Infrastructure - Renewable energy,
by Omnes Capital

“You are not born an entrepreneur – you become one”, says Xavier Barbaro when asked about the success story that is Neoen, which has grown to become France’s third-largest producer of green energy behind EDF and GDF Suez. Admittedly, when he started out, Xavier did have a few important qualities, not least being a graduate of École Polytechnique and École des Ponts et Chaussées, two prestigious French schools. But there was no hint of his future career as an entrepreneur. He got the bug from Jacques Veyrat, then boss of LDCom. “I was deeply marked by my time at LDCom during the dot-com boom. I saw the beating heart of a business and encountered stories of passion, struggle and survival.”

After a spell in the USA, during which he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School, Xavier Barbaro joined Louis Dreyfus Commodities and led a number of projects in Asia, particularly in the biofuel sector. In 2007, he went back to Jacques Veyrat, who was by then in charge of the Louis Dreyfus Group, and told him that he wanted to work in the energy sector and to take on an entrepreneurial project. With Veyrat’s backing, he got involved in renewable energy with the creation of Neoen. It was a daring undertaking in a sector that then included about 300 firms in France. Xavier put his faith in a pioneering spirit, support from top-tier shareholders and a rigorous approach.

Success came quickly. “We now manage projects that are 600 times larger than the ones we started out with in 2008. The launch of Europe’s biggest solar park shows how far we have come in a few years.” Although he is keeping both feet firmly in France, Xavier is also looking abroad, with numerous projects under development in places as far afield as Australia, Egypt, Mexico and El Salvador. “As the costs of producing solar power tumble, we are taking everyone by surprise. This is just beginning.”