“Isabelle Autissier engages the sea, adventure, and commitment to chart new collective horizons.”
Isabelle Autissier
Isabelle Autissier découvre très jeune le goût de l'aventure. Elle passe son enfance à Saint‑Maur‑les‑Fossés, puis en Bretagne, où son père l'initie à la voile dès l'âge de 6 ans, éveillant une passion indéfectible pour l'océan. Ingénieure agronome spécialisée en halieutique, diplômée de l'École nationale supérieure agronomique de Rennes, elle mène des recherches sur les crustacés avec le CORPECUM, puis à IFREMER à La Rochelle. Elle y enseigne également à l'École maritime, consolidant sa double identité de scientifique et de navigatrice.
En 1991, elle cofonde l'IMOCA (International Monohull Open Class Association) et devient la première femme à réaliser un tour du monde en solitaire en compétition (BOC Challenge) — une prouesse fondamentale pour son engagement sur les mers. Ses expéditions, marquées par les tempêtes, les avaries et les rescues héroïques (comme celle de Giovanni Soldini en 1999), lui enseignent la résilience, la stratégie en haute pression et le leadership. Ses péripéties en mer lui confèrent une légitimité rare pour parler de courage et d'humilité.
Devenue romancière reconnue, elle publie Seule la mer s'en souviendra (2009), Oublier Klara (2019), Le Naufrage de Venise (2022) et, plus récemment, La Fille du grand hiver (2025). Parallèlement, elle préside WWF France de 2009 à 2021 et siège dans plusieurs instances environnementales de premier plan. Aujourd'hui présidente d'honneur du WWF France et navigatrice au long cours, elle incarne la rencontre entre grande exploration, littérature engagée et responsabilité collective. À travers ses conférences, elle invite à rêver, à agir et à réinventer notre relation au vivant.
Our future is written in the oceans!
- The ocean covers over 70% of the planet, regulates the climate, and nourishes billions of people. Isabelle Autissier, through her expeditions and commitment to the WWF, reminds us that this vital heritage is now in danger: pollution, overfishing, climate change. She shares clear scientific facts, but also images and anecdotes experienced at sea that reflect the urgency to act.
- For her, the sea is not just a space to protect, but also a marvelous school of life. Her stories illustrate how the ocean teaches us humility, patience, and the ability to collaborate to overcome the unexpected. The experience of navigation thus becomes a powerful metaphor for understanding the interdependencies that structure our world.
- Isabelle Autissier encourages businesses and institutions to draw inspiration from the functioning of marine ecosystems to build more resilient and sustainable organizations. She emphasizes that, as at sea, it is impossible to survive without cooperation or long-term vision.
- This theme directly addresses collective responsibility: how to combine performance, sustainability, and solidarity. It leaves the audiences with a strong conviction: our common future depends on how we take care of the oceans today.
The management of victories and defeats!
- In her solo journeys, Isabelle Autissier has experienced stunning victories but also brutal failures: capsizes, forced abandonments, dramatic rescues. She narrates how, in the moment, one must learn to decide quickly, to keep calm, and to redefine priorities. Her stories resonate, as they reveal the raw truth of adventure: sometimes you win, sometimes you survive.
- In her talks, she emphasizes the need to change our relationship with failure. Far from being an end, each defeat becomes an opportunity to learn, to analyze, and to progress. She illustrates how her own setbacks have made her stronger and clearer in her career as well as in her personal life.
- This account particularly resonates in the business world where projects do not always follow the expected course. Isabelle Autissier offers concrete suggestions for transforming setbacks into levers of innovation and for establishing a culture of accepting mistakes as a learning tool.
- Through her testimony, she conveys a universal message: victory tastes sweet because it is fragile, and failure is never definitive as long as it is followed by a fresh start.
Running at sea: excellence, risks, and strategies!
- Offshore racing is a discipline where excellence is vital: the smallest detail can save a life or seal a defeat. Isabelle Autissier explores the backstage of this demand, from the meticulous preparation of the boat to the ability to make a crucial decision in the middle of a storm.
- She highlights the close ties between performance and risk management. At sea, it's not about eliminating danger but assessing it, taming it and responding to it with composure. This pragmatic approach, forged in extreme environments, finds immediate resonance in the economic and managerial world.
- Through striking anecdotes – freezing nights in the South Atlantic, strategic choices that change the rankings – she illustrates how to maintain a clear vision in confusion. Far from heroic tales, she emphasizes discipline, preparation, and clarity as keys to success.
- This theme invites us to reflect on our own ways of managing risks: how to turn uncertainty into opportunity and demand into a driving force for excellence.
CSR: to make the company a human adventure again!
- Isabelle Autissier draws a strong parallel between the crew of a boat and the modern company. In both cases, success relies on solidarity, the complementarity of talents, and the clarity of a shared mission. She recounts how, at sea, everyone must find their place and act in the interest of the collective, or risk putting the whole team in jeopardy.
- Drawing on her experience at WWF and various institutional boards, she shows how organizations can integrate corporate social and environmental responsibility at the core of their strategy. For her, CSR is not a communication tool but a compass to guide action.
- She illustrates with concrete examples how companies, like a crew, can combine economic performance with respect for resources. The key lies in the commitment of employees and management's ability to provide meaning.
- This theme encourages leaders and teams to envision the future: how to make the company a space for collective adventure where each contributes to a project greater than themselves.
Be a trailblazer: assert yourself as a woman in a male-dominated field!
- The first woman to complete a solo round-the-world race, Isabelle Autissier had to carve out her place in a world long dominated by men. She recounts the obstacles encountered: skeptical looks, lack of recognition, loneliness that sometimes felt heavier than that of the ocean.
- Her journey illustrates the strength of persistence and the importance of believing in oneself despite prejudices. With humility, she shares the moments when she doubted, but also those when she turned adversity into leverage to move forward.
- She demonstrates that audacity and skill are universal keys to opening doors, regardless of gender. This narrative, deeply human, resonates equally with women and men facing hostile or closed-off environments.
- This theme becomes a positive manifesto: daring to be a pioneer means paving the way for others, showing that a more inclusive world is possible, and inspiring everyone to transcend their own boundaries.