Elodie Stephan - Head Designer

Elodie graduated from the National School of Art and Design in Nancy (France) in 2008. In 2013, she created her design studio in Paris (France) specializing in public space and urban planning. She designed several ambitious operations, in particular in collaboration with prestigious architects agencies such as Ateliers Jean Nouvel. Elodie accompanies the evolution of the city towards a sustainable model where the question of well-being is central. She is convinced that urban rainwater is a key resource for building the resilient city of tomorrow. It was by meeting Baptiste that the relevance of this philosophy to all the players in the city appeared as an economic evidence. Elodie imagines all of Vertuo®'s innovative solutions: products that fit perfectly into their environment and which, beyond their technical performance, contribute to the good experience of their users.

Baptiste Laurent - Entrepreneur

Baptiste graduated from Centrale - Essec Entrepreneurs in 2010 (AAA Business & Sciences school in France), passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation for the common good. Baptiste likes to create and develop products and services that make sense. He develops 2 companies and advises the President of the world leader of roof windows manufacturing: VELUX. Concerned about the adaptation to climate change of cities and aware of the urgency that presents itself to us, Baptiste wanted to act. Baptiste is keen to maintain the attractive and healthy urban model. In 2018, the meeting with Elodie materializes this commitment demonstrating that we can create resilient and economically attractive urban developments. Rainwater is a highly regulated resource in our territories, still poorly considered. It was then, by noting with Elodie that rainwater is considered like waste in our cities while it opens the possibility of autonomous plant cover... that the idea of ​​Vertuo® was born.

1st Prototype

Elodie creates a first bio-inspired prototype of the Bocage natural landscape, our first partners join us (Bonna Sabla, Orythie, Icade)

City of Paris winners
Urban Lab

In 2017, Elodie won the City of Paris "Adaptation to Climate Change" competition, which triggered our first pilot test in a real situation on a public square nearby Paris (France)

Olivier
landscape and urban planner

Olivier is a landscaper and urban planner. Director of development for Icade on a perimeter of 70 hectares, Olivier piloted the process of transforming a territory of activities into a "sustainable and intelligent" district, with the implementation of demonstrative elements of the city of tomorrow. Olivier worked on four main themes (mobility, housing and work, production and consumption, socializing and recreation). With a rich prospective vision on sustainable development, water, air, energy, biodiversity and data ; Olivier brings the necessary creativity to the fittings of our customers in line with our environmental constraints which are our values. Responsible for the research of extra-financial valuation of the heritage on his portfolio, Olivier has a rich network of influence, being the interlocutor of the institutional partners, for the accompaniment and the good progress of the operations.

Valéry
Water expert

Graduate engineer in Fluid Mechanics, specialist in Hydraulics. After starting his career as a consulting engineer in hydraulics and methods for major companies such as Total, PSA and Altran, Valery put his project management skills to good use by founding the Orythie design office. His diversified experience enables him to manage complex projects that call upon specialized fields such as fluid mechanics, acoustics, electronics, but also computer science (physical and 3D modeling) and ergonomics. The accumulated experience of numerous projects in the field of hydraulics has enabled him to be appointed as a Judicial Expert before the Court of Appeal of Paris and registered on the roll of Experts before the Administrative Courts of Appeal of Paris and Versailles. This commitment guarantees his affinity and his requirement with all the technical, legal and administrative constraints in this field.

Solar Impulse winners, Île-de-France region, C40 finalists

2019 strengthens our convictions: multiple labels reward our work and a major R&D programme is implemented

Commercialisation Urban Bocage
1st Oasis prototype in Paris

After more than 3 years of on-site data collection and more than 20 models, we achieve the best performance and launch Urban Bocage on the market

In the meantime, we are not wasting any time and a new product is being incubated: Oasis, which is being tested in Paris, rue de Rivoli!

Lucien
expert botanist

Botanist and environmental expert - a specialist in biodiversity and wetlands - Lucien now likes to put his skills to good use in ambitious projects such as Vertuo®, to help city users change their perception of plants. Lucien has travelled all over the world (particularly in South-East Asia - Vietnam, Burma -, Europe...) in his career for the preservation of water quality and biodiversity: botanist in a research office, then head of the department in charge of aquatic environments and recognised expert within theFrench Water Agency. His mastery of botany associated with biodiversity, his experience in the field and his knowledge of the positive environmental externalities of plants in the city enable Vertuo® to be consistently relevant in its choice of species and in its advice.

Marion
ambassador of the city's future

Passionate about nature, sustainable development and phytotherapy, Marion couldn't have chosen a better time to combine her know-how and passion for the common good with Vertuo®! We met at the Change Now Summit 2020 at the Grand Palais in Paris, where Marion was looking for a company with vision and meaning. An expert in business development strategies and an unparalleled hunter, Marion spreads the Vertuo® philosophy throughout the country and stimulates our growth. A true digital nomad, Marion travels the territory to discover the decision-makers who make the city. She meets with local authorities, property developers, major landowners and other urban players to detect emblematic projects in search of good plant sense and the recovery of biodiversity.

1st fund raising

Urban OdysseyIcade's startup studio confirms its interest in our adventure and invests €300k, remaining a minority shareholder.

Hugues
marketing expert, product

Marketing specialist, all his life deeply dedicated to his products, an ace in formulation. Hugues trained at the prestigious agencies Saatchi & Saatchi and Publicis. He is a specialist in brand, product and service development. Hugues is passionate about our adventure, sensitive to the changes that cities around the world must make in order to maintain our quality of life, and is developing our offer for our different markets.

Stéphane
expert in prescription and business development.

A real sense of business, results and work value, combined with an MBA. Stéphane is Vertuo's man on the ground, bringing his solid skills and experience in setting up and (re)structuring entities, BUs, etc. to organise Vertuo's expansion into new markets both in France and internationally. Passionate about design for our well-being, Stéphane is also convinced that Vertuo's solutions will change life in our cities.

100 projects deployed in France!

Cities are embracing Vertuo's promise of waterless vegetation: repeated droughts and prefectoral restrictions make Vertuo a must-have in the city.

Gaëtan
digital marketing expert

A former member of the French Foreign Legion, Gaëtan is a daring adventurer who likes to take on ambitious challenges - when we met at the Entrepreneur Network, it was natural that he threw himself into the Vertuo adventure, breaking new ground for us in a brand-new region: the Greater South-West. He deploys our evangelization of the territory for Vertuo thanks to a solid digital marketing acquisition strategy and targeted public relations actions.

Asra
Phd Urban hydrology

A specialist in urban hydrology, trained by the prestigious DEEP team at Insa Lyon (AAA engineering school in France) under the supervision of Pierre Buffière, whose work on the propagation of urban pollutants and the urban water cycle has been rich and varied. Asra brings her expertise to the study of rainfall, runoff and pollution control. In particular, she conducts R&D studies to optimize the operation of Vertuo products.

Vertuo Street at the Olympic Games!

The SOLIDEO has entrusted VERTUO, in a consortium with Emulithe / Alkern / Veolia, with the greening of road Ampère using our innovative system. This is the largest street to include Vertuo to date, with a linear length of nearly 160m. A real demonstration for cities!