Home » Team » Team France » Sandra Lagumina
Home » Team » Team France » Sandra Lagumina
- Argos Wityu member since 2022
- Speaks French, English and Italian
- Sciences Po Paris
- Master 2 de droit public et master 2 de droit européen à Panthéon Sorbonne
- ENA
- Argos Wityu member since 2022
- Speaks French, English and Italian
- Sciences Po Paris
- Master 2 de droit public et master 2 de droit européen à Panthéon Sorbonne
- ENA
Can you introduce yourself in a few words?
Sandra
My name is Sandra Lagumina, I have been married for 30 years and I have two grown daughters. I am both French and Italian, although I’ve lived most of my life in France.
Tell us about your career and how you joined Argos.
Sandra
I particularly like something François Truffaut once said: life has a lot more imagination than we do. That’s what comes to mind when I have to do talk about my career. I started as an administrative magistrate at the Conseil d’Etat. The four very happy years I spent there convinced me I had a taste for law and decision-making. After that, I was a legal adviser to Laurent Fabius when he was President of the National Assembly and then Minister of Finance. I then joined the legal department of the Ministry of Finance as an under-director of public, European and international law.
In 2005, I joined Gaz de France as legal director just before the company merged with Suez. This was one of my most memorable experiences. I continued to work for the new GDF Suez (Engie) group as general counsel, heading up a large, international and talented community of 400 lawyers. It was in 2013 that my career took an unexpected turn. I wanted to take on some operational responsibilities, and I had an opportunity to be named CEO of GRDF, the largest gas distribution network in Europe (200,000 km) with a wonderful corporate culture but also a big strategic challenge: how to build a future for an infrastructure that transports a form of energy destined to decline. At the time, the Paris Agreement was taking shape, and I was very involved in that project. My team and I decided to transform the company by turning it into a key player in energy transition. My successors have since continued to pursue these goals, and I look back on that experience with a great deal of satisfaction.
In my next assignment, as a member of Engie’s executive committee, I was in charge of the entire gas infrastructure. In 2017, I wanted to move into the field of investment while remaining focused on the environmental impact. So it was rather naturally that I joined Meridiam, a pioneer fund in sustainable infrastructure. I started out in charge of asset management. I needed to build a portfolio management strategy and put knowledge sharing to work with a focus on creating both financial and non-financial value. The group was experiencing rapid growth all this time, and it needed an impact-based mission to give it coherence and to prepare it for this growth. So we transformed Meridiam into one of the first sociétés à mission, a French legal status under which companies publicly commit to certain social and environmental goals. Meridiam is now a “B Corp” and has implemented a management system that measures impact at each investment and operational stage. This is all monitored by the Mission Committee that I chaired.
When Louis Godron presented Argos’s new strategy to me, I saw an opportunity to take the experience I had gained in management at Engie and in sustainable finance at Meridiam and apply it to the SME universe, which has always attracted me. This is how I joined Argos and its ambitious plans to turn companies into champions of ecological transition in their sector and to help them contribute to the great challenge of our generation: combating climate change.
Is this the path you thought you would take when you started your studies?
Sandra
The world of private equity has changed a lot in recent years. What is your definition of PE? How do you see it?
Sandra
What gets you out of bed in the morning?
Sandra
What encounter - or moment - has marked your journey at Argos?
Sandra
To describe yourself further: It is said that we are the average of the people we meet. Who do you think they are and how do they influence you?
Sandra
You interact daily with managers. Is there an entrepreneur you admire in the market?
Sandra

How do you find balance in your life as a whole?
Sandra
Outside of your job, what are your passions or commitments?
Sandra
My personal interests drive me towards what is artistic and in particular the performing arts. I was president of the National Conservatory of Music and Dance, and during the Covid crisis I pursued this commitment by creating the “Tutti” endowment fund to help young singers kickstart their career. This year I have also taken a liking to the Opéra Comique’s Relax programme, which assigns a personal assistant to people with disabilities so that they can attend performances. With regard to the theatre, I have the privilege to support the Comédie Française by sitting on the executive committee of its foundation.
I have great admiration for this 400-year-old institution and its company of actors that many management schools could turn to for inspiration. Lastly, I have chaired the Board of Directors of France Muséums for more than four years. France Muséums is a grouping of France’s principal museums that operate the Abu Dhabi Louvre. This exceptional venue has just celebrated its fifth anniversary and is the best example of international artistic cooperation around a marvellous structure designed by Jean Nouvel.
How do you see yourself in 10 years?
Sandra
Do you have a place to share with us that reflects you? A place that inspires you and contributes to your balance?
Sandra
In another life, you would be... ?
Sandra

