Jean-Luc Petithuguenin

About Jean-Luc Petithuguenin

In twenty years, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin transformed the small recycling company Paprec into a group generating over 750 million in revenue by the end of 2012. An exemplary success that earned him the 20th edition of the Entrepreneur of the Year award, co-organized by Ernst & Young and l’Express.

This leader is a passionate visionary, endowed with a true challenger spirit. The rapid development of Paprec is a testament to this.

A graduate of Essec, he honed his skills at the Compagnie générale des eaux, became a project manager under Henri Proglio, and then director at CGEA. In 1994, this company acquired a small recovery plant in La Courneuve, Paprec, with 5 million euros in revenue. He became CEO, then acquired the entire capital and cut ties with CGEA “to recycle on his own,” as he likes to say.

Since then, it has been a race for growth. In less than twenty years, he has aggregated no less than 60 companies and, starting in 2000, invested in the complete waste cycle: collection, recycling, recovery, and marketing of recycled materials. An offensive strategy combining green growth and social integration.

A lifelong anti-racist activist, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin founded his group on the values of respect for people, diversity of opinions, and races. At PAPREC, people are hired based on their true values without discrimination based on origin, race, religion, gender, age, etc. In 2004, Jean-Luc Petithuguenin was appointed ambassador of the CEE as part of his actions against discrimination.