technological University and a Diplom-Ingenieur in environmental engineering from the Universität Stuttgart in his native Germany.

Luc Stefani is the Chief People Officer of Veolia North America, a role he assumed in 2022 as part of Veolia’s merger with Suez. As Chief People Officer, he partners with the business to attract, retain and develop VNA’s employees, with responsibility for compensation and benefits, payroll, HR systems, training and development, talent acquisition, performance management, rewards and recognition, and employee relations. 

Previously, Luc served as the Chief Human Resource Officer for Suez’s Water Technologies & Solutions based in Trevose, Pennsylvania, where he was responsible for developing, implementing and managing a human resources function that served nearly 10,000 employees around the world.

Prior to this role, Luc served as the HR leader for Suez in Latin America and the Key Account Management organization. He spent over 15 years in the Suez HR organization, with roles of increasing responsibility, including HR for Middle-East Asia Pacific for Suez Construction business, Group Talent Development Leader and HR for Suez Global Function including Finance, Communication, IT and Legal.

He earned a Master’s in Human Resources from Université Paris Dauphine.

Anouk Trudel serves as Country Director and Chief Executive Officer of Veolia North America’s (VNA) operations in Canada, responsible for all of Canada’s energy and industrial activities, including hazardous waste and used oil. Based in Montréal, she is bilingual and has more than 25 years of experience managing transformational and strategic projects across many industries, including healthcare/pharmaceuticals, financial services, technology, natural resources and telecommunications. 

From 2020 to 2022, Anouk was the Vice President of VNA's Québec Energy Division, overseeing building management for clients such as Hydro-Québec, Desjardins and the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM), one of the largest hospitals in North America, where she also served as VNA’s Site Director. In that role, she led a multidisciplinary team responsible for the CHUM's operating services, such as energy and utility management, maintenance services, IT technology services, the help desk and security services. 

Earlier in her career, she held a variety of senior roles across multiple departments with Desjardins, building on her 15 years as a consultant with Accenture. 

Anouk earned a Master of Business Administration from the McGill-HEC Montréal program and a Bachelor of Business Administration from Université de Montréal.

Chris Low was appointed Executive Vice President of Technical, Performance, and Environmental, Health and Safety, and Chief Technical Officer for Veolia North America in September 2023. In this role, Chris and his team provide technical expertise, delivery of capital investment projects, environmental compliance and ensure safe operations.

As a strong believer in Veolia's purpose to be a leader in ecological transformation, Chris and his team lead critical initiatives to optimize operations and to implement Veolia's multi-faceted performance indicators to add value for all of Veolia's stakeholders.  

Chris joined Veolia’s Water and Technologies Solutions division in 2004 and held various roles in project management and supply chain leadership, and he led the North America projects business from 2017 to 2023. He uses his wide network in Veolia to unlock value for customers and growth opportunities through collaboration across business units.

Prior to joining Veolia, Chris worked for several years as a project manager in a variety of industries in the Middle East and Canada. Chris holds a degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Waterloo (Ontario).