Since I arrived on campus in April 2019, I’ve been leading a collective process to totally rethink how we live and consume in order to the meet the challenges brought about by climate change. I plan to ensure that all of the food served at the catering points on EPFL’s main campus and at its other sites is sustainable, locally sourced, seasonal, and increasingly vegetarian and vegan. I want to rethink the entire supply chain, from producer to consumer. This strategy is the culmination of a busy 30-year career that has taken me from Paris to French-speaking Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Azerbaijan. I started out in the kitchens of Paris’s grand hotels. Then I worked in some of Switzerland’s best restaurants and became the official chef of the Swiss triathlon team for the Olympic Games and the triathlon world cup. After that, I honed my skills in catering at SV Group and then in healthy cooking at Geneva University Hospitals (HUG), before joining EPFL. Now I face an enormous challenge: our ambitious EPFL 20–30 strategy will only be successful if it’s fully backed by the EPFL community, caterers, producers and EPFL’s management.
After working for many years in public relations with EPFL’s management, the International Cycling Union, catering company Compass Group and in the hotel sector, I came back to EPFL in 2018 in order to use my experience to help build up the Catering and Shops Unit. I’m now helping Bruno Rossignol develop the EPFL 20–30 strategy by managing certain aspects and providing administrative and organizational support.
I joined EPFL in 2008 after working in the University of Lausanne’s social and cultural affairs unit, where I looked after Erasmus students. At EPFL I’ve been involved in various projects, such as getting the Rolex Learning Center up and running and developing a housing service for the School. I also played a hand in developing EPFL’s Quartier Nord, which is home to the SwissTech Convention Center, a shopping center, a hotel and student accommodations. After working at the SwissTech Convention Center for several months, I came back to campus to work in the newly created Catering and Shops Unit. I’m in charge of web development and ShopEPFL. I also coordinate the digital aspects of the EPFL 20–30 strategy.
I’m an environmental engineer and have an MBA with a specialization in social responsibility from Université Laval. I joined EPFL’s Sustainability Unit in 2011 after working for 12 years in environmental management and sustainable development in Switzerland and Canada. At EPFL, my work focuses on raising the community’s awareness of sustainability issues and integrating sustainability into EPFL’s work and initiatives. That’s how I teamed up with Bruno Rossignol – we’re developing a catering strategy that factors sustainability into every aspect, from reducing meat consumption to limiting food waste and other waste. Food is an area that I’m particularly passionate about and one I’ve been working on for a long time. In 2017, I brought reCircle reusable plates to campus, making EPFL the first Swiss university to do so, and in 2018 I launched a campaign to raise awareness about food-related environmental issues, in which 10% of the EPFL community took part.
I hold a degree in nutrition from McGill University and a PhD in public health from the University of Lausanne’s Faculty of Biology and Medicine. I also have 20 years of international experience in agriculture, research and the medical sector, having worked in Canada, France and the United States. My work focuses on improving public health through healthier eating, using technology to help people eat more healthily, and ensuring that catering facilities can provide nutritional, well-balanced meals. I’ve been head of nutriMenu project development since 2017. This innovative self-assessment tool is designed to provide campus caterers with the information they need to serve up varied and nutritional meals, day after day, with a range of ingredients and seasonal produce.
After a varied career working in major multinationals and running my own business, I joined EPFL as executive director of the Integrative Food and Nutrition Center. My aim in this new role is to enhance EPFL’s response to the urgent food-related challenges that the world is now faced with. This covers everything from sustainable packaging to healthy aging and the digitization of food systems – all areas in which EPFL has a lot to offer. The Center is a dynamic interface between EPFL and our external partners, helping to enhance technology and knowledge transfer and to maximize the School’s positive impact on society and the environment.
François Lauwick, 41, was named the new project manager at EPFL’s Catering and Shops Unit (RESCO), effective 1 January 2021. Lauwick, originally from France, will enhance RESCO’s strategic development thanks to his extensive experience in restaurant management. He holds a professional high-school diploma from Ecole Supérieure de Cuisine Française Ferrandi in Paris and graduated from Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. Since then, he has worked for several French restaurants, dining establishments and catering companies, initially as a chef and later in management. In 2016, Lauwick joined SV Group, Switzerland’s leading food-services provider, where he managed food services for Aiglon College in Villars-sur-Ollon and then the International School of Geneva. In his new role as RESCO project manager, Lauwick will help implement our 20-30 sustainability strategy, with a focus on contract compliance (through audits and RFPs) for our Lausanne and satellite campuses in French-speaking Switzerland.