Valérie, 25 years at Elia and still curious.

When Valérie joined Elia 25 years ago, she was immediately faced with a major challenge: as a chemical engineer, she knew very little about electricity, by her own admission. Today, as Head of Large Projects, she helps lead some of Elia’s largest infrastructure projects. What connects these two moments? A quarter of a century marked by a thirst for knowledge, a solution-oriented mindset and the courage to take on new challenges time and again.

Her start at Elia was not without its doubts. In her first role as a low-voltage expert, Valérie often wondered whether she had made the right choice. Until someone gave her a simple piece of advice: don’t reassess your decision every day; give yourself three months. Those three months flew by, and her doubts gradually disappeared.

Today, her department develops large-scale infrastructure projects, from substations to high-voltage connections. These projects have a significant financial, visual and societal impact. They make it possible to connect customers and renewable energy sources to the grid, strengthen interconnections and prepare Belgium for a future in which electricity will play an increasingly important role.

Yet the scale of these projects is not the only thing that energises Valérie. The everyday moments when everything suddenly falls into place and a problem is solved are just as motivating, whether the solution is technical, organisational or somewhere in between.

This human dimension is essential to Valérie. She prefers to be among her colleagues, close to what is happening on the ground and where ideas emerge naturally. She also believes that people are playing an increasingly central role in the way Elia delivers its projects. Technical innovation continues to fascinate her as an engineer, but today, broader questions also come into play: who are we doing this project for, how should we approach it, and how can we build sufficient public support?

According to Valérie, one thing has remained unchanged throughout these 25 years: the passion of the people at Elia. She continues to seek out new perspectives and delve deeper into the subjects that fascinate her. Because, to truly understand the challenges of the energy transition, you have to be willing to look beyond the surface.