Francine Carron grew up between Europe, West Africa and the United States in an environment deeply connected to maritime trade, energy logistics and international business.

Her family’s story reflected the transformation of industries across generations.

Her grandfather Fernand Carron was a Belgian maritime entrepreneur operating a fleet of more than one hundred inland waterway vessels transporting coal, gravel and industrial materials across Belgium and neighboring regions. The family also operated coastal vessels and two shipyards, at a time when Europe’s industrial economy depended heavily on inland navigation and maritime infrastructure.

As global trade expanded after the colonial period, the family’s activities extended into West Africa, particularly Côte d’Ivoire, where maritime operations supported the transport of timber, cement and construction materials during a period of rapid economic transformation.

In the 1980s, Francine’s father Charles Carron recognized the growing strategic importance of petroleum and energy logistics. As the traditional inland waterway business in Belgium gradually declined, he shifted the family’s focus toward oil and gas transportation, acquiring and operating petroleum tankers, chemical tankers and maritime logistics assets connected to the rapidly expanding global energy market.

This transition eventually led the business further into West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Liberia, where the company became active in petroleum operations and international energy trade. Francine was born in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, during this period of expansion, while the family’s activities increasingly revolved around petroleum logistics, Bonny Light crude exports and international energy operations between West Africa and Europe. At its peak, her father’s Belgian-owned oil trading business in Liberia reportedly reached a turnover of approximately 600 million USD, operating within one of the most dynamic and often difficult energy environments of the period.

Growing up mostly with her grandparents and close family friends between Belgium, West Africa and the United States (Texas), Francine was immersed from an early age in an entrepreneurial atmosphere shaped by shipping, energy, global trade and geopolitical change.

At the same time, she also witnessed the instability, pressure and complexity that often accompanied international family business operations. Because of this, she was initially encouraged not to become an entrepreneur herself.

Despite this, curiosity about the wider world continued to shape her path.

As a child she was highly athletic and part of a rowing team in Belgium. Later, she received an NCAA Division I scholarship for track and field in the United States.

She studied International Affairs and Politics, completed a Master’s degree in Political Communications and an Advanced Master in Global Management. She is currently completing a PhD focused on Sustainable Aviation.

She began her professional career at the United Nations in Liberia, working on post-war development during the era of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the predecessors of today’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Over the following two decades, long before ESG became mainstream terminology, her work evolved across nearly all dimensions of what would later become known as ESG. Her career included work connected to governance systems, sustainability implementation, microfinance, women’s empowerment, labour rights, social development, environmental matters and aviation sustainability across Europe, Africa, the United States and Asia.

Her expertise later became closely linked to aviation sustainability, ESG governance and decarbonization strategy. She contributed to sustainability initiatives connected to aviation organizations, worked on inclusion within the sector and became an early voice advocating for sustainability in aviation long before these discussions became mainstream.

Eventually, having grown up in an entrepreneurial environment, she chose to build her own ventures partly because, as she often says, she never truly liked working for someone else.

This eventually led to the creation of Carron ESG Group which consists of ESG Consultancy, a firm focused on aviation sustainability, ESG governance and global sustainability transformation. Later followed ESG Academy, focused on professional ESG education, and ESG Employment, focused on connecting organizations with ESG specialists.

In many ways, the trajectory reflects a broader historical evolution:

from coal

to oil

to sustainability.

And from an economy built primarily on physical assets and industrial logistics toward one increasingly shaped by knowledge, governance systems and the global transition to sustainable development.

Today, operating from the Free Trade Port of Hainan in China, Francine Carron continues exploring how industries, infrastructure and global supply chains are adapting to a changing world through ESG Consultancy, ESG Academy, ESG Employment and initiatives linked to aviation sustainability, sustainable aviation fuel and climate strategy.

LinkedIn CV Francine Carron

Four time nominee Sustainability Manager of the Year and finalist.

EU Ambassador - Diversity in Transport (European Commission)