Caroline Chanavas holds Master’s level degrees in multilingual engineering from the Institut national des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Inalco) and from the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), and a Master’s degree in Chinese. She has also been a senior fellow of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (IHEDN).
She began her career in China, in 1990, as Sales Manager at Imaje-Jingling. In 1995, she joined Sema Group (now SchlumbergerSema) and created the Chinese subsidiary of which she subsequently became General Manager. On her return to France, she became Alliances and Partnerships Director for SchlumbergerSema.
In 2003, Caroline Chanavas was appointed Vice-President for Asia-Pacific Strategy at Bull, before joining the Air Operations Division of Thales in 2006, where she held in turn the positions of Vice-President for Sales, then for Commercial Operations, and then for Strategy and Marketing. In 2013, Caroline Chanavas joined Naval Group as Director of Procurement in the Services Division, responsible for the maintenance and modernization of warships and combat systems, then, in 2017, as Naval Group Executive Vice-President, Human Resources.
Since July 1st 2023, she has been appointed as EDF Group Executive Vice-President, Human Resources.