Schneider Electric has a new chief sustainability officer, just six months after her predecessor was appointed to the position.
Incoming CSO Esther Finidori previously served as a vice president for strategy at Schneider Electric, based in France. She replaces Hong Kong-based Chris Leong, who moved to the water treatment company Ecolab to become chief marketing and innovation officer.
Schneider Electric did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the timing of Leong’s departure.
Success in sight
Finidori inherits a sustainability operation that has made strong progress on key targets. Schneider Electric’s emissions goals, validated by the Science Based Targets initiative, require the company to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 76 percent by 2030, relative to a 2021 baseline. For Scope 3, which constitutes 99 percent of the baseline total, it’s shooting for a 25 percent reduction over the same time frame. According to the company’s data for 2024, Scope 1 and 2 emissions fell by 51 percent and Scope 3 by 19 percent.
Finidori joined Schneider in 2016 as a director of sustainable supply chain and carbon dioxide strategy, before progressing to become a vice president for environment in 2021. She was previously a manager at Carbon 4, a climate consultancy, and holds masters in technology policy and industrial engineering, respectively, from the University of Cambridge and the CentraleSupélec, near Paris.
