Claire Romain appointed Honorary Patron of the MSc in International Negotiation and Business Development

A rich and international career

Claire Romain graduated from INSA Lyon as a telecom engineer and began her career in research and development at Nortel Networks and engineering at Bouygues Telecom, before moving into procurement at SFR. This shift opened the door to entirely new industries, from aerospace to retail, and most recently automotive.

In 2016, she took on her first CPO role at Zodiac Aerospace, then joined Carrefour in 2019, where she led major procurement transformations and managed up to €17 billion of spend across indirect procurement categories and FMCG private label products.

Since April 2024, she has been Vice President of Indirect Procurement at Renault Group, where she continues to position procurement as a strategic driver of performance, innovation, and sustainability.

An inspiring role model for tomorrow’s leaders

The appointment of Claire Romain as Honorary Patron reflects the MSc in International Negotiation and Business Development’s ambition to expose students to leaders whose professional paths illustrate the challenges and opportunities of negotiation in a global context.

Her career reflects a strong conviction: procurement is not just a support function, it is an accelerator of performance, innovation, and transformation. Procurement is about leading change, managing uncertainty, and creating value across industries.

A lecture to inaugurate the patronage

On 1 October 2025, Claire Romain inaugurated her role as Honorary Patron by giving a lecture entitled “Negotiations as a Value Creation: Leading Change through Procurement”. This session offered students the opportunity to learn from her experience and insights, highlighting how procurement and negotiation can serve as powerful drivers of business performance and organisational transformation.