Who are we?

Our vision

The energy transition has entered a new phase: more than a simple acceleration of the trend observed until now, it is characterized by profound changes in the energy system and the emergence of innovative models which lay the foundations of a new economy : an economy based on the abundance of clean energy sources, on a more decentralized and more resilient architecture, on hydrogen and synthetic fuels as carbon-free fuels that can free the world from its dependence on fossil fuels.

Verso Energy is contributing to writing this new page in the energy transition.

DISRUPTION

FLEXIBILITY

DECARBONATION

TERRITORY

SENIOR FOUNDERS EXPERIENCED IN THE ENERGY INDUSTRY

Xavier Caïtucoli
President

Xavier Caïtucoli

Xavier Caïtucoli is a French entrepreneur who co-founded independent energy group Direct Energie in 2003. He ran the group as Chief Executive Officer until it was sold to leading French energy company Total in 2018 for an equity value close to €2bn, and subsequently renamed Total Direct Energie.

Mr. Caïtucoli went on to become Senior Vice-President Power & Gas Europe at Total until 2019, leading the successful integration. Under Mr. Caïtucoli’s leadership, Direct Energie went public on Paris stock exchange and combined with its main independent domestic competitor Poweo to become the leading French alternative energy supplier. At the time of its integration within Total, the group supplied more than 4 million customers in France and Belgium, generated €2bn in consolidated revenues and c.€200m in EBITDA, and operated 2 GW of installed generation capacities including notably renewables assets (solar, wind, hydraulic and biogas) and CCGTs.

Mr. Caïtucoli graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Antoine Huard
CEO

Antoine Huard

Antoine Huard was Head of Development of independent solar player Générale du Solaire from 2013 to 2021, as well as CEO of the group international branch since 2018.

In 8 years, Générale du Solaire became one of the leading independent solar operator on the French market with a portfolio of projects under development exceeding 1 GW of total capacity. Its international branch GDS International is active in Italy and Africa and became an established player in the development of solar projects for C&I clients as well as rural electrification programmes.
Antoine is also president of France Territoire Solaire, a think-tank dedicated to the development of solar energy in France.

He graduated from Ecole Polytechnique and the University of Cambridge.

Romain Verdier

Deputy CEO

Romain Verdier

Romain Verdier began his career at Arthur Andersen, joining EDF in 2004, where he held various positions in the Upstream/Downstream Trading Optimization Department and the Finance Department. In 2008, he joined Direct Energie, where he became one of the main managers. He structured the energy management activity, notably overseeing the pricing of commercial offers, customer supply, and the optimization of production assets on wholesale markets. After the acquisition of Direct Energie by Total, he became the Vice-President of Energy Management Power & Gas Europe of TotalEnergies in 2019.

Romain Verdier was also a member of the Higher Energy Council and Administrator of the Union Française de l’Energie.

An experienced management team

Victor Lévy-Frébault
Head of Development

Victor Lévy-Frébault

Former director of development of thermal power plants at Direct Energie from 2007 to 2019, Victor is responsible for the development of several 400 MWe CCGTs, including that of Landivisiau. He was appointed Director of Business Dev. Europe after the takeover of DE by Total and is studying the development of 1,600 and 800 MWe combined cycle gas power plants with CO2 capture in the UK and Belgium, each project representing investments of around €500 to €2,000 million.

Victor graduated from UTC.

Marion Gaudry
Head of Renewables

Marion Gaudry

Marion has been working in the development of renewable energy projects since 2016. She first developed wind farm projects at Velocita Energies, the European subsidiary of the turbine manufacturer Envision, before joining Qair to contribute to the launch of their photovoltaic activity in France. She joined Verso Energy in 2022 as head of the Projects division.

Marion is a graduate of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne and the University of Limoges in environmental law.

Brice Robert
Chief Financial Officer (CFO)

Brice Robert

Brice joined Direct Energie in 2009, initially as a financial controller before becoming responsible for the financial management of the group. He joined Webhelp in 2019, where he became head of financial control for the France cluster before moving into consulting. He joined Verso Energy in 2021 as administrative and financial manager.

Brice is a graduate of Panthéon-Assas University.

Arthur Auxenfants
Head of Midscales H2

Arthur Auxenfants

Arthur has 10 years of experience in the energy sector within the TotalEnergies group where he held various roles. Arthur was notably in charge of business development and strategy within the Argentine subsidiary until 2020, before being appointed head of TotalEnergies’ investments in a portfolio including a majority stake in SunPower, the leader in residential solar power in the USA, and a strategic stake in French developer TotalEren.

Arthur is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Imperial College London.

Pierre-François Le Bouille
Responsable Technique H2

Pierre-François Le Bouille

Pierre-François Le Bouille is a specialist in industrial gas conditioning processes. Since 2011, he has held operational positions across the entire gas engineering value chain: design, manufacturing and commissioning. In his last position, he was technical manager of Axens’ gas processing activities in the Americas.

Pierre-François is a chemical engineer with degrees from UTC, Cranfield University and IFP School.

Poppée de Nercy
Head of Legal

Poppée de Nercy

Poppée joined Senvion, a wind turbine manufacturer, in 2014 as an international business lawyer in charge of projects in Europe and South America in particular. In 2020, she joined Sun’R Groupe as head of legal affairs, focusing on issues relating to photovoltaics, agrivoltaics and electricity supply in a French and international context. She joins Verso Energy as Head of legal.

Admitted to the New York Bar, she holds law degrees from several Paris universities and Arizona State University.

Isabelle Benikhlef

Head of HR

Isabelle Benikhlef

After studying business and Italian in the United States and gaining experience in a number of high-growth SMEs, Isabelle joined Direct Energie in 2008 in payroll and personnel administration.
Over the years, she has defined and deployed company policy, while supporting employees and managers in their professional development, and facilitating transitions during organizational changes.

As a local HRD, her role is to participate in Verso Energy’s corporate strategy and support its talents during a period of strong growth, while preserving the company’s unique culture.

INDUSTRY LEADING SHAREHOLDERS

Eiffel Investment Group

Eiffel Investment Group is an asset manager with a portfolio of nearly €5 billion in assets and commitments. Its clients includeare major institutional investors (insurers, mutuals, pension funds, banks, etc.). Backed by the Impala group of entrepreneur Jacques Veyrat, Eiffel Investment Group finances companies and their activities through four major strategies: private debt, private equity, energy transition infrastructure, and listed shares and loans. The mission of theis group is to invest increate a sustainable world. Its investment strategies aim to produce not only strong financial performance through but also positive environmental and social impacts.

AMS CAPITAL

AMS CAPITAL, a subsidiary of AMS INDUSTRIES managed by Jean-Paul Bize, is a venture capital company whose main purpose is to invest, directly or indirectly, in privateunlisted companies in the energy sector.

Crescendix

Crescendix is Xavier Caïtucoli’s investment company. Crescendix takes stakes mainly in the energy transition sector.

A COMMITTED STRATEGIC COMMITTEE

Arnaud Leroy

Arnaud Leroy

After several years in the European Parliament, Arnaud Leroy was elected Member of French Parliament from 2012 to 2017 and following this mandate he then became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME) until 2022.

Marc-Etienne Mercadier

Marc-Etienne Mercadier

After starting his career at ACOFI (now Sienna Private Crédit), Marc-Etienne created and managed the financing, M&A and asset management department of Générale du Solaire, an independent French developer of photovoltaic solar projects. He joined Eiffel Investment Group in 2017, initially participating in the development of the energy transition infrastructure strategy, before becoming the manager of the “Eiffel Gaz Vert” fund in 2020.

Marc-Etienne is a graduate of ESME Sudria and holds a master’s degree in the economics of sustainable development, energy and the environment from INSTN School & IFP School.

Louis David-Bellouard

Louis David-Bellouard

Louis, an IESEG graduate, joined the infrastructures activity of Eiffel Investment Group in January 2021 with a focus on the renewable gas sector. Previously, Louis worked in transaction services for French SMEs in different sectors at Next! Financial Advisors. He started, after having started his accomplished career in audit at Deloitte. Alongside his professional activities, Louis is a volunteer with the low-carbon transition think-tank “The Shift Project” and the association “La Fresque du Climat”.

Jean-Paul Bize

Jean-Paul Bize

Jean-Paul Bize, a graduate IEP Paris/Centrale Paris, is the President and founder of the AMS group. The AMS group takes majority stakes in private compabies, with priorities in the in particular in the energy, luxury and hotel sectors as well as and has developinged a venture capital investment activity. Jean-Paul Bize spent a large part of his career at Schlumberger, where he was appointed Vice-Chairman in 1998. In 2000, he took part in the takeover of the company Actaris, of which he became Chairman. In 2007, Actaris was sold to the Itron group. Since then, he has continued his entrepreneurial activity within the AMS group, which notably held a significant stake in the capital of Direct Energie and was a member of its board of directors until 2018.

Sibylle Falguière

Sibylle Falguière

Sibylle Falguière, HEC Paris, joined the AMS group in 2013, after a first experience at “Avenir Entreprises” (currently BPI France), in development capital.

She now supports the AMS group as Investment Director. In this capacity, she is in in particular in charge of the investments led by the AMS group in the energy and luxury sectors and participates incontributes to the development and monitoring of its venture capital investment activity.